Incredible footage of a mystery ‘wolf-dog’ animal glaring at a trail camera in northern Minnesota has left locals and experts baffled.
The Voyageurs Wolf Project posted the video on Facebook earlier this month with the message: ‘We know social media loves a good mysterious canine story…so check out this animal we got on camera last winter.’
The gray and tan animal has characteristics of a coyote, wolf and dog, the group explained. It has ‘dog-like’ ears, but also sports the ‘robust snout’ and ‘bigger body’ of a wolf and appears to be bigger than other coyotes in the area, it continued.
‘Perhaps it is the elusive “woyote dog” – a rare hybrid of all 3 canids!?!?’ the organization joked. ‘In many respects, the animal looks more like eastern coyotes that live in eastern North America, but still the ears just look real funny to us.’
The Voyageurs Wolf Project was stumped when they came across an unusual-looking canine on one of its trail cameras in northern Minnesota
The canine has ‘dog-like’ ears, but the ‘robust snout’ and ‘bigger body’ of a wolf and appears to be bigger than other coyotes in the area
The group added: ‘That canine just doesn’t look like any other coyote we have observed in our area. But who knows what it actually is!’
‘Whatever this animal is it is stunning,’ one viewer wrote in response to the post. ‘Wish you were able to get some DNA for more info as I’m curious as well.’
In the video posted by the University of Minnesota research group, the animal didn’t linger long, looking at the camera only a few times before darting out of shot.
‘Ultimately, we won’t ever know for sure one way or another because the animal just passed through our area in winter,’ Project Lead, Thomas Gable, told Forbes.
‘And we haven’t seen it on any trail camera since then, so we cannot get a genetic sample or anything like that to tell one way or another.’
Wolves in northern Minnesota are considered to be ‘fairly small’ compared to other areas of the US, but they are still larger than coyotes, the organization said in an X post.
Wolves in the area are considered to be ‘fairly small’ compared to other areas of the US, but they are still larger than coyotes (pictured: stock image)
The mystery surrounding the animal has prompted many to suggest amusing names for the animal, such as ‘goldenoyote’ and ‘coyodoodle’.
Others, like Alejandro Sanchez, speculated that the animal had a more ‘foxlike’ appearance and body language.
Some questioned if the animal had simply suffered frostbite on its ear, causing it to have a rounded bear-like appearance over a typical pointy one.
However, this isn’t the only sighting of a potential wolf-dog hybrid in recent months by the Voyageurs Wolf Project.
The group previously shared incredible trail camera footage in September that depicted a canine both wolf and dog-like.
‘This was one of the stranger observations we had this winter,’ Jack London of the group posted on Facebook. ‘A wolf-like, dog-like canid of sorts roaming the area. It sort of looks like a mix between a wolf and a malamute or something.’
The Voyageurs Wolf Project shared incredible trail camera footage in September that depicted a canine that was both ‘wolf-like’ and ‘dog-like’
The Voyageurs Wolf Project, a University of Minnesota research group, shared incredible trail camera footage on Facebook showing an unusual canine roaming the wilderness
‘Our first two observations – Feb 29 and Mar 3 – were of this animal and two actual adult wolves roaming around. But none of the wolves in this pack were part of a resident pack in our area,’ he added.
‘The one sequence of all three shows just how different this canid’s appearance is from the wolves in our area.’
Researchers said they have never seen a ‘wolf’ that looks like this.
However, not all interactions with the wolf hybrids spotted across country have been positive.
In April, a pack of wolf-dog hybrids left locals in a California neighborhood terrified for months, with at least two pets found dead.
A medium-sized dog in Shingeltown, California, was killed by the pack of seven ‘feral’ animals in March, before attacking again the next month.
The other victim was a three-year-old Australian-Pyrenees mix named Chief.
In April, a pack of wolf-dog hybrids in Shingeltown, California, terrorized the neighborhood for months, killing at least two other dogs belonging to residents
One of the victims of the pack of wolf-dog hybrids was a three-year-old Australian-Pyrenees mix named Chief.
In the wake of his death, Chief’s owner Sharina Clark told KRCR-7, ‘For the first week, we were pretty much here grieving, and then had to bury our dog.
‘And after we buried him I started looking into what was happening.’
Residents of the small town said the dangerous pack was spotted nearly every day, before officials took one of the dogs into custody after the owner surrendered it.
‘The dogs, originally reported as a pack of wild “wolf-type” animals, were determined to be wolf/husky/malamute hybrids that belonged to a local resident and had gone feral,’ the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Tim Mapes said in part.
