'Wolf Sighting' Turns Out To Be Roving Pack Of Saint Bernards: Officials

A woman in Colorado reported seeing wolves, but authorities say there was a decidedly more slobbery explanation.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife received a “report and accompanying video of a possible wolf sighting” on Monday, according to a news release from the Park County Sheriff’s Office, which assisted in investigating the case of the mysterious canines.

The video in question shows large canines traversing a snow-covered landscape from some distance away.

“Based on information the Sheriff has received, it is believed that the sighting was actually a group of large-breed St. Bernard dogs that live in the area and have a documented history of escaping their enclosure in the area,” the release said.

The dogs’ owner also “confirmed the five dogs were running loose” at the same time the sighting occurred.

Gloria Adams, the woman who shot the video, maintains she wasn’t just crying wolf.

“They were chasing the elk when I first spotted them, there were seven WOLVES,” she told HuffPost in an email, adding that the animals she saw had “pointed ears” and were about four miles from where she knows the notorious Saint Bernards live.

But officials don’t believe the animals caught on camera were indeed wolves.

“There are no known wolves in this area,” parks and wildlife spokesperson Travis Duncan told HuffPost in an email. “This area is approximately 100 miles south of the area where we know of an existing pack.”

The sheriff’s office said the distance, along with the “lighting and shadows,” could have made it erroneously appear that the animals were wolves.

It would hardly have been the only time that domestic pets have been mistaken for wildlife. Fluffy dogs have previously inspired reports of lions on the loose in Virginia and Spain. And a woman in California with a Maine coon cat named Spock told HuffPost in 2016 that multiple people had knocked on her door because they were concerned that she was harboring a bobcat.