Naturalists from Kingsport's Bays Mountain Park are still hoping to capture a timber wolf that escaped from the park after a Dec. 3 storm toppled a tree onto a fence that surrounded the "wolf habitat."

Ken Childress, the lead naturalist at Bays Mountain Park, said Kawoni, a four-and-a-half year old female timber wolf, was believed to again be near the park's boundary.

On Christmas Day, the wolf had been observed, and photographed by Greene County resident Sandy Kolarsky, along Ryan Road in northern Greene County some five miles from the park's southern boundary.

But since then, Childress said, Kawoni had made her way back to an area near the park in Sullivan County. He noted that area residents had reported multiple sightings.

On Thursday, Childress said naturalists hoped to capture Kawoni by placing a tranquilizing drug in food and placing it in an area where she has been seen recently.

Childress said the drug has been used in a similar fashion in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to recapture red wolves that were released there.

But the location and fate of a second wolf that escaped the park in December remains a mystery, according to Childress.

He said on Thursday that Adahy, a two-and-half-year-old male timber wolf remained inside the park, although outside the wolf habitat, for about three weeks after the Dec. 3 storm that damaged the habitat's fence.

But since then, Childress said Adahy has not been seen either inside, or outside, the park. "His tracks just disappeared," Childress said.

He noted that Adahy may have met with an accident outside the park.

But he said park personnel are still hoping that Adahy may reappear and be recaptured.

A notice posted on the park's Web site states that the park remains closed.

"Due to recent storm damage to our Wolf Habitat, Bays Mountain Park is currently closed until further notice. We will reopen as soon as we have restored the integrity of the enclosure. Please call (423) 229-9447 for updated park closure information.

"Please understand that our wolves do not pose a threat to anyone in the surrounding areas of the park. The closure of the park is simply for the safety of our wolves and to help facilitate their safe return to the enclosure. Any wolf sightings should immediately be reported to Bays Mountain Park. Do not attempt to capture or approach the wolf."

Bays Mountain Park features a 3,500-acre nature preserve and a 44-acre lake.

It is the largest city-owned park in Tennessee, according to its Web site.

The park also features a nature center with a state-of-the-art planetarium theater, and animal habitats featuring wolves, bobcats, raptors and reptiles.