Unusual Mystery Animal Caught on Video in Northern Minnesota

It’s not every day something so curious and unusual pops up in the wilderness of northern Minnesota, but that’s exactly what happened this past winter when researchers made one of their more head-scratching discoveries.

The first sighting of this unfamiliar animal occurred on February 29, followed by another on March 3.

The Voyageurs Wolf Project, an organization focused on understanding what wolves do in the summer in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem of Minnesota, posted the video (included at the bottom of this article) last week with an explanation of what they think we are seeing.

The video shows what appears to be a wolf-like, dog-like canid—a mysterious animal that seemed like a mix between a wolf and a malamute—roaming the area, leaving the team puzzled.

What made the situation even more bizarre was that this animal wasn't alone; it was spotted alongside two actual wolves. These wolves, however, weren’t part of any resident pack in the area. Instead, they appeared to be a wandering group.

The differences between the mystery canid and the wolves were striking.

In the part of the video that shows all three animals, the two wolves looked like the mature adult wolves typically found in the area, but the other with its super fluffy fur and larger-than-life appearance, doesn't fit the mold of the wolves known to roam the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem.

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The VWP says from March 11 to March 20, the mysterious canid made 10 more solo appearances. It was spotted all across the ecosystem, suggesting it was on quite the adventure—until suddenly, it wasn’t.

After March 20, the sightings stopped leading experts to believe it had left the area.

The team at Voyageurs Wolf Project hasn’t ruled out a few possibilities, though they admit they’re left speculating like the rest of us.

Could it be a wolf with a rare mutation, making it extra fluffy and larger than usual? That seems unlikely. More plausible is the idea that this animal is a wolf-dog hybrid.

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However, given the absence of any known wolf-dog breeding in northern Minnesota, they suspect that if this is indeed a hybrid, it might have been released or escaped from somewhere else.

The video below shows the different sightings of the unusual wolf-dog hybrid in Minnesota

(Note: video may take a few seconds to load)