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["Gloria Morris" <gloriamorris59 AT gmail.com>]

Howdy, all!

I've been crazy busy this fall, so pretty quiet here on the list. Too many
projects!!! I've got some down time this weekend, due to sleet yesterday and
cold rain today. It is definitely not weather to be working outside, so I'm
just puttering with laundry and cooking up some turkey soup. My family came
to my home for the holiday, and so in the aftermath of that we've been
having lots and lots of leftovers!

I was a bit surprised this week when I picked up a copy of Illinois hunting
regulations and happened to notice on one page the mention that wolves are
protected. What wolves? Now, it isn't like they listed all the large
predators in North America as protected, although we don't have them in
Illinois. No, they just singled out wolves. But here, in Illinois? There are
no wolves, officially, in Illinois. They've been spotted and reported, but
so too have lions, and there's no mention of lions being protected (and
officials downright deny any presence of lions here). So, curious, I did a
little digging.

It seems that there have been more wolves here than I realized. Two have
been shot here in the last 8 years, that I could find, and one was killed by
a car. So far, there are no known wolf packs, only single wolves who have
likely wandered here from Wisconsin. I found one interview with a naturalist
who discussed the various kills of wolves here - single wolves looking to
form a pack, for the most part. I also found "official" confirmation of the
wolf kill a couple counties north of me. Apparently, the wolf shot north of
me was killed by a coyote hunter who responded to reports from locals about
a large coyote in the area. Federal officials swooped in and confiscated the
carcass and the hide from a local tannery and sent it off to a lab for ID -
sure enough, it was a wolf. The feds did not charge the coyote hunter, they
noted. Gee, that was mighty charitable of them! LOL!

Hope you all are having a wonderful autumn, and staying warm and dry.

Take care!

Gloria