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

B.C big bore IMHO that was great 'wildlife management' why kill off 5 nice pieces of fur in may and get nothing when a trapper could buy a new 2nd hand sled in january with the money from them. Wolves are a resource both for fur value and recreational hunting no sense killing them out of prime unless you plan on dropping calves in thier lap.

This gets to a bit of the root of the problem here. If there are so many wolves running amok why are they not being scooped up in buckets by the trap line holders? Maybe what we need is another avenue for residents to access trapping privilages?

Or maybe we need a few less linear corridors for wolves to hunt on? Maybe we need a few less snomobile trails to wintering areas?
 
Hey, you guys shoot all the wolves, (like I said I totally understand why) I don't even have my CORE yet, been sticking to targets for now. New gun nut and all... There's also the difficulty of convincing the ol' lady that I should be allowed to 'murder' (whiney voice) an animal for it's tasty insides...



I seriously just want to see one, and we are considering going north on a road trip before winter sets in!

Being a lover of man's best friend, it doesn't factor into keeping population at sustainable levels.

You kill it, you grill it got engrained into me from my step dad, that's all.
 
BC Bigbore said:
I know I'm going catch hell for this, but I've only ever turned down a shot at one wolf. I live on a farm and work full time in a remote area of the north and am very aware of what predators are capable of. I was hunting spring bear in late May a few years back and a lactating female wolf crossed a wide open area within 100 yards of my muzzle. It was a tough decision not to drop the hammer but seeing her "milked up" and hearing her clan squawking and yipping just a little ways into the bush...screw it. "Go feed your kids" I said out loud as I lowered the rifle. She stopped and just stared at me, then turned and carried on trotting towards her pack giving me a couple sideways glances before vanishing into the spruce. Crappy wildlife management on my part? Perhaps. Had it been fall or winter I would have dropped that she-wolf without a second thought but in this instance, I sided with the wolf.
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That's what makes you human, I commend you for that. Sure, those pups will grow up to be predators competing in your area but at least they will have a chance to compete! Starving pups to death by killing a lactating female would probably bring some bad karma. :) cleanly killing the adults next season seems a better alternative.
 
It always amazes me how there's either the "kill 'em all" or "save 'em all" attitude, very few are level headed when it comes to wolf discussions(except BC Bigbore, good attitude).
I've shot quite a few wolves in my life and let more go(sometimes unintentionally :) ). They have their place in nature like all other wildlife and are not some sort of "special" animal, at least in my books.
 
bearkilr said:
It always amazes me how there's either the "kill 'em all" or "save 'em all" attitude, very few are level headed when it comes to wolf discussions(except BC Bigbore, good attitude).
I've shot quite a few wolves in my life and let more go(sometimes unintentionally :) ). They have their place in nature like all other wildlife and are not some sort of "special" animal, at least in my books.
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Yup...trying to talk wolves on internet hunting forums often gets...interesting...:)
 
david doyle said:
never said that, that is something you made up in your head. I said every tom, #### and harry that spend 4 mins a year in the bush. No mention of academic qualifications made.



You fail to notice that I did not give any opinion what I thought the "problem" was. I simply stated that 3rd hand accounts of "wolf kills" by some guy hanging flags on cut lines does not mean SFA other then he told you what you wanted to hear. I also encouraged everyone to get out and kill a couple bears and to enjoy owning a nice piece of wolf fur.

I did not need to read further then your first post any time someone comes along and starts crying about wolves decimating ungulate populations and basing thier blather on nothing I am well with in my rights too call it as I see it.
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As far as I am concerned, the word of a person that works in the forrest and has looked at the carcass' of the winter kills, is good enough for me. It is far more credible than someone who even though asked for his background , to verify his validity as an authority in this matter, has neglected to answer.

