Now that’s a wolf

Never seen one myself but have been told the sheer size of a wolf makes it very easy to differentiate them from coyotes. This photo shared by Kate Small, a member of the Savage PR Team, on her Instagram page makes that fact obvious. The animal was taken in Idaho as part of a wolf management program.

Great job!!!!!

That is a big one.

Gotta be 150# at least, strong young lady

Beautiful animal.

Buddy of mine from Wyoming used to hunt them in Wyoming & Montana. Said a mature wolf will weigh 150-200 pounds.

Said that he spent a lot of time watching them do their thing in the cold, surviving. Said that it was amazing to watch the Alpha give the order to attack, and then watch an elk get taken down and consumed quickly....or when the Alpha had a bad feeling about the kill and said "run". They would bolt and come back later.

I have no personal experience, but wolves have always amazed me. My little girl wants to be a wolf, even named her soccer team after them because she loves wolves.

Sometimes we howl at the moon together.

The highlight of my last (crappy outfitter) elk hunt was finally hearing a pack before dawn. It was awesome.

I hope to kill one one day.

I do not like wolves whatsoever. I have much more respect and reverence for a big cat than I do wolves

Bucket list for me along with an American bison, a big elk and a big Axis

The fascinating thing is that’s something like ingrained into our DNA. Goes all the way back to much of our European ancestry for a thousand plus years. Even little red riding hood is pre 17th century and the metaphor is probably much older. Add in werewolf stories which go back even farther. Wolves could ruin a family’s ability to just survive back in the serfdom days.

I raise birds that get killed regularly by hawks and owls. I don't kill them because I love birds of prey, not because I respect some federal law that says I can't kill them.

I've had dreams of becoming a werewolf my whole life, still even to this day. Maybe I watched too many scary movies when I was a kid.

My little girl once looked at me and said "Dad, there's a wolf in you."

I don't know what the serfdom days are, forgive me I went to school in Aransas Pass.

first time I saw a full body mount of a wolf I was amazed at their size - they are large animals

Remember reaching the rank of Wolf in Cub Scouts? Top of the pile if I recall.

While stationed in Alaska, we would do field exercises in the winter and would hear them howl at night, make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. We would find tracks not far from our positions and they were huge, the size of saucers. I did see a pack once, trotting across the tundra, about a half mile from me. One of my top sights while in the wild.

Serf's were poor people, not really slaves to be bought and sold, laborers for the feudal lords of the middle ages, kinda like an older worse off version of share croppers.

This is required...

Great scene in Cinema history!

“Some watery tart lobbed a scimitar at you” is hilarious

The one in the picture was snared or leg trapped.
I’ve seen a few wolves and there is no way to mistake one with a coyote.

Good eye!

Noticed that right off, shooting a tethered animal is no reason to brag, especially if you are a "Savage PR Team" member, that is poor.

Reminds me of the person who shot the pet wolf/domestic dog and posted it on the www.

What’s wrong with trapping? This situation is nothing like the other.

She and they made it clear the wolf was trapped and since you are such an authority on trapping tell us how you would set one to catch a wolf?
It takes skill to set for a catch . You don't just put out traps an animals go right in.
I guess since you live in Idaho and know their issues with wolves you can make comments like this but otherwise you should maybe keep them to yourself.

Catching a wolf is reason to brag, not many can say they have or have the tools and skill to catch one or many.

Yeah, what is she supposed to do? Tell him to sit still while she came up and loosened the snare? Let him go? No, you dispatch your catch. P.S. The animal is tethered when they are dispatched.

I really appreciate the skill that goes into trapping a wolf, and I'd say she's a stout young lady to be holding it up like that.

I have hunted, trapped and observed Wolves pretty much my entire life.
I can recall listening to wolves howl while I was still in grade school and more recently, while sitting on my front step late in the evening.

What I hear in videos of wolves howling is not what I hear in the wild. Maybe because most such recordings are of captive wolves, not wild wolves doing what they normally do.
The sound they make is like no other sound in nature, not like Coyotes or dogs howling. Not even similar.

Nor have I seen a wolf anywhere as big as the one in the photo posted here. The ones I've trapped and shot were in the 60 to 80 pound range. However I have heard from sources I trust that here a few do top 100 pounds.
I remember a newspaper report of one that topped 140 pounds but such wolves are very rare here.

I expect that like any species there would be exceptions, I can believe it is possible for there to be a wolf that weighed 180 pounds or perhaps more.
But from what I have seen and heard 60 to 80 pounds is the norm.

As for there being obvious differences between wolves and other canines, most of the time that is true, in my experience, but not so much for those who have never seen one. Because the differences can be subtle.

The size difference is often not that great and neither is the color in every case.

Really it comes down to looking at the whole, the shape of the head, the coloration, the way they move all work together to make an accurate identification.
With some individuals it can be easy, with other individuals it can be difficult even for an experienced observer.

Although I have no idea how big Kate Small is I doubt she weighs more the 120 pounds, that wolf may not weigh as much as some think it does.
Still, it's clearly bigger then average, and quiet a trophy for whoever claims it.

I've trapped a couple, by accident. Not only are they hard to catch, they are harder still to hold. They can destroy an average trap in short order.

I caught one in a #3 double long spring trap set for Coyote. The catch was good but it only held that wolf for a few minutes as far as I could tell,
When I found the trap it was worthless. The springs were flat as though they had been cinched in a vise. and there were teeth marks gouged into the steel jaws and both jaws were warped so badly I could slip two fingers side by side between the jaws without touching metal.

These animals can break open the leg bones of a Moose to get at the marrow.

Strong critters indeed.

You all realize there's more than one kind of wolf, right? Go look at the red wolves at the Fort Worth zoo. They're about the size of a Lab, maybe smaller.

wow

Bergmann's rule, Northern wolves will be bigger body size.
Average size of the wolves up around Yellowstone is about 100-130 lbs for the males.

Kate says the wolves they are catching weigh about 100 lbs or so, average weight is 70-100 lbs on the wolves where they are trapping.

Wow just wow