Sitting on a log on a mid-December morning last year in the woods near Cooperstown, Brian, a 22-year-old deer hunter, heard rustling behind him.

“I looked over my shoulder and there’s a huge ‘dog’ looking at me dead in my eyes,” he recalled.

What he thought was a large coyote had its nose to the ground and appeared to be stalking him around 7:30 a.m. Scared, the hunter aimed his muzzleloader and fired at the animal that was 15 yards away.