I’ll never forget staring into the eyes of a big male Mexican gray wolf.

Its piercing eyes reflected a wild lineage that roamed the Southwest until the white man moved in with guns, traps and poison.

This was early in my career and the animal resided at a captive breeding facility where remnants of the highly endangered subspecies were being bred for release into the wild.

I shot tons of photos but they were lost in Hurricane flood damage-along with many others.

Since that time there have been numerous releases in New Mexico and even pups born in the wild there.

So, when Jaclyn Booth sent me this photo I took notice because the animal looked very much like the wolves I had seen at the facility so many years ago.

But before we get into this let me tell you about something that can save your life in the great outdoors.

In remote areas, finding an unusual amount of foot traffic is a real warning sign of finding illegal growers and meth operations. Believe me-It happened to me.

I give my safety tips and tell some crazy outdoors dangers stories including a guy who had an attack dog set loose on him when he came across a grow in Arkansas. Listen to this episode at the link below.

Dark Outdoors: Murder Mountain, Meth Labs & More

Now back to the wolf-something far safer to encounter in the wild! Remember-people are the most dangerous thing.

The photo came through my “The Wildlife Journalist” Facebook and had no information on where it came from.

My thought was “Wow, that’s a gray wolf, probably a Mexican gray wolf.”

I messaged her to find out what state the photo came from and when she said it came from her ranch in Hall County, TX I was in shock.

The photo below is a coyote from the same ranch and in fact at different angles of the same log. Compare this coyote and the canid in the above photo.

Now compare with this one of a Mexican gray wolf taken at the Alameda Park Zoo below. Notice the extreme likeness.

In 2013 I had a professional trapper who has trapped and killed thousands of coyotes tell me of seeing a Mexican gray wolf near Alpine, TX the year previous. He was adamant at what he saw.

Is there a possibility of having Mexican gray wolf-coyote hybrids (that maybe lean heavily on wolf appearance) in the region?

Absolutely. It has been proven that coyotes and gray wolves hybridize by numerous researchers.

Are there Mexican wolves in Texas?

The jury is still out but on a ranch in Hall County there is definitely an animal that looks a whole lot like one. If you have any wolf photos or videos from Texas or animals you might suspect are carrying wolf DNA email to chester@chestermoore.com.

Chester Moore

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