Is a killer wolf still on the loose?

When a lone wolf strolled across the snow-covered ice of Chignik Lake on Tuesday, a ripple of fear went through the village of 100 people halfway down the remote Alaska Peninsula. At other times in other places, the sighting of a wolf near a village in the far reaches of the north would not cause much of a stir, but Chignik Lake has been living a horrible fairy tale. "They figure that's the one that got the girl,'' said Virginia Aleck of the traditional village council. The "girl'' was 32-year-old Candice Berner, who came north from her hometown in Slippery Rock, Penn., to teach in the Alaska Bush. She'd taken a job traveling between a cluster of villages 450 miles southwest of Anchorage to work with children with special needs. Virginia Aleck said Wednesday afternoon she hadn't heard from anyone in Fish and Game since they left with the carcasses of the two dead wolves. "They haven't told us anything,'' she said. On Wednesday, she was planning to try to get Butler on the phone to let him know there was another strange-acting wolf back in the area. Butler was the nearest Fish and Game presence. The wolf, meanwhile, was almost at the door. "He was here yesterday afternoon,'' Aleck said, "broad daylight.'' All night the night before, she added, the village dogs had been barking loudly. The wolf might have been close then, too, but his daylight appearance showed a lack of fear that left everyone in Chignik Lake more than a little edgy. "We saw him yesterday right on the ice,'' said village resident Christi Aleck. "He's still hanging around."...more