Reported encounter Denton, Montana, USA
Denton’s 2018 Mystery Canid: What the DNA Test Found
An odd-looking animal shot near Denton, Montana, drew werewolf speculation in 2018. A forensic laboratory supplied an answer a month later.
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The photograph travelled faster than the identification.
A rancher shot a wolf-like animal near Denton, Montana, on May 16, 2018. Its proportions made an immediate label difficult: wildlife officials noted features that did not match their expectations, including short legs, small canine teeth and unusually large ears. Online speculation supplied names before a laboratory supplied a result.
The Associated Press report carried by the Flathead Beacon on June 18 records the answer: DNA identified the animal as a gray wolf. The werewolf and dogman suggestions belonged to the reaction around the photograph, rather than a finding by investigators.
KXLF’s account of the testing describes work by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service forensic laboratory in Ashland, Oregon. The comparison used reference samples from wolves, dogs and coyotes and placed this animal among northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves. The animal was a dark-colored female.
A species has room for variation. An individual can look unfamiliar without belonging to something new, which is why the specimen’s DNA mattered more than the confidence of a guess made from its photograph.
Denton offers a useful complete sequence: an animal, uncertainty, public speculation and a test with a documented result. The result identifies this particular animal. The brief interval before it arrived shows how readily an unusual outline can acquire an older, stranger name.
Sources
Original wolf illustration; not a photograph of the Denton animal.
