January 2nd, 2016 day trip to Starlight claim

Wonderful day for an outing out in the Laguna Mtns. I would've run up that hill, then pass out. lol

I'm heading to SoCal in 3 days! Imperial Valley, here I come!

Tom, you have to understand that this is in an area nowhere close to people and homes. Totally agree with your third sentence. Most of those large dogs you speak of live in the city, (large couch potatoes, lol) or are working animals on large ranches.  There are no homes or ranches close by to this area one would find a large dog like that. The tracks go through the area one time only, and actually there are no human tracks of same age, implying that it was not someone's pet. The dirt was plenty wet enough to allow good imprints.

My sister has a large Fila Brasileiro (Brazilian Mastiff) that weighs about 120 lbs. She is old now, but she used to weigh about 140. So I have seen large dog prints, and know that shape-wise, could very well be a large dog. But taken with the fact that there are none of those large dogs wandering through the backcountry, wolf seems the more likely culprit to me. Very easy for a wild animal to stay hidden in the chaparral. Some people claim they have seen Bigfoot!

Just for you guys, maybe I do need to carry some plaster of Paris with me next time.
 
These tracks definitely canid, the scat does look more feline. I did wonder if scat and tracks were from same animal. Most likely not. Feline tracks more round, do not have imprints from claws.

Ya still don't get it... No one had been up there since the previous rains (not these last ones, the ones before we went), and these XL canid tracks were not all over the area. There was just one track through there. You are correct, last time Lucy was up there, I'm sure she left tracks - ALL OVER! Not just once through.

I am more inclined to believe that a wolf trotted through there, than someone's large dog, that had to walk by itself for many miles to get there. Why would it do that? What was it looking for? Did it freeze up there?

When I was but a wee lass, living in Alabama for almost exactly one year when I was eighteen, we had to drive a couple miles to a nearby spring to get drinking water. This was at the first place I lived when I was back there. The well water carried a heavy load of iron and was orange! Locals got used to it over their life times, but others would get, ah, intestinal distress. One crisp morning, I was driving to get water, and saw movement at the side of a clearing, just into the brush. It was a pack of wolves, maybe six to eight of them. Yes, like National Geographic type big wolves. Most were black or dark brown. No mistaking them for what they were.

The internet, as we all know and love it, did not exist back then. But the research I could do did not say that wolves existed at that location in Alabama in 1976 - 1977. No mention of them. Just because one of "the experts" did not know of there existence, or just didn't want anyone to know about them, doesn't mean it wasn't so. Most people back there (then, at least) allow their dogs to run free, and being the pack animals that they are, they do tend to run in packs. They cause a lot of mayhem. I have seen these packs of dogs, that is not what I saw there. What I saw were wolves, and no one can tell me different.

What I am trying to get at, is that the "experts" don't know everything.

If we are gonna meet up while you out here, please hit me up soon. My schedule is filling up. Pm me!

Will red wolves and coyotes mate? Read a little bit on the reintroduction of the red wolf and wondered.

This mornings Ridgebacks concerned about your wolf dilemma Jean. Photos by Wifeunitincorp.

Maggot:



Doe Doe:

People have wolf hybrids too. No telling if one of them escaped.

Pet panthers have been released and seen in Georgia. I believe some people have wolves in captivity.
Some animals are kept in captivity unbeknownst to the public.

lots of scenarios