Is this normal size for a wolf?
LOL, my dog looks about 50% larger too with her winter coat. Look how much the guy's arms sink into the coat such that the arm wrapped around the wolf doesn't actually appear to be wider than the circumference of the rest of the wolf's coat.
THe Idaho wolves are gorging on huge dinners of elk and deer with a few domestic pets thrown in the pile from time to time. Yes, 180 pounds is seen here officially.
Wow A444, that is really amazing. Your "official" record seems to be from a hunter's boastful estimate to a reporter and not actually from any official source. Now I realize that no hunter has ever overstated the size of his kill and that like fishermen, can be counted on to provide absolutely unbiased and accurate results. However, if he really did have a 180 lb. MacKenzie Valley gray wolf, he would have the new record given that the record is 175 lbs. and was from a wolf taken in Alaska more than 80 years ago in 1939.
http://www.californiawolfcenter.org/learn/wolf-facts/
http://www.cosmosmith.com/mackenzie_valley_wolves.asp
But hey, if you have access to "official" records that indicate that the wolves in Idaho are bigger than the previously held record, please share them with us. An unweighed and unconfirmed boastful estimate from a hunter to a newspaper reporter doesn't actually count.
It’s not surprising that wolf weights get exaggerated, said Jim Hayden, Fish and Game’s regional wildlife manager in Coeur d’Alene.
“They look huge,” he said. “They’ve got long legs, big heads and lots of fur.”
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/feb/17/actual-wolf-weights-often-skimpier-than-hunters/
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Those aren't fake photos. Those were in a major hunting magazine that I have somewhere laying around the house. They named the hunter and gave the story of it.
Oh please do share with us the name, year, and month of the major magazine with the pictures. Based on the internet postings, that wolf gets killed a lot, new every year since 2009 and has been killed in Idaho (generic state listing), Yellowstone, Sun Valley, Montana, Manitoba, and Alberta. Most of the posts have the wolf being from Canada and not the US.
Funny how the hunter who supposedly shot this now famous record 197, 230, 230+, or 235 lb. wolf, or his guide that was supposedly along at the time, didn't think to get the kill confirmed by any officials despite knowing it was a record. Most hunters would be extremely pleased to have their name associated with the largetst known wolf kill, and yet this hunter doesn't. Odd.
Oh wait, maybe there is no clear cut story, no famous hunter, no single weight or location, and no official record because the image and information are hoaxed?
http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005139271