I re-read my initial post and cannot see where you read "crying about wolves decimating ungulate populations and basing thier blather on nothing"

Out of curiosity, are you one of those internet kings that do nothing but attack and derail every thread you post in? I ask because you seem well skilled at it thus far.
 
bearkilr said:
It always amazes me how there's either the "kill 'em all" or "save 'em all" attitude, very few are level headed when it comes to wolf discussions(except BC Bigbore, good attitude).
I've shot quite a few wolves in my life and let more go(sometimes unintentionally :) ). They have their place in nature like all other wildlife and are not some sort of "special" animal, at least in my books.
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I have always been a dog lover. With this and being raised to only kill what you intend to eat, unless it is trying to kill you first. I have never felt the desire or need to shoot a wolf. I have also never looked down upon someone who has or does.
Big bore, I fully agree with you letting the lactating she wolf go feed her pups. There is a difference between a humane kill and letting pups starve to death. My hat goes off to you.
 
hitch.bd said:
I have always been a dog lover. With this and being raised to only kill what you intend to eat, unless it is trying to kill you first. I have never felt the desire or need to shoot a wolf. I have also never looked down upon someone who has or does.
Big bore, I fully agree with you letting the lactating she wolf go feed her pups. There is a difference between a humane kill and letting pups starve to death. My hat goes off to you.
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OK, that's fine and I certainly have no problem with that providing you extend the same courtesy to other animals which meet your criteria, including coyote, fox,etc.
 
bearkilr said:
OK, that's fine and I certainly have no problem with that providing you extend the same courtesy to other animals which meet your criteria, including coyote, fox,etc.
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Exact same attitude! Not even a squirl has been harmed because of this belief.
My list of hunting successes has been relitively limited for this reason.
Mule deer
Moose
Grouse
Ptarmigan
Rabbit
now wolf.
 
As far as I am concerned, the word of a person that works in the forrest and has looked at the carcass' of the winter kills, is good enough for me.
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It is not. Plain and simple. Some portion may have been wolf killed, all my have been scavanged by canines but working in the forest does not qualify someone to assign cause of death to carcass.


I re-read my initial post and cannot see where you read "crying about wolves decimating ungulate populations and basing thier blather on nothing"
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yes you did it is right here:
there were altogether too many wolves in the area to see any moose.
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Clearly you were basing your lack of moose sightings on wolf numbers. The reality could have been that the moose were doing whatever they could to stay out of the 32 degree heat you mentioned. Moose do not exactly stay in valley bottoms and suffer like idiots when there are better options available.

far more credible than someone who even though asked for his background , to verify his validity as an authority in this matter, has neglected to answer.
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Despite the fact that I have not offered any indication that I know more about wolves then the average joe you seem rather curious about my qualifications so feel free to PM for a CV and I'll detail my education and 12 years of field and professional biology and at least 500 hours a year for 25 years hunting . None of it makes me any more qualified to assign cause of death to an ungulate carcass then the average joe. There in lies my point your flag hanger is not either.

are you one of those internet kings that do nothing but attack and derail every thread you post in? I ask because you seem well skilled at it thus far.
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If you wanted your thread to be a long boring series of invalid blame being laid at the paws of wolves for every ill that befell a hoof I am dearly sorry to have intervened. Playing the wolf card is a cope out for looking at the real picture which is either 1) hunter fails to be in the same place as moose or 2) there is a bigger habit issue at work that is limiting numbers and needs to be addressed.
If we assign hunter success as the end goal in moose management how does wrongly blaming wolves help?



BTW thanks for noticing that I am "well skilled". First compliment of the day. Truth is though derailing threads and calling B.S is merely a side line, baking strawberry pie and killing ungulates is were I am especially "well skilled"!

Thanks also for peaking my curiousity I cannot wait to do a stomach search of the next wolf I see to shoot I am very curious to see just how many mature healthy moose are in there......
 
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BC bigbore, mark down on your calander that when you come into town after the 2nd week of october doyle is having you over for homegrown strawberry pie, coffee and tall tales of the ones that got away. (that is unless a wolf rips me out of my tent in the night and traumatizes me)

Got two gallons of blueberries on our goat hunt so if you promise to bring ice cream I might even share a slice of that.
 
Rugdoc said:
For one thing I'd like to see the real biological data that proves that black bears have any impact at all on deer and moose populations.

Then why don't you contact the Saskatchewan Department of Natural Resources, and ask them about the elaborate studies they made some years ago, maybe fifteen or twenty, about the relationship of black bears and moose in the Saskatachewan River Delta area near Cumberland House.
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Doug Larson's work on bear predation in the Yukon is the research benchmark on moose mortality. Everyone should read it.

