How could a wolf have possibly ended up in our front yard?

Question

I don't know how it got there! It was just there!

There was no mistaking it. I saw it with my own eyes and it was a grey wolf. I live in California, by the way.

Answer 1

It would help to know where your front yard is. If it's in Alaska, Wyoming, Idaho, or Montana, it's not that surprising. Now, if it was Virginia, that'd be pretty odd. Outside the U.S. is a whole other matter.

The range of the gray wolf is pretty much limited to those states. Montana, Wyoming and Idaho are actually because of a re-introduction into Yellowstone which started in the mid to late 1990's.

Are you sure it's a wolf? Not a coyote? Coyotes, now, they're all over at this point, they've pretty much spread through the U.S. due to lack of predators. Coyotes are smaller, usually with more reddish fur mixed in.

Coyote: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://tipt3.utoledo.edu/starters/coyote/coyote2a.jpg&imgrefurl=http://tipt3.utoledo.edu/starters/coyote/coyote.html&h=480&w=640&sz=50&hl=en&start=0&tbnid=GyzIjXv5gDQrbM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcoyote%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG

Gray wolf:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.maxwaugh.com/images/zoo02/wolf2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.maxwaugh.com/zoo02/wolf2.html&h=352&w=400&sz=41&hl=en&start=0&tbnid=hd-ioT00PosnwM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgray%2Bwolf%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG

Edited after additional info: If it is a wolf in CA that you saw it didn't wander out of its natural range. It may be a licensed or illegal pet. It may also be a breed of dog that looks similar to a wolf.
Malamute: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.petsplace.co.za/Alaskan%2520Malamute%2520Akele.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.petsplace.co.za/alaskan_malamute.htm&h=835&w=2164&sz=76&hl=en&start=0&tbnid=tkinik47gTDdyM:&tbnh=58&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmalamute%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG
Husky:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.richmondsiberian.org/images/Huskies/husky18.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.richmondsiberian.org/&h=523&w=590&sz=84&hl=en&start=0&tbnid=wPae6ZHZGKvUbM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhusky%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG
Could be a hybrid.

Hopefully that helped some.

Answer 2

Once in a great while a wolf (usually a young male) will roam for miles, sometimes hundreds of miles, out of its home range. This is rare but it happens. However what you probably saw was a wolf dog hybrid which are popular with some people. The 50/50 wolf husky hybrids look very wolflike but you can still tell them from wolves. The 3/4 wolf 1/4 huskies (and sometimes they have even more wolf than that) are almost impossible to tell from pure wolves.

BTW I highly advise against getting these hybrids as they often have dominance problems (they want to be the dominant pack member) making them extremely dangerous to their owners.

Back to the possibility of it being a wild wolf. A radio tagged wolf was shot a couple of years ago in Missouri. It was in a landowner's barn lot and after sheep or chickens (I forget now which). This was about dusk so the landowner naturally thought it was coyote and shot it. Then discovered that it was far too large and had a tracking collar. It had come from a Montana pack. Just remember this is the exception and not the rule!

Answer 3

There are four possibilities: (1) one escaped from a zoo; (2) you saw a domestic wolf/domestic dog hybrid; (3) you saw something that was not actually a wolf; or (4) a gray wolf strayed more than 1000 miles to reach your yard.

An escape from a zoo is easy to check out - the story would be in the news.

Domestic wolf/dog hybrids are not unusual, and they sometimes cannot be distinguished from a wolf without DNA. This is the most likely possibility.

A wild wolf is unlikely. Wolves are usually found in packs, although yearling males sometimes travel hundreds of miles on their own. It's not impossible, but its nearly impossible for a lone wolf to have reached California from Central Idaho, which is the closest place where wolves live in the wild. Wolves disperse when they are driven out of an area by other wolves, and they generally stop traveling away from other wolves once they reach an area with sufficient prey and suitable habitat. Wolves need to join or form a pack in order to survive. If a wolf travels too far away from other wolves, it won't be able to join a pack, this type of behavior almost never occurs.

Answer 4

It was most likely a coyote.
One winter a few years ago I saw several. They had chased a deer onto the ice of a large resevoir and killed it and there were four feeding on the dead deer. A coyote are30 to 50 pounds and a wolf is more like 60 to 80 pounds.
So a very large coyote can be almost as big as a small wolf.
Coyote live in almost every state and are adapted well to living around people though they prefer to stay out of sight.

Answer 5

There are no wolves in California, at least no wild ones. It might have been one someone was trying to keep as a pet, or a wolf/dog hybrid. Trust me i live in MT and still rarely see wolves.

Answer 6

I can think of two likely explanations:

1) It was one of those "designer wolf-dog hybrids" that so many idiots are now breeding and keeping, or

2) Your yard is in the wolves' home range.

Answer 7

may be a hybrid (they are often bred to look like wolves) that got loose
may be an illegal pet that got loose
may be you have a wolf pack in your area. If you live in N Cal. it's not beyond immagination.

Answer 8

You have many fine answers so I will just say I hope you called the Dept. of Fish and Game. If you are near a Natl. park you could call the Park Service. I hope you took pictures!!!!!

Answer 9

Wolf"s are all over the place, if you any woods near you they are there! And can get lost from time to time looking for food. I know a person that use to trap them and he caught many.

Answer 10

It was probably just a coyote, I see them all the time in Arizona, but never see wolves.