Was A Timber Wolf Hit On The Side Of The Road Near Hinckley?

Yesterday morning, a short video was uploaded to social media that seemed to show a deceased animal lying on its side on a patch of dead grass. The footage had text on it that indicated it was a wolf and that it was hit not far from Hinckley.

The video footage was shared online by the group Hunters For Hunters, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the rights of Sportsmen, according to their social media page.

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From our wolf watch group

“Big male hit on the side of the highway. I think dnr came and got it now. This is only 35 minutes from the excell center. We’ve seen an expansion of the timber wolf while the numbers are supposedly staying the same .. I call fowl on that .”

If it was a timber wolf that was hit along a highway, that would mean it would be a far cry from the area that most Minnesota wolves occupy, which is typically portions of Northern Minnesota. The International Wolf Center most recently (2023) estimated Minnesota's wolf population to be 631 packs of wolves across the state.

According to the MN DNR website:

"Currently, it is illegal for people to hunt and trap wolves in Minnesota. Until the early 1970s wolves were unprotected in Minnesota."

Briefly from 2012 to 2014 when the wolf population was controlled by Minnesota, rather than the federal government, wolf hunting and trapping was legal.

I reached out to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to see if they picked up a wolf in that area, and will update this when I hear back.