The hunter whose bow and arrow ended the life of the 80-pound animal near Boonville, MO, Tuesday told investigators he thought it was a coyote. Wildlife Regional Supervisor John George believes it was an honest mistake. “Most people in Missouri are going to have some frequency of occurrence with coyotes, they’re quite common. With wolves, the majority of the time it’s probably somebody’s large dog that they’re seeing,” said John George with the Missouri Department of Conservation. The hunter reported his kill to the department of conservation officials who then turned it over to the science division for testing. DNA samples were collected and the animal’s corpse was stored in a freezer. Source.

My sense is that this is probably a hybrid canid, with lots of domestic dog in it.

Same probably is true for the Kentucky reports of “Bearilla.” “Bearilla” is the latest media name invented that hardly means anything in relationship to the reports.