BC wolf hunters...info needed,please enlighten me!

[H4831]

Doug Larson's work on bear predation in the Yukon is the research benchmark on moose mortality. Everyone should read it.

Ted

Ted, I think it was his study I looked at, but grizzly bears were in the mix, also, and since this was just about black bears, I suggested the Saskatchewan study.
Even the biologists were surprised at how heavy was the predation on moose calves, by black bears.

 

[Iron Sighted]

I was hunting between Tumbler ridge and Chetwyn in an area called Moose Lk.
I didn't take pics of the wolf cause it was really messed up, one through the spine and one thru the head.
I was talking to the same logger and he said the last 2 winters had very little snow, so the wolves have had little problem feeding. He said this year it is rare to see an Elk cow with a calf so the Elk have been taking a huge hit too.
H4831 I look forward to re-education camp!!!

Just moved to Tumbler Ridge, first day on the job today, and when I get my rifle and reloading gear sent to me all wolves and coyotes had best be keeping a low profile : ) Just started hunting last year, only one deer to my name in my short career so far, but I'd be happy to have a few wolf/yote pelts to add. Primarily looking for moose and elk, but plan on shooting any wolf I cross paths with this coming season.

 

[Why not?]

Ted, I think it was his study I looked at, but grizzly bears were in the mix, also, and since this was just about black bears, I suggested the Saskatchewan study.
Even the biologists were surprised at how heavy was the predation on moose calves, by black bears.

Yes, Larson's study included predation by both bears on moose. Two out of every three calves born in Spring are dead by Fall. IIRC, there was almost equal predation by black and grizzly bear. I need to read it again.

Ted

 

[c-fbmi]

On the respectable side Wolves make incrediabley efficient use of a carcass generally consuming 100%.

I hunted moose in a valley, here in the Yukon, where there were 6 fresh wolf kills in a 2 mile area (that we found, probably more) and not one had been eaten more than about 30% worth.
It seems that where prey is plentiful they do not bother to clean up, they just make another kill. There was a pack of 12 wolves working this valley and from what we could make of the sign, they were killing at least a moose a day or more. There was a bush airstrip in this valley with a fresh kill on one end one day and the next morning there was a fresh kill on the other end. Neither one more than 20% eaten, it was just wanton wholesale slaughter. I realize this "flies in the face" of general thinking but I know what I saw and it was disgusting.

To the poster that said there is no way to tell a wolf kill from a bear kill or death from natural causes, once it has been scavenged, I have to say I disagree. These were all wolf kills and were fresh, all within the week I was there. Not a single bear track on the kills or even sign of bears in the whole valley, in fact the miner working that creek said he figured the wolves ran off the 3 grizzlies that had been living there, for the past 4 years. He said that since the wolves moved in, in August he hadn't seen a bear, only the 12 wolves. I can also tell you there was nothing natural about these moose deaths, you don't have to be a forensic scientist to see they were without a shadow of a doubt wolf kills.

Unfortunately I was bowhunting and did not have a rifle or I would have thinned that pack by at least 1/2 if not every single one, if I could have.

 

[tootall]

Doug Larson's work on bear predation in the Yukon is the research benchmark on moose mortality. Everyone should read it.

Ted

If anyone is interested in forming an understanding of wolf behavior and ecology you cannot Beat David Meech's work. HD might be keen to review the near exhaustive examination of wolf kill carcass data so he can diffrentiate between a grizzly cached fawn and a wolf cached fawn.

Meech's work gives a very good overview of how the machine runs that wolves oil.

These guys?

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=241&issue_id=42

http://www.davemech.org/books.html

 

[tootall]

BTW, how is the wolf hunting in Region 3?
I dont have the time to do a long hunt way up north in region 7, so its probalby going to be weekender in region 3. That shows either a bag limit of 3 or NBL, depending on the MU.
But the theoretical limit and whether they really are there is often not the same.
So lets hear from the guys from around 3-32 or 3-33.

 

[H4831]

I think there are areas in region 3 where wolves are quite plentiful, but not like further north. Wolves are very hard to hunt, anywhere, even when they are plentiful.
Are there any short cuts, like can it be proven that wolves will come to a predator call? Or did they come once to someones call, more by chance than anything else?
A couple of days ago a lady at her hobby farm in the Shuswap had a sheep killed by a predator. The next day she thought she heard someone at her door. She opened the door, and there stood a big cougar!
Conservation was called and in there great knowledge of wildlife, placed a bear live trap on her propery to catch the cougar!