Our wolves that emigrated

Those Who Want Unlimited Wolves Should Consider Reality

Ed Park
1/2/2008

Those who want a wolf behind every bush in American might want to consider news reports from areas that already have lots of wolves.

Late one morning just before Christmas, three ladies and their dogs were out jogging on Fort Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. One lady happened to look back, only to find a pack of eight wolves, close and closing. A dog/wolf fight was joined by the ladies’ screams and pepper spray. The wolves finally backed off, leaving three shaken ladies and one bulldog in need of medical care. As one lady noted, “They were not afraid of us.”

The evening before, in a different area of town, a couple let their schnauzer out in their yard for a few minutes. The dog never returned, and in the morning the couple found nothing but blood and wolf tracks on the snow.

The week before, a man was walking his 75-pound yellow Labrador on a paved road in a new subdivision. A lone wolf attacked the dog, the man rushed in yelling, the wolf hesitated but wouldn’t leave, and man and dog took refuge on a porch, where they were trapped awhile until the wolf left to find an easier meal.

Wolves commonly attack chained-up dogs in Alaska, but the wolves seem to be getting bolder, and now it is common for wolves to go after dogs in broad daylight, even with lots of people around. The wolves’ target seems to be the dogs, so humans are relatively safe, but if you are one of those who wants unlimited numbers of wolves throughout the country, you better not plan on having any pets that weigh less than 100 pounds.
http://www.predatorxtreme.com/breakingnews.asp?NewsID=115
 
Alright, first Mur:
Look at what I said again; I never said ONLY the weak, old and infirmed , I said the pack will hit the easiest target first. I was agreeing with what TheTooner said. Period. Don't put words in my mouth or alter what I said.

Second, Horshur:
I didn't come on here to be ridiculed by anyone. A question was asked and I answered it, based on my own personal experience and knowledge. I never claimed to be the greatest expert on wolves, just what I know. Maybe not as much as others, but I have dealt with the damn things before and in most cases, the problems dealt with a dog/coyote/wolf hybrid or a lone wolf without a pack; NOT a entire pack of purebred wolves. Do you think everyone in the world has the exact same experience with an animal? If you didn't like what I had to say, fine. But show some respect, I'm pretty sure you're not a walking encyclopedia of world knowledge on every topic.

Thirdly:
Salty, I never claimed to have an answer that fits for every region of Canada and America. The comment I made was based on the idea of a singular pack hunting that area. If it splits or more packs come into the area, my previous comment no longer applies to the situation. As for the area you're talking about, I know nothing about it. Are they hunting the wolves? I support that. Have the wolves been breeding with dogs? Is there an overabundance of packs? As I said, a singular pack will only grow so large, I never claimed to know how many packs will try to hunt the same area.

I came onto this site to learn from others and also share my own knowledge with others. I'll be the first to admit I'm not the world's most knowledgeable guy on animal species. But I'll tell you this, if I disagreed with someone on a matter, I didn't go off topic to insult the guy just for S&^%s and Giggles. I've always maintained a polite courtesy on this site, and I would hope that this would be shown back to me. If you have a problem with something I say, please correct me in a courteous manner, don't insult me.

And for the person who sent me the anonymous E-mail, I wish I could find out who you were and let everyone know what an insulting, disgusting, vulgar person you really are. I only hope someone treats you as you've treated me.
 
Tyger75,please don't think I was aiming comments at you in particular,I run into all kinds of opinions on wolves,some I agree with,some I do not.I too,am only remarking on my own personal experiences.Most of the areas I hunt in BC have more than their share of wolves as does the area I live in.My remarks are aimed more at the type of people who have NO experience with wolves or their habits and who seem to think that they are somewhat like a large inoffensive doggie,rather than the efficient killers that they actually are! Mur
 
About those wolves

I started this thread, just to point out how well the transplanted wolves have done. But wow, anything about wolves has legs of its own and sure gets carried away. No one should lose their cool over it, howver, because it is a very controversial subject.
I know something about wolves, from a practical point of view. I stated on some thread here before, that I participated in the great wolf control (poisoning) program that took place in British Columbia in the 1950s. The whole thing was under control of a biologist, with field men staioned over many centres in north central BC. As well as killing wolves, much was learned about wolves. I am just going to state facts here that we learned, or observed during the campaign.
At the start of the program the biologist in charge gave the field men bags, with which they gathered the wolf droppings, to be later analysed to see what the wolves were eating. Surprise! In an area with moose, they ate moose!
Later, the biologist gave them bags to collect marrow from moose the wolves had killed. I flew game department personnel on these trips dropping baits, including when they were gathering marrow. When we saw where the wolves had killed a moose, we would land and see if we could find a splintered piece of leg bone that had some marrow left. From the air a moose kill, when the wolves are done with it, is just a big, flattened out, padded down circle in the snow. We would examine the multitude of small pieces of splintered bone, to see if any had marrow on them.
Twice we came across wolves that had just recently killed a moose and were all there enjoying their feast. From those moose it was easy to get marrow!
When the program was over, about five years after it started, all the hundreds of samples of marrow collected was sent to a lab for testing. The purpose was to find out how healthy the moose had been when the wolves were killed. This collection of marrow from dead moose was gathered over a very vast area of BC. Thus, what the samples revealed should be quite significant. I don't have the exact figures, put the overwhelming majority of the moose were in a healthy condition when the wolves killed them! This data should be available yet, somewhere in the archives of the game department.
There is a chapter on wolves and about this control program in the book, Outposts and Bushplanes, published by Hancock House Publishers.
 
Couple of things to also keep in mind. There are not always sick or old or young animals but the pack has to eat. Enough said. Also to keep in mind that you are looking at a system that has functioned well for millions of years but seems not to do well when humans get involved. Imagine that eh? Also after working with several of Canadas prominent biologists in the 60s I became aware that not all of them actually spend much time studying the animals in the field. Often it is the hunters that supply them with valuable insights from hunting and other exposures and hunting club members. Also heard a report from wildlife officers in New Brunswick about a new breed of Coyote that is apparently a hybrid of wolf/coyote breeding and has produced a breeding population of large smart coyotes and the population is spreading into Ontario and parts of Quebec as of last year. The times, they are a-changin. Gotta make up more 223 loads.
 
Back to tyger75: Sorry to hear some #### sent you a flame email. Other than that, please don't let the sometimes lively discussion here get to you down. Most of what goes back and forth is a little on the teasing side I find but not a slag...

Anyways on some of your questions on wolves out here:

-Wolf hunting varies in BC from region to region but in most of the province right now you can hunt wolves most of the year with no special tag, just your basic hunting licence.

-I know of a small pack of hybrids that used to exist in the populated area of central/east vancouver island. No where else in BC have I heard of hybrids that lived in the wild in a pack. Most of BC is wilderness albeit probably logged at least once. But with no resident humans or dogs for 100s of kms.

-Overabundance of packs in BC? I'd definitely say so in many areas including where I look out the window right now. Although in my experience I've seen more wolves in smaller goups of less than 5 say; than in large packs. I have seen packs of over 30 up north near Ft Nelson though.


H4831 said:
I started this thread, just to point out how well the transplanted wolves have done. But wow, anything about wolves has legs of its own and sure gets carried away. No one should lose their cool over it, howver, because it is a very controversial subject.
Click to expand...

You got that one right :D
 
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