A Vestavia Hills resident’s Reddit post showing a video of a mysterious canine creature roaming free set online tongues wagging about whether it was a wolf, a wolfdog, a coyote or something else.

Authorities in Vestavia say they know the answer: it’s something else. Specifically, it’s a dog, complete with collar.

“I am aware of some reported sightings of a wolf. I’ve seen the photos of it. And it’s a dog, wearing a dog collar. It’s a domesticated animal,” said Capt. Shane Ware of the Vestavia Hills Police Department. “We’ve got photos and videos of it, and you can clearly see the collar on the dog’s neck. It looks like it’s a mix between a husky and something. Very, very good-looking dog.

“It’s not a wolf.”

While that might be a relief to some, it would seem likely to shock others — the original Reddit post last week was followed up with some very definitely stated opinions about the creature in the original video. Some were sure it was a wolf that was spotted “below Shades Crest to the west of Hwy 31.” The original poster’s headline was “What, the game warden believes to be a wolf…. Seems pretty official to me.”

One poster was absolutely sure it was an Eastern gray wolf and speculated that the Vestavia wolf had been “squeezed out” by development in Georgia and migrated here.

Others thought it might be a wolf-dog — a hybrid animal that used to be popular as a pet.

“That is a poor quality video but could potentially be a dog that has been produced by crossing dogs with wolves in varying percentages,” Marianne Gauldin, the conservation education coordinator of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources wrote in an email to the Lede. “They are known as ‘wolfdogs’ and are legal pets in Alabama. It is not a wild wolf.”

But Ware said that a resident had come forward with a clearer video, which she shared with the city’s animal control department. In that video, the dog was clearly wearing a collar — a detail not easily noticeable if at all, in the original Reddit video.

The resident who brought the clearer video did not want it shared with the public, Ware said.

Neither the dog’s identity nor his ownership was clear.

Alabama used to have native wolves. The red wolf or brush wolf “once inhabited a variety of habitats statewide,” as noted on the website of OutdoorAlabama.com. “Reported on the verge of extinction in Alabama in 1921. Last stronghold was rough, hilly region from Walker County northwestward to Colbert County.”

The site notes that the red wolf was extirpated from Alabama — meaning it was destroyed or completely removed from the state. No other species of wild wolf is known to inhabit Alabama, Gauldin said.