Is there somewhere to have a rational discussion about wolves?

pounder said:
I used to hunt ( shoot ) wolves on full moon nights. I would put out a gut /bait pile on a lake and then time then until the moon was bright enough to see. Then sit at my bench on my deck and wait. Over the moon if the weather was good I could get 3 or 4 in a month. Money from the hides paid for the heat in my house for the winter. And I know this is shooting not hunting.
pounder
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with your method and I'd 100% consider it hunting.
 
In Region 8 between Lumby and Monte Creek there are a few packs that people from both my F&G Clubs have seen.

One up on King Eddy > Aberdeen Plateau, another up around Westwold. Also seen around Armstrong back towards Enderby.
Deer numbers (Whitetail and Mule) are down, unless you want to hit the Whitetail in my back yard in Vernon with a shovel.....
 
Pounder is the real deal, many have stories like that but his will be true. I shoot an average of two to three a year, have trapped many more. During particularly heavy trap lining I’ve seen the population drop in a large area of the boreal, and it’s still not back to where it was seven or eight years later. Wolves also move so much they give the impression of far higher population densities through tracks. A similar thing happened with boreal Grizzlies in an area I worked for quite a few years, local workers would talk about how many Grizzlies there were “Saw one at km55, then tues another big boar at 120” etc. I flew there and knew the bears well by sight; there were three resident and one boar who moved in seasonally in thousands of square kms. They just hike 100kms routinely there, wolves travel even more. This said, there are definitely more wolves in the boreal than Grizzlies, by a huge factor.

They’re also nowhere near as big as their tracks make people think, they have “snowshoes” and feet far larger for their weight than domestic dogs. They vary greatly in size, the coastal wolves I’ve hunted outfitting are lighter than the boreal flatland wolves of NE BC and NW Alberta. Wolves lead knife edge lives, the ultimate boom and bust. We’ve made a boom for them in the north with resource roads and seismic cuts, clear cuts, etc. Not sure where the long term trend will head but I’ll be the odd man out and guess it won’t be great for the wolves by a hundred years from now. Look how they disappear around urban areas and were rendered all but extinct in the lower 48 for a long time. It’s possible. The boreal is a big battery for wolves that has a lot of life in it, but it’s changing and in a century may too become more suited to coyotes. Starting to see them in previously pure wolf areas up north. General musings here, interesting subject I don’t have the time for presently.

Client and good fellow CGN’ers son’s wolf we hunted last season.

MkFFCcC.jpg
 
Last edited:
This guy would come around the house every other day,my dog would not go off the deck when he was around. He would mark on some rocks and the corner of the shop,so I would mark on top of his then he would come and take a dump on my mark,I was not about to dump on his.He never really caused us any problems although my dog may beg to differ. I never did shoot him had no need to.
pounder
xFsRRan.jpg
 
Last edited:
Gatehouse said:
Hunters shooting random wolves won't reduce the population. Only thing individuals can do without a government program is organized legal trapping. Fund a trapper is something that is starting up in BC right now. Organizations can only lobby the government to do something, and government won't do a general wolf cull, so it's up to individuals to do something about it.
Click to expand...

What he says...plinking off a wolf or two has no affect on wolf numbers...other than making them more reclusive and wary of human activity. Proper wolf control requires eliminating the whole pack. This was often accomplished by shooting groups from aircraft and such when caught out in the open as on a lake,.
 
I had one walking straight at me along a trail while deer hunting this year. I had actually bought a tag but I was so in awe when I saw it I didn't even raise my rifle. Beautiful animal...next one goes up on the wall.
 
I wonder if, like coyotes, wolf litters increase in size when hunting pressure or predation increases. If that's the case, shooting a couple here and there might actually help the numbers. :)
 
Rugdoc said:
The subject of wolves really gets people going.

Despite all the reports of people reporting on this site and others that they see more wolf sign than deer or moose these days, very few report actually seeing any wolves and even fewer report shooting one.

