Man spots wolf – or not – in Oregon

BEND, Ore. – A possible wolf sighting has raised questions about whether the wild animal is making a comeback in Central Oregon.

Chris Mortimer was driving over Santiam Pass when “a wolf ran right across the road,” he said. “She ran across the road, she stopped for maybe three to four seconds just to kind of look back. It was just kind of amazing.”

Mortimer, who has worked as a naturalist, snapped pictures before the animal ran into the woods.

Whether the animal was a wild gray wolf was being investigated by wildlife biologists. “We don’t know where the animal came from,” said John Stephenson, wolf coordinator for Oregon with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Biologists say it could have been a wild wolf that made its way from Idaho, where wolf populations have thrived since they were introduced in 1995.

The Idaho wolves are expected to eventually cross the Snake River and settle in Oregon, but so far only a few arrivals have been confirmed, in the state’s northeastern reaches.

The animal Mortimer saw on Santiam Pass could have been a wolf hybrid – a wolf-coyote or wolf-dog mix that looks practically identical to a wolf but was raised domestically and either escaped or was released.

Despite the distance, Stephenson said it was “very possible” that the animal is a wild wolf that came over from Idaho.

“This is the time of year that you get long-distance dispersers showing up in odd places,” he said. “I think it’s a better-than-even chance it’s a wild wolf, but we don’t know for sure.”

Corey Heath, a wildlife biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, leans toward the hybrid theory. “It would be a little bit unlikely that an animal is going to get here from Idaho and not be seen between here and there,” Heath said.