Wolf Sightings Up, But Not Confirmed

Reported wolf sightings have increased dramatically in the year since wolves were released in Yellowstone National Park, but few reports are confirmed.

“Now everything everybody sees is a wolf,” said Yellowstone spokeswoman Marsha Karle. “Let’s cut down on the hysteria a little bit.”

A Gardiner school bus driver said he saw two wolves on the school’s football field last week.

Shelby Coy, the driver, said he was going to work Friday about 7 a.m. when he saw two big animals, one almost black and one gray.

Believing the animals were wolves, Coy called Yellowstone, which asked Gardiner naturalist Jim Halfpenny to investigate.

Halfpenny, who teaches courses in the park on animal tracking, measured the tracks and concluded they “very marginally qualified as wolf” but could have been dog tracks. He said there was no supporting evidence.

If wolves left the tracks, they were not among the wolves transplanted to the park a year ago. Those wolves all wear radio collars and a Saturday flight showed no wolves in the Gardiner area.