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The Department of Fish and Wildlife have released wolves and rattlesnakes in Eastern Kentucky. There reasoning is that they were here before. Go figure only in Kentucky lol. Welcome to UM fellow Kentuckian
The only problem with hearing that is I can't find anything that says they actually did, other than hearing people say that. I've looked
everywhere for anything about wolves being released here, and I can find nothing.
I don't know why they're putting rattlesnakes out, in the first place, there's tons already around here. Like we need more venomous snakes in eastern KY?
Like others were saying, I know they released bears (had some in my driveway, it was great--mother and cub), but I've not heard anything about wolves. It'd be stupid to do that and not watch them, because that's just what people will do--shoot them. The police were called in to make sure the bear got through the neighborhood unharmed, but I haven't heard anything like that being done for a wolf. If that WAS a wolf the man shot, it would make sense that--if it was released in the state under preservation of the species--it would have been under servalience of some type.
I don't doubt there are pets, but that's completely and utterly illegal, and a little hard to believe that someone that would actually have a pet wolf would be stupid enough to let it reproduce.
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We have also (NOT) had black panthers here in Kentucky for the past few years. It's funny how so many people see mountain lions and such, when the forestry service has had no tangable evidence to support them being here.
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lot of my family and friends have actually seen black panthers, really close to the Mt. Vernon and Eubank areas. My aunt saw one one night, said it was about the size of a German Shepard, and spot lighted it across a soybean field behind her house. She even said she heard young mewling outside her bedroom window. But, anyway, I went over to take a look at where she said she saw it, and sure enough, there were big cat tracks (no indentation of claws, and the toes were the same length and the print was very round as a whole) in the mud. My step-brother even said he saw two feeding on road kill up by Berea, on a rural road. My friend claimed to have even been chased by one coming down a back road on a four wheeler. I haven't seen one, but I've heard plenty of stories from people who have. But I guess that's beside the topic.
I honestly believe what that man shot was a coyote hybrid, and I think that since a lot of you are saying that--given you know forestry officials--wolves haven't been released here, certainly that's gotta be it. I have NO idea what the guy is even claiming it's a wolf in the first place, but I'm dying to find an internet article about it that might have better pictures that the news paper article. (It was out of a local paper, London paper, but I don't remember the name of it. ): That's really sad, considering I live in London. XD But if anyone knows the name of that paper, and if they have an online site, that'd be brilliant.)