Videos show possible wolf-dog hybrid roaming around northern Minnesota

INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Minn. — Trail cameras captured a unique wolf on the prowl around Voyageurs National Park earlier this year.

The Voyageurs Wolf Project posted a video on its Facebook page on Tuesday morning of what the project describes as a "wolf-like, dog-like canid" roaming with a pack of wolves in late February and early March.

"This was one of the stranger observations we had this winter," the project wrote. "It sort of looks like a mix between a wolf and a malamute or something."

The project says the canid was then spotted another 10 times throughout March in spots throughout the vast Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem along the Minnesota-Canada border. There has been no documented trace of the canid after March 20.

It's unclear if the canid is a hybrid or the result of a genetic mutation.  

"Notably, we have never seen a 'wolf' that looks like this but we suspect that either this canid is a wolf with some strange mutation that makes it super fluffy and extra large (seems unlikely but trying to think through the options)…or it is a wolf-dog hybrid," the project said.

If the canid is indeed a hybrid, the project thinks it "was either released or escaped."

Last year, one of the project's cameras caught the rare sight of a wolf fishing. And earlier this year, project members spoke with WCCO about another video that went viral of a wolf hunting a beaver near Grand Rapids.

"No one had ever seen anything like that or anything to even indicate that that would occur," said project lead Tom Gable.

According to the group's website, its members use trail cams and GPS trackers to "provide a comprehensive understanding of the summer ecology of wolves in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem in northern Minnesota," and specifically, "to understand the predation behavior and reproductive ecology."

The project, which originated at the University of Minnesota, is funded through Minnesota's Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.