Ted
 
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david doyle said:
Thanks also for peaking my curiousity I cannot wait to do a stomach search of the next wolf I see to shoot I am very curious to see just how many mature healthy moose are in there......
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The last wolf stomach I opened had 11 pounds of deer meat and half a scapula. More than one moose might be a stretch, but you'd be surprised how much they can pack in there. The hyaena of the north. :D
 
Quote:
As far as I am concerned, the word of a person that works in the forrest and has looked at the carcass' of the winter kills, is good enough for me. It is not. Plain and simple. Some portion may have been wolf killed, all my have been scavanged by canines but working in the forest does not qualify someone to assign cause of death to carcass.

It may not be good enough for you but it is good enough for me.
Quote:
I re-read my initial post and cannot see where you read "crying about wolves decimating ungulate populations and basing thier blather on nothing"

yes you did it is right here:
there were altogether too many wolves in the area to see any moose.

One sentance does not = crying in my book, you are being overly critical

Clearly you were basing your lack of moose sightings on wolf numbers. The reality could have been that the moose were doing whatever they could to stay out of the 32 degree heat you mentioned. Moose do not exactly stay in valley bottoms and suffer like idiots when there are better options available
The first cause mentioned was the heat, the second was the wolves. I listed in order of my opinion of significance.
So now we need to go to a coroner to determine cause of death?!?! I suppose next you will say a carcass burried and pissed on will not be the work of a griz either.
Actually if you check back to the start yet again, the question posed was has anyone ever tried to cash in the supposed bounty from the cattlemans association and how did they do it.
 
Nice choice of colors.

In answer to your original question regarding the bounty. Pretty sure it does not exist. Why not just call them and ask.
However I think it might be legal (confirm this) to sell fur to a lisc buyer if you pay the royalty? If you kill a wolf in it's prime and take the time and energy to do a top knotch skinning job it may be possible (depending on quality of fur and work AND the market price) to turn a couple hundred bucks? Myself I'd rather own the fur then the cash but that is only cause I am prone to chills and favor comfort.
 
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you'd be surprised how much they can pack in there
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For sure they are eating machines, IIRC they require a minimum of 4 ish pounds of meat a day. EDIT Took a look on the shelf and : Meech in 1966 reported .6 moose per wolf per month and Cowan in 1947 working in Alberta reported 1.5 elk per month.
In 1959 Burkholder reported that a pack of 10 wolves killed 13 caribou and 8 moose calves in 35 days.
On the respectable side Wolves make incrediabley efficient use of a carcass generally consuming 100%.

Seems auto accidents took a bigger toll on most prey species though despite the large #s.

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.
 
In our area (north central BC) wolves key on moose as their main prey. They are hunted by most of the local outfitters with the belief that it keeps their numbers in check. I am not in total agreement with this belief. Snow depth and temperature seem more important factors in my experience. Having killed hundreds of moose during my time on the railroad this is my conclusion. When it is extremely cold or really high snow the moose get driven down into the valleys (highest railroad mortality times). Wolves are a factor but like anything in nature there are wheels within wheels and no black and white answers. Wildlife management is a complex science and rarely done properly because the science is inevitably trumped by politics. As an aside our current moose numbers seem about normal. This spring I observed nine moose on a point waiting to cross the lake. There were five cows with four calves which showed good winter survival. There many wolves in this area and this was a deep snow year. Make your own conclusions.
 
david doyle said:
For sure they are eating machines, IIRC they require a minimum of 4 ish pounds of meat a day. EDIT Took a look on the shelf and : Meech in 1966 reported .6 moose per wolf per month and Cowan in 1947 working in Alberta reported 1.5 elk per month.
In 1959 Burkholder reported that a pack of 10 wolves killed 13 caribou and 8 moose calves in 35 days.
On the respectable side Wolves make incrediabley efficient use of a carcass generally consuming 100%.

Seems auto accidents took a bigger toll on most prey species though despite the large #s..
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So that's like saying "sober drivers cause more accidents and fatalities than impaired drivers", statistically speaking. ;)
 
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