No charges in killing of gray wolf in southern Michigan. Experts stumped about how it got there.

Wildlife experts have reached a dead end in their quest to determine how a gray wolf ended up in southern Michigan for the first time in more than 100 years.

The wolf was killed in January by a hunter who told investigators he mistook it for a coyote. It was a shock: Although gray wolves are common in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula — the latest estimate is more than 700 — the state’s southern Lower Peninsula doesn’t provide the right habitat.

“We just don’t know how it got there,” said Brian Roell, a wolf expert with the state Department of Natural Resources.

Separately, authorities who received a report on the DNR investigation said Thursday that no charges would be filed against the hunter or guide.

“The conduct here appears to be based on a reasonable and honest belief that they were legally shooting a coyote,” Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert told The Associated Press.

The 84-pound wolf was killed about 300 miles (482 kilometers) south of the Upper Peninsula. The DNR said it learned through social media that someone had shot a “world record coyote.” But this was no coyote.

Gray wolves are protected under the Endangered Species Act and should only be killed if they pose an immediate threat to human life, the DNR said.

Roell said he would welcome tips if the public knows anything about the wolf’s presence in southern Michigan.

“It could have been natural. It could have been helped by humans,” he said of the wolf’s travels.

Ice is forming on the Great Lakes, allowing some animals to cross the Straits of Mackinac between the peninsulas, but recent winter ice conditions have not been firm, Roell said.

There would also be barriers to a wolf moving from elsewhere in the Upper Midwest into southern Michigan, he added.

One possible clue: A mark on a foot indicated the wolf had recently been trapped.

“It just makes it more curious,” Roell said.

By the time the agency became involved, the coat had been preserved and padded by a taxidermist. The DNR has seized the mountain and the hunter doesn’t want to get it back.

Because the gray wolf is an endangered species, “the hunter is not allowed to possess it,” spokesman Ed Golder said.

____

Anyone with information can call the DNR at (800) 292-7800.

____

Follow Ed White on X: https://twitter.com/edwritez