THE MONTANA CRYPTID THAT CRIED WOLF
Even more perplexing and headlinegenerating was the canine cryptid shot on a private ranch near Denton in the Lewistown area of north-central Montana, USA, on 16 May 2018. With long greyish-brown fur, a large head, and a definite canine appearance, it superficially recalled a wolf in overall form. Yet according to Ty Smucker, wolf management specialist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP), who had examined close-up colour photos of this creature’s body, its feet seemed too small, its ears too large, and its body and limbs too short. As to be expected, the story of its procurement and unresolved taxonomic status soon went viral on social media, resulting in a diverse array of proposed identities ranging from the mundane to the monstrous.
At one end of this taxonomic spectrum were suggestions that it might be a specimen of the elusive dogman, a bizarre entity whose existence remains unconfirmed, but is said to be capable of walking bipedally like a humanoid dog. A related notion, whose seriousness remains as undetermined as the creature’s identity, is that it was a werewolf. No less thought-provoking were opinions that it was nothing less than a dire wolf Canis dirus, a very large, burly New World species believed to have become extinct almost 10,000 years ago. Another postulated cryptozoological connection was one that linked it to an equally contentious wolf-like or even hyaena-like American mystery beast known variously as the shunka wara’kin or ringdocus, an alleged (but never verified) taxidern specimen of which is currently on display at the Madison Valley History Association Museum in Ennis, Montana.
And then there was the proposal that it was a young, emaciated grizzly bear – but I have yet to see any young bear, emaciated or otherwise, that has a characteristically canine head and jaws, not to mention a long bushy tail! My own thoughts were that it was a purebred wolf, a wolf/domestic dog hybrid, or a purebred domestic dog but of decidedly crossbred ancestry in terms of the number and varieties of breeds that may well have contributed to it (i.e. a mongrel or mutt of no recognised heritage). Among domestic species of mammal, the domestic dog is unparalleled in terms of its morphological and genetic diversity, and I have little doubt that this diversity could readily engender the phenotype of the Denton beast.
All too often in cryptozoology, an unusual specimen is procured, only for its remains to be discarded or lost without any samples having been secured from it and subjected to formal scientific examination. Happily, however, in this particular instance FWP game wardens went to investigate it after it had been shot, and its entire carcase was sent to their laboratory at Bozeman for study. Bruce Auchly, information manager for Montana FWP, publicly stated that they were awaiting a DNA report back from the lab, after which we would finally know whether Denton’s cryptid was merely crying wolf or whether it really was something out of the ordinary.
In mid-June, Montana’s FWP issued an official press release with the DNA results. Despite the fact that certain investigators had opined that it looked odd, the mystery beast in question was actually an ordinary adult female grey wolf
Canis lupus – not a dire wolf at all, merely a dire disappointment, at least as far as some cryptozoologists were concerned.
https://eu.greatfallstribune.com/story/ news/2018/05/24/wolf-dog-dogmansome-mysterious-creature-montananslook-answers/634379002/ 25 May 2018; http://fwp.mt.gov/news/newsReleases/ fishAndWildlife/nr_1108.html 18 June 2018.