Anybody who's spent real time in the woods knows that identifying your target is the most important rule of hunting, maybe the only one that absolutely cannot be broken. You don't pull a trigger unless you know exactly what's standing in front of you, plain and simple. Well back on January 16, somebody got that wrong in Colorado and a gray wolf ended up dead because of it.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife just confirmed that the wolf was killed by a licensed hunter who mistook it for a coyote. The details are laid out in the Glenwood Springs Post Independent, and it's the kind of story that makes you shake your head whether you hunt or not.

Wolves are bigger than coyotes, noticeably bigger. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a mature gray wolf can weigh anywhere from 70 to well over 100 pounds while a big coyote in Colorado might push 40 or 45. The tracks are different, the gait is different, the silhouette is different. A wolf stands taller at the shoulder and carries itself nothing like a coyote does. If you've seen both animals in the wild the difference jumps out at you. But if you've only ever seen coyotes, and you're working off a quick visual at distance in low light, I can see how a fellow might make that mistake. Doesn't make it right, but I can see how it happens.

The investigation has been ongoing since January. CPW didn't rush to put information out there, which tells you they were doing the work before making a call. The hunter was licensed, and the wolf was part of Colorado's ongoing wolf reintroduction effort, which adds another layer to the whole thing.

Tell you what though, this is a conversation that every hunter needs to have with themselves before they get into the field. Coyote hunting is legal in Colorado with a small game license, and plenty of people do it. But when you've got wolves on the landscape now, the margin for error on identification got a whole lot thinner. You pull the trigger on a coyote, that's legal. You pull the trigger on a wolf, that's a federal issue and a state issue and a whole lot of trouble you don't want any part of.

My dad taught me to hunt when I was eight years old, and the first thing he ever said to me about a rifle was simple. You don't shoot at movement. You don't shoot at sounds. You shoot at a specific animal that you have positively identified, and you know what's behind it. That lesson has stuck with me through four decades of hunting everything from squirrels to whitetail deer, and it's never once steered me wrong.

Mistakes happen in the woods. People trip and fall, people miss shots, people get turned around. But misidentification is the one mistake that's entirely preventable if you slow down and use your eyes. A wolf and a coyote are not the same animal, and the size difference alone should make you pause.

With wolf reintroduction moving forward in Colorado, every hunter in that state needs to brush up on the differences. Print out a comparison chart. Watch some identification videos. Study the track patterns. It ain't complicated, but it does require a little effort and a lot of discipline when that adrenalin kicks in and you see something moving through the brush.

The woods will test you, and that's just how it is. The question is whether you're patient enough to pass the test.