Originally Posted by
HarryHenderson
I had guessed a coyote-dog mix due in no small part to the seeming smaller size/appearance of the beast. Guess it wasn't as small as it appeared. Plus it looks less like a wolf than a coyote or a dog.
Right, and I saw the picture of it laying on the truck tailgate and it looked coyote or dog-sized. What was working against my guess is that there's no record of any melanistic coyote in Montana. They seem to be creatures of the southeast.
That rancher was correct. He had the opportunity to see it alive - how it looked standing and behaving and moving. Wolves are not really quite like coyotes and dogs in those aspects. Even if he had never before seen a wolf on his property, he knew.