Yet at the same time people say that wolf numbers have to be reduced.

Is it realistic at all to think that hunters can have any impact at all if they aren't seeing them, and even if they do see one or two and shoot them, does that really have an effect on the overall population?

I know in about 30 days in the field last fall despite seeing plenty of sign whenever I was in snow, though I heard some, I never saw one in regions 2, 3 or 8.
Click to expand...
This is an internet forum full of nothing but egos and vicraious hunters. An entire dedicated hunting sub forum and a guy has to search hard to find the single thread new thread of an actual hunt and its form a guy 14000km away haha. If you have facebook or can access it check out 250predator. No shortage of wolves/and coyotes being taken in my general area.
 
RRH.01 said:
This is an internet forum full of nothing but egos and vicraious hunters. An entire dedicated hunting sub forum and a guy has to search hard to find the single thread new thread of an actual hunt and its form a guy 14000km away haha. If you have facebook or can access it check out 250predator. No shortage of wolves/and coyotes being taken in my general area.
Click to expand...

Do you personally know all the individuals in this thread? I don't either, but I don't doubt their claims based on their profession and locale. Some of us prefer to not post pics of everything we kill, that doesn't mean it's just talk.

And if you're going to use a "big word" like vicarious, learn to spell it correctly.
 
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wmon.1026/pdf
Wildlife Monographs
Volume 198, Issue 1, Version of Record online: 26 JUN 2017

AbstractArticleReferences


Effects of Control on the Dynamics of an Adjacent
Protected Wolf Population in Interior Alaska


"Smaller pack sizes and losses of known breeders were associated with lower natality rates per pack in the following year, suggesting human-caused mortality could have direct short-term effects on productivity by reducing pack sizes and removing breeders. However, although control can reduce the fecundity of individual packs in the short term, adjacent populations quickly respond to reduced wolf density by increasing natality rates."
 
I find this statement to be completely false, here in the Ottawa region not only are hunters reporting fewer deer and more wolves but even the public is seeing them. Here in rural Ottawa I now see them on a regular basis in farm fields in fact a farmer I am helping has asked me to stop by every evening with my gun if I have time. Now either the dog population has exploded 1000% in my area or it's wolves and yotes.

Rugdoc said:
The subject of wolves really gets people going.

Despite all the reports of people reporting on this site and others that they see more wolf sign than deer or moose these days, very few report actually seeing any wolves and even fewer report shooting one.

Yet at the same time people say that wolf numbers have to be reduced.

Is it realistic at all to think that hunters can have any impact at all if they aren't seeing them, and even if they do see one or two and shoot them, does that really have an effect on the overall population?

I know in about 30 days in the field last fall despite seeing plenty of sign whenever I was in snow, though I heard some, I never saw one in regions 2, 3 or 8.
Click to expand...
 
greatwhite said:
I find this statement to be completely false, here in the Ottawa region not only are hunters reporting fewer deer and more wolves but even the public is seeing them. Here in rural Ottawa I now see them on a regular basis in farm fields in fact a farmer I am helping has asked me to stop by every evening with my gun if I have time. Now either the dog population has exploded 1000% in my area or it's wolves and yotes.
Click to expand...

Maybe Ottawa, but in backwoods BC you can see wolf tracks in the mud on the road or in the snow for 3 months and never see a wolf.
 
Tracks are seen much more frequently than the wolves that made them, Jan-May is when I mostly see them.

Back in the day Edison Marshall wrote that if difficulty was the sole criteria that the wolf would be the World's top game animal (this guy made months long hunts in BC, Alaska, Africa and Southern Asia). Jack O'Connor wrote something similar.

IMO wolves should be kept at a minimum viable population as the best use for a moose or deer is in a person's belly.
 
The grassroots wolf control movement in BC is chugging right along. Got a gofundme page and everything going. Here's a link if you are on HBC

h ttp://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?142167-Lots-Of-Wolf-Talk-eh
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom