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DNR: Wolf illegally killed in Iron County

Undated photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a gray wolf. (AP Photo/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, File)

IRON RIVER — Authorities are seeking information on a dead wolf found shot and dumped along an Iron County road Sunday afternoon.

A passerby spotted the female wolf carcass just after 2 p.m. Sunday several feet off the side of East Brule Lake Road in Stambaugh Township, about 10 miles southwest of Iron River, Michigan Department of Natural Resources conservation officers said.

Cause of death appeared to be a gunshot wound, officers said.

Officers believe the animal, which weighed about 70 pounds, was poached early Sunday morning and then moved to the roadside between noon and 2 p.m. that same day.

“Anyone who has information that may assist us in finding the person or persons responsible for the poaching of this wolf is asked to contact the DNR,” DNR Sgt. Marc Pomroy said.

In particular, anyone who may have seen vehicle activity in that area between noon and 2 p.m. Sunday should call Pomroy at 906-228-6561 or the 24-hour DNR Report All Poaching line at 1-800-292-7800.

Details may be left anonymously and callers may qualify for a monetary reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the violator or violators.

It is illegal to kill a wolf unless it poses a direct threat to humans.

The federal government removed the gray wolf from its endangered species list in Michigan in 2011, but a federal judge reinstated the endangered status in 2014 in Wyoming and the western Great Lakes states. Legislation has been introduced to again lift that level of protection.

Michigan’s only wolf hunt was in 2013, when 22 wolves were killed in the Upper Peninsula.

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