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Mystery wolf-like creature shot dead in US leaves experts scratching their heads as to its identity

The dead animal has led to some slightly bizarre social media musings as to its species.

4 The unidentified wolf-like animal, shot dead near Denton, Montana, 10 days ago Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks

A MYSTERIOUS WOLF/DOG animal, shot dead on a ranch in the US state of Montana, has left experts scratching their heads as to what manner of beast it actually is.

The large animal was shot and killed by a rancher near the town of Denton on 16 May.

The rancher killed the animal as it had encroached within sight of his livestock. He then reported the incident as required by law.

The animal was originally reported as a wolf, but several experts doubt it was a purebred animal.

3 Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks

Now, some rather-more-bizarre theories regarding the animal has emerged, from the theory that it’s evidence of the existence of werewolves, to the suggestion that it’s a direwolf (a mythical super-wolf from the fictional world of Game of Thrones).

“Rather than guess, Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) sent the carcass to the department’s lab in Bozeman where tissue samples will be collected, then shipped to the US Fish and Wildlife Service Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon,” FWP said in a statement.

While the process may take a week, just getting to that stage may take weeks or months, depending on the laboratory’s backlog of cases.

1 Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks

“All of which means it may be awhile before the anyone really knows what the animal near Denton really was,” a spokesman added.

“Several things grabbed my attention when I saw the pictures,” Ty Smucker, wolf management specialist for FWP, told local newspaper the Great Falls Tribune.

The ears are too big. The legs look a little short. The feet look a little small, and the coat looks weird.

“There’s just something off about it,” he said.

2 Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks

However, when it was raised with him that the animal might in fact be a direwolf, his reply was an amused one.

“First off Dire Wolf was a song by the Grateful Dead from 1971,” he said.

I know, I listened to it many times. Number two, it’s a prehistoric animal, like mastodons and sabre-toothed tigers, so it doesn’t exist.

Oh well.

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    Nov 13th 2011, 9:39 PM

    Here lads. Someone has been injured in a seriously unpleasant attack. Is it really a place to be acting like two kids in a playground? Go do it somewhere else.

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    Mute Adrian quinn
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    Nov 13th 2011, 9:51 PM

    Fair enough.

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    Mute BustingMyAss
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    Nov 13th 2011, 9:51 PM

    Well said, sorry I lost the run of myself.

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    Mute Waffler
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    Nov 13th 2011, 9:52 PM

    i simply made a comment about how the media sensationalises violence today when in reality we are a much safer society than not so long ago. naturally the victim has my sympathy. somehow adrian feels i should be murdered for expressing an observation

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    Mute Sharon Larkin
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    Nov 13th 2011, 8:33 PM

    That’s terrible. Hope they catch the ones who did it.

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    Mute Adrian quinn
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    Nov 13th 2011, 9:26 PM

    Utter nonsense. You did not see 3 fights every night you went out. You simply did not. A complete lie. You are an idiot. You should not be let near a computer. Not just for this comment, but for every other idiotic, badly spelt, uninformed comment you have posted in the past.

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    Mute Waffler
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    Nov 13th 2011, 9:34 PM

    walk across oconnell bridge in 1990 at 2am and get back to me. and the good news is i was stabbed twice in my teens, once with a syringe, the bad news for you is i lived

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    Mute BustingMyAss
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    Nov 13th 2011, 9:43 PM

    I remember Cork in the 80′s: fights were very common and people were quite baise about it. Gang fights were common: often you’d get 2-3 van loads of scumbags descending on rival estates for a royal rumble. This all died out when XTC hit in the early 90′s. You were more likely to get a hug walking home after that!

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    Mute Shanti Om
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    Nov 13th 2011, 8:48 PM

    Sending all the best to the victim. Here’s hoping the perpetrators are caught quickly.

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    Mute BustingMyAss
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    Nov 13th 2011, 9:43 PM

    Well said Om

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    Mute Waffler
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    Nov 13th 2011, 10:35 PM

    ok this comment was removed so i’ll try again. for all those red thumbing me let me give you some perspective. when i was fifteen i was stabbed after a school football match in tolka park along with 7 of my classmates. when i was eighteen i was accosted by 3 men at a bus stop on abbey st. they made me empty my money at an atm before stabbing me with a syringe. neither incident got media coverage as they were common occurences back then. i’m glad we’ve progressed so much that these incidents are so rare that they make headlines. maybe you’ll delete this again but i’m baffled why

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    Mute M kenny
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    Nov 13th 2011, 8:48 PM

    Wtf is Ireland becoming?

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    Mute Waffler
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    Nov 13th 2011, 9:11 PM

    you are joking? the fact that this makes the news shoe how much safer we are now than 20 years ago. when i started going out in dublin i would see at least 3 fights a night between grafton st and my bus on abbey st, rarely see any street violence these days

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    Nov 13th 2011, 10:33 PM

    Waffler I’m sorry for that silly comment earlier. You are however misinterpeting the report. The news item simply stated that a woman had been stabbed. No sensationalism. Simply a news report. You appear at times to post here just for reaction. All under a psuedonym by the way.

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    Nov 13th 2011, 8:36 PM

    we have it good today, when i was growing up this happened day in day out

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    Nov 13th 2011, 8:40 PM

    grew up where exactly waffler?

    hope the victim recovers.

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    Mute Adrian quinn
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    Nov 13th 2011, 9:08 PM

    Tool

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    Mute Adrian quinn
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    Nov 13th 2011, 9:08 PM

    Where do you live?

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    Mute Waffler
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    Nov 13th 2011, 9:08 PM

    blanchardstown in the 80s. theyd send in the army now if it was still like that

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    Mute Waffler
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    Nov 13th 2011, 9:29 PM

    wtf adrian?

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    Mute Brian M
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    Nov 13th 2011, 10:12 PM

    My comment removed!? And I cheered for you in the convention centre last Thursday night…

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    Nov 13th 2011, 10:15 PM

    i cant see why your comment was removed, please explain journal

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    Nov 13th 2011, 10:24 PM

    and wheres my last comment gone? what the hell is going on?

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