CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY • March 14, 2023
Conservation groups announced today that testing by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Museum revealed that a wolf killed in upstate New York in 2021 was eating a wild diet and was a wild wolf. The tests on the wolf’s bones, fur and teeth show the animal was not a released pet, as the department had been speculating. According to the Maine Wolf Coalition, this animal is the latest of at least 11 reported wolves known to have been killed south of the St. Lawrence River since 1993. These include wolves killed in Maine, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Brunswick and Quebec. The wolf killed in 2021 was shot by a hunter who posted photos of the animal on social media. At the time wolves had had their Endangered Species Act protection removed; they have since been protected again after a successful lawsuit by wildlife advocates.