Tag: Wolf

M. June Opper- Goldenblatt Asks About Wolfs- Anyone Wanna Chime In On This?

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Hi Joey. 

I just happen to stumble on your website while I was looking for some information on the grey wolf.

My husband and I moved into our new house four years ago. 

We are fortunate to have many wild animals around us. 

We live at the end of a short cull de sac with a small amount of woods behind us. 

We have seen fox, ( the babies playing hide and seek with one another) 

deer, turtles, rabbits, coyote, mice, ground, hogs wild turkey ducks and now geese.

BUT we have also seen something that no one believes.

I was glad my husband was with me at the time, otherwise I would have thought I was nuts.

(well I am  but not because of this. HA!) .

We have a rather large green lawn ( it was once planned to be a pool area)

and one afternoon sitting right in the exact middle of the yard was a large grey Wolf.

At first I just looked at it and felt confused. Was it a huge dog? A coyote? 

I called in my husband and we just stood there at the window overlooking the whole scene completely mesmerized. 

The Wolf sat proud and high like a NAI. Then, along come two beautiful young fox who merrily danced around the wolf. 

It was amazing and neither of us could move to get the camera for fear we might miss something.

This seemed to go on for a very long time. Or maybe I was hoping it would never end. 

Eventually the fox skipped into the woods on one side and the wolf went to the edge of the woods and urinated. 

Then disappeared in the trees. A couple of nights later I heard him howling (and the dog down the street whimpering). 

I have been looking for info for at least two years after this happened. And looking for the wolf since he marked his existence in our yard.

Every one we tell the story to always say we could never have seen it because grey wolves are extinct here. ( Stow, MA)

And they laugh at the part about the red foxes). Actually I found an article saying that there was a grey wolf siting a while ago in Stow.

And another saying a wold my travel with a fox but that doesn’t add up in other fact articles. They are not friendly.

A couple of nights ago we were trying to decide what movie to watch ( we watch movies when we are not watching wolves ect.) and I said out of the blue 

Let’s watch Dances With Wolves. I don’t know why I thought of it and I have never seen it on TV. BUT the next night it came on!! 

So of course now I am thinking about the wolf that people either don’t believe we saw and wishing for its return.

I was writing you to see if you had ever heard anything like that before. Or heard of grey fox sitings in the Massachusetts area. 

And, if you are still reading this, thanks for your time and thoughts , if any.

Best wishes, 

M. June Opper- Goldenblatt

Tonight is “Meet The Coywolf” 8PM on PBS

Posted on by paultmorrison

Meet The Coywolf on PBS Tonight at 8 PM.  Find out where all that howling at the moon on Cape Ann is coming from.

sixweekcoywolf
Six Week Old Coywolf.

The coywolf, a mixture of western coyote and eastern wolf, is a remarkable new hybrid carnivore that is taking over territories once roamed by wolves and slipping unnoticed into our cities. Its appearance is very recent — within the last 90 years — in evolutionary terms, a blip in time. Beginning in Canada but by no means ending there, the story of how it came to be is an extraordinary tale of how quickly adaptation and evolution can occur, especially when humans interfere. Tag along as scientists study this new top predator, tracking it from the wilderness of Ontario’s Algonquin Park, through parking lots, alleys and backyards in Toronto all the way to the streets of New York City. -PBS

In 56 minutes I doubt they will even scratch the surface of the interesting parts. If they say “evolution” more than twice, “mitochondrial DNA sequencing” even once, I will eat my lab coat. But it is the Nature show on PBS and they might be even handed about the subject and they might even spice it up with some real science from real scientists instead of “scientists say …”

[edit] Looking for coywolf cameltoe to toughen up this post and there is no Rubber Duck at all. She has locked herself in her room crying.

CryingRubberDuck
Weird?

2013 “WolfStock” This Sunday 2-6 PM at Wolf Hollow

Posted on by paultmorrison

Feels like fall. Must be time to head to Ipswich and right after the turn-off to Crane’s beach, turn into 114 Essex Road (click for directions) to find yourself at Wolf Hollow this Sunday from 2-6 PM. Why? Because there will be wolves of course. And activities for your kids, food from the vendors, and beer from the Mercury Brewing Tap Mobile. Almost forgot, the Reggae Band Jah Spirit will be playing because after all it’s the 2013 Annual Reggae Fund Raiser at Wolf Hollow.

