The goodest boy: K-9 officer sniffs out poachers 🐕

If you’re still with us, that means you’ve made it to the middle of yet another week.

With that in mind, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and get another mid-week dispatch out the door.

Here's what's worth reading about so far this week:

• The goodest boy - K-9 conservation officer sniffs out poachers 🐕

• Dead elk on the 50 - Wolves leave elk carcass on high school football field  🏈

• Illegal relocation - Nevada officials searching for turkey dumpers 🦃

• Slightly out of place - Colorado man finds Great Lakes wolf in his trap 🐺

• I'm giving up - A group of people snagged a bear cub out of a tree for selfies 🤳

  Thanks for following along. Don't forget to tell your friends.

WHO’S A GOOD BOY??
K-9 CONSERVATION OFFICERS SNIFFS OUT TURKEY POACHERS

Resisting the urge to ask the public “who’s a good boy??” the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks announced earlier this week that one of their K9 conservation officers was instrumental in bringing down a couple of poachers in Miami county.

The phone call landed with both the Miami County Sheriff’s Office and KDWP as a landowner reported a couple of men shooting turkeys on his property from a vehicle. With both agencies responding to the call, they arrived on the scene to find the suspected vehicle parked along the side of the road unoccupied.

Utilizing the nose of his two-year-old K-9 partner Indy, game warden Mitch Falls let him do the groundwork. It wasn’t long before the dog flushed a couple of the suspects along with a couple of the turkeys they illegally shot using a .22-caliber rifle that was later recovered from the passenger seat of the car. The shooter was soon arrested for a slew of wildlife violations including killing turkeys with a rifle, hunting from the road, hunting from a vehicle, and killing animals on private property without permission…

🏈 Feeding time on the football field - Students at Gardiner High School arrived at school with a surprise on their football field earlier this month. No, it wasn’t the homecoming queen or the star quarterback, it was a mostly-eaten cow elk that had been feasted on by a pack of wolves from nearby Yellowstone National Park.  The school, located along Yellowstone’s northern border, is no stranger to wildlife such as elk and pronghorn, but historically is not a wolf hangout.

“It is common for wildlife to move through and adjacent to the Gardiner community given its location at the doorstep of a national park,” Yellowstone public affairs officer Linda Veress says. “It’s common for elk, bison and pronghorn to be at the school grounds, less so bears and wolves. It is very rare that we document wolves within the town’s developed footprint over the last 28 years. Very seldom, if ever, does park staff need to deal with bears and bison on school grounds.” 

The kill was credited to the 8-Mile pack, who was believed to have fled the scene just before dawn.

🦃 Illegal turkey relocation - Nevada officials are in pursuit of the person or persons responsible for dumping 25 turkeys on the Key Pittman Wildlife Management Area. After WMA staff reported the gaggle of turkeys near Nesbitt Lake, wildlife officials were on-scene to conduct an investigation.

According to witnesses a large white truck pulling a horse trailer was seen in the area, prompting officers to pull surveillance footage from nearby retailers. It wasn’t long before the suspected truck and trailer showed up on a local convenience store camera.

“Unfortunately, the video does not have a clear view of the license plate or the persons in question,” NDOW explained in a press release. “Game wardens believe the suspects are from Clark County as they arrived from the south and headed back the same way.”

The turkeys were all recovered by NDOW and were determined to be domestic birds with wild turkey attributes. Under Nevada law, a first offense of illegal wildlife introduction is a misdemeanor that carries a fine between $25,000 and $250,000.

🐺 Great Lakes wolf trapped in Colorado - US Fish and Wildlife was alerted to a peculiar incident in Elbert County earlier this month as a local trapper found something out of place in one of his leg traps set for coyotes. Unable to identify the species he had trapped, he was quick to alert wildlife officials, who then set out to determine the origins of the 85-pound wolf. 

Working closely with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, USFW obtained samples from the wolf that were later sent for DNA testing. What the results showed was that this particular wolf had done a bit of traveling in his day before ultimately sealing his fate. The results later revealed that the animal was, in fact, a gray wolf from the Great Lakes population - genetically distinct from the gray population of the Northern Rockies. Officials are still puzzled as to how exactly the Great Lakes wolf ended up in Colorado. While wolves are known to roam, questions remain as to how it managed to make the trek on its own.

VIDEO // ^{_{SOME THINGS JUST HAVE TO BE SEEN}}

🐻 I’m giving up on humanity: Watch as a group of idiots people pull a bear cub from a tree and proceed to take selfies with it. 

Where’s momma bear when you need her?

🐶 Speaking of good boys: Watch as a sheepdog goes toe-to-toe with a grizzly bear to protect his flock of sheep.