Wolves in London, Ontario

by David, Tanya, Anon
(London, Ontario, Canada )

We often get reports of Coyote, Wolf or Coywolf sightings, but this was a little unusual. In the space of a week we received three Wolf sightings from people in or just outside of, the north west corner of London Ontario. The first was from Wedway Creek north of Sunningdale Road, another saw one on a path close to Fanshawe Park Road near Wonderland Road North, and yet another reader spotted a similar animal in Hyde Park. If you take a look at the map, you will see how close these places are to each other.

David Kelly spotted a large wolf on Saturday January 17, 2015, he says ... it was heading north up the middle of the frozen Medway Creek mid-afternoon. Spotted a freshly killed and partially eaten deer on the creek at the Sunningdale Golf course area. It add been dragged approximately 12' to 15' feet across the snow, over the creek, and there were only what looked like dog tracks around the area. There were no other foot prints, boots marks or cross-country ski tracks. I continued north up the creek approximately another 1 Km and climbed up the creek bank to view the ridge to the north and heard loud cracking of brush and spotted a large Wolf running away from me. It ran away at what I would consider full speed and made a lot of noise as it ran through the brush; nothing seemed to slow it down. It was multi-coloured brown, dark with some white. When I found this site, the pictures shown looked like the animal I saw.

Tanya from London also wrote to say ... Wolf sighting North West London?. I was walking near dusk on a path next to the water near the Fanshawe Road overpass near Wonderland Road in London when I came upon what I thought was a large Coyote on the path. I was surprised by his size, as other Coyotes I've seen have been much smaller than this animal. It was large, but very thin. He stared at me and I stood perfectly still watching for what he would do. My heart was pounding and I was trying to remember what the right response would be if he came towards me. I decided staying put was my best option. After about 20 seconds (it felt longer), the animal broke it's gaze and ran into the woods. When I came home and described it to my husband, he said he thought it might have been a Wolf. We looked at some pictures online, and I have to agree, although I am surprised as I didn't think we had wolves in the area. I'm very glad for the experience, but a bit nervous to travel that path again on my own.

Another reader from London, also wrote to tell us of their sighting of a Wolf in Hyde Park ... A huge Wolf ran in front of my car on the service road by Kidscape, just west of the Walmart on Hyde Park Road. Headed for the woods.

Well, there you have it. What do you think?

Three reports in one week, all describing an animal that looks very Wolf-like.

I'm thinking this was likely a Coywolf (Coyote - Wolf hybrid) as we know that Coyotes in Southern Ontario often have Wolf genes, so what was spotted here is likely a large individual with the behaviour of a Coyote (comfortable in human occupied areas), and yet it looked like a Wolf.