You scratch my neck, I lick your face.
You scratch my neck, I lick your face.

This is Nina and Jamie-Lynne Mezzetti (Nina is on the left), getting some neck scratches and licks traded back in January, photo by Zee Soffron. You may not get this close to a wolf on Sunday but they might howl for you. Wolves love reggae.

Until December 1st you can visit every Saturday and Sunday. Formal presentation of the wolves is at 1:30 PM so aim to get there by 1 PM. After December 1, Sunday only, weather permitting. (But this Sunday, remember, 2-6 PM.)

Here is a shot that Rubber Duck took last fall during a presentation:2wolfCheck out the size of those paws! Checking out the paw is an easy way of distinguishing Wolf from coyote or domestic dog. A wolf has some big ones. The next time you see tracks in the snow or mud on Cape Ann, measure the size of the paw. Was it a coyote, a coywolf, or a wolfote? Likely they will be a tad smaller than these paws.

Wolf Hollow Web Site or follow them on Facebook where there are more awesome photos of Wolf Hollow wolves.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Posted on by paultmorrison

Yesterday we were hanging out with my favorite wolf at Wolf Hollow in Essex freezing our asses off.

2wolf

And today on Lansdowne Street outside Fenway Park I can almost say in the past hour it has gotten downright hot. Hope the Red Sox stay hot like this Italian Sausage Rubber Duck and I are having. Not an Ambie but it is the locale that gives it the zing.

openingday

ps. Did anyone catch the moon right before sunrise this morning? The smallest waxing crescent I have seen in a while. If it is crystal clear tomorrow it should be even smaller, (yuck clouds predicted.) New moon on the 10th.

Don’t Be Shocked But That is a Wolf at Your Door.

Posted on by paultmorrison

Everyone knows that coyotes have moved onto Cape Ann and Cape Cod but did you know they are actually a new hybrid with the eastern wolf? The DNA typing of this new species is just in its infancy. Mostly using mitochondrial DNA to get a rough understanding but now that genomic sequencing is much cheaper a more detailed picture is forming. Some coyotes trapped have come up as 90% eastern wolf DNA! These hybrids, I’ll call them coywolf from now on, are bigger than coyotes. They are very sociable, live in family packs and can have a range of ten square miles. That is a decent chunk of Cape Ann. I would guess though if the food is plentiful they would hang in one region near their den.

Should you be fearful of these coywolves? You shouldn’t. In fact we should be happy they are here. They fill the niche that the wolf filled here for centuries and now she is back. They eat deer, mice, rabbits, all those small animals. The deer and mice are key. Lyme disease has a life cycle that explodes when deer and mice populations increase. Knocking down both of these populations will keep Lyme disease in check.

wolfie
Yes, the coywolves will eat your cat but your cat should not be out there anyway. Feral and outdoor cats eat more than 3 billion birds in the US annually. You can’t blame them. They have been trained to do this since ancient egyptian times protecting granaries from vermin. They don’t even eat them just killing one bird after another. Keep your cat inside and let these coywolves keep the population of Lyme disease plagued vermin like deer and mice down to tolerable levels. They are a perfect fit for Cape Ann. They don’t like to eat birds. And if you find a dead coywolf I need just a very small blood sample to run a genetic haplotype test to see how much of a wolf she was. But please do not hunt them. They are doing us all a big favor. Imagine going for a hike in Dogtown and having no fear of being covered by disease ridden deer ticks. If you’ve had Lyme disease you should kiss a wolf on the lips for moving into your neighborhood. They might even take out a fishercat or two.

If the genetic testing of the coywolves on Cape Ann come up as over 80% wolf DNA we can drop the hybrid coywolf name. That is a wolf.

[3/26/13 edit] Lots of great comments on this article. For some local information on wolves go to Wolf Hollow in Ipswich:

http://www.wolfhollowipswich.org/