Wolves in B.C.
- Thread starter MTM
- Start date
Prince Rupert has a huge problem with wolfes that is not only being ignored but also encouraged . I'm not talking wolfes in the forests close to town , I'm talking in town during daylight without a care in the world . ( with the deers and coyotes ) . Many dog owners have lost their pets while tied up , in fenced yards and right in front of them while on walks . At the end of last summer a group of golfers had to use their clubs to keep a pack of eight at bay so I'm told . Personally I can only see it getting worse , Rupert is chalk full of eco geek commie tree hugging bleeding heart ndp/liebrals that completely run the show .
Having a large in town deer population was always an issue but recent local changes ( within 10 years ) have created an environment that benefits preditors . A local wildlife rehab shelter has been established in town who feed not only the deer but these hunters as well . Add this problem is the Village of Port Edward extending their boundary's . Not so long ago hunters used Rupert's surounding area's for hunting , now it is all no hunting . IMO it gave the wolfes a safe haven to grow and breed and like any wild animal they will take the easiest food source . Unfortunately it just happens to be in town .
Only a matter of time before some little one is in the wrong place at the wrong time , then the sh%t will hit the fan .
Having a large in town deer population was always an issue but recent local changes ( within 10 years ) have created an environment that benefits preditors . A local wildlife rehab shelter has been established in town who feed not only the deer but these hunters as well . Add this problem is the Village of Port Edward extending their boundary's . Not so long ago hunters used Rupert's surounding area's for hunting , now it is all no hunting . IMO it gave the wolfes a safe haven to grow and breed and like any wild animal they will take the easiest food source . Unfortunately it just happens to be in town .
Only a matter of time before some little one is in the wrong place at the wrong time , then the sh%t will hit the fan .
MillerTime
Member
- Location
- Saskatchewan
This fall when moose hunting in Meadow Lake Provincial Park in Saskatchewan there was a very notiable increase in wolf sign compared to a couple of years ago. There also were not the numbers of deer or moose that we have seen in previous years.
Heard a few stories of the wolves also becoming very brave around people up there too.
Heard a few stories of the wolves also becoming very brave around people up there too.
BC Bigbore
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- BC's Peace Country
We saw three wolves on a side road just off the highway before that little summit on our way into Rupert back in September. We saw another on the way home going through the Pine Pass. The guys at work see them quite regularly. Lottsa wolves here in BC for sure.
maltextract
Regular
- Location
- Rural Manitoba
Lets just remember, before all the fear-mongering and outright lies come out in even more force, that there has been 1, repeat, 1 fatal wolf attack in Canada since we started actually recording and investigating such attacks. The wolves involved in that attack had been habituated by a garbage dump, and he was walking alone at night.
As for the "1 dead wolf = 20 more deer for us to shoot" thats total bull. Do you actually know what wolves eat? try examining some wolf crap you find, its not usually chock full of moose hair and wedding rings, its a mixture, a lot of small bones, mostly mice, some rabbit maybe, if the pack is lucky maybe some deer hair might be evident. Do wolves eat deer, yes, mostly sick, and old, or young and slow. Do wolves eat moose and elk, see " eat deer". Do wolves kill cattle, sometimes, kinda the same behavior though with deer, old or young, sick and slow. Most cattle kills have some special circumstance's to them as well, ie calving, or new born, or maybe an injury. Also, farmers that find a dead cow, that could have died from any number of ailments or circumstances, that the coyotes have then been chewing on for a night, blame it on the evil wolves. "Killed 10 cows last night I tell ya what, ripped the throats out, drank there blood, and left them there, golly, better start shooting every canine like creature i see!" For lack of deer see winterkill.
Now i get to watch the flames roll in.
No it isn't. And that's been studied many times.
Nobody said that's the ONLY thing it eats. But to suggest that wolves eat mostly mice and the odd rabbit, and only occasionally get a deer or other ungulate is pretty silly. Do you have any idea how many mice that would be per day?
And the idea that they focus on old and sick is a bit of a myth as well. Yes, they will tend to get ones that are 'easier' than the others which does include the old, sick and young (young is bad for us btw. You realize where big deer come from right? ) but it's a long way from exclusive.
Well sure. Say something as ridiculous as 'wolves don't really each much deer' and i have no doubt people are going to make the odd comment about it
But at least you're aware of it. 
You're smokin weed if you think wolves are fun lovin' creatures. There have not been any reported fatal wolf attacks because man has shot wolves on sight for the last 200 years.
Do you know that coyotes are attacking small dogs on leashes being walked by their owners in the ravines in Toronto? Their arrogance is tolerated and that is why this crap is happening.
Did you know that the whole Gaspé area in Québec was basically deerless less than 10 years ago? Do you know why? Because large eastern coyotes had overrun the whole area and basically eliminated the deer. Deep snow made the deer easy pickings for an otherwise "harmless" predator. Only through bands of many hunters going out every winter and culling the darn yotes, did we see the deer come back and seasons for deer hunting restored.
Wolves and coyotes will kill anything they think they can kill without fear of being killed themselves. That includes us!
They still fear man because man had given them reason to be feared. Once that's gone, a small child will be easy pickings for wolves running amuck in a town. These wolf feeders are utter fools!
Do you know that coyotes are attacking small dogs on leashes being walked by their owners in the ravines in Toronto? Their arrogance is tolerated and that is why this crap is happening.
Did you know that the whole Gaspé area in Québec was basically deerless less than 10 years ago? Do you know why? Because large eastern coyotes had overrun the whole area and basically eliminated the deer. Deep snow made the deer easy pickings for an otherwise "harmless" predator. Only through bands of many hunters going out every winter and culling the darn yotes, did we see the deer come back and seasons for deer hunting restored.
Wolves and coyotes will kill anything they think they can kill without fear of being killed themselves. That includes us!
They still fear man because man had given them reason to be feared. Once that's gone, a small child will be easy pickings for wolves running amuck in a town. These wolf feeders are utter fools!
I spent a couple hours trailing seven or so wolves who had tagged a deer and now were dogging it until she gave out..........lots of blood in the snow you couldn't see she had been hit low..........seven wolves in a small drainage will kill a deer or two a night on average especially fawns which is what they typically run here.
I find that when we have a more "open" winter, meaning little snow, the wolves spend more time running deer rather than moose and they run every night until the snow moves them onto fairer game.
Almost everywhere I hunted this fall had wolf sign. I missed a big SOB in October dammit!
Years ago I spent a couple hours trailing a big buck. His tracks suggested I jumped him so I gave up and went looking elsewhere. In the afternoon I was pissed about blowing that buck so investigated further ended up jumping two wolves off of him. I could easily be swayed to hating the SOB's.
I find that when we have a more "open" winter, meaning little snow, the wolves spend more time running deer rather than moose and they run every night until the snow moves them onto fairer game.
Almost everywhere I hunted this fall had wolf sign. I missed a big SOB in October dammit!
Years ago I spent a couple hours trailing a big buck. His tracks suggested I jumped him so I gave up and went looking elsewhere. In the afternoon I was pissed about blowing that buck so investigated further ended up jumping two wolves off of him. I could easily be swayed to hating the SOB's.
there was a coment that there was only one human death cotributed to wolves but I know of 2 as there was all so one recently that was kept hush hush as they were pen raised wolves in jasper the girl went in the pen and got ate The area that I guide in by Dease Lake was getting thick with wolves last year and this year was over run seen a couple but my hunters missed. in the valley that our base is in the one morning there was 15 to 20 wolves howling around us seen 2 on the moonlight but none when it was light enough to shoot as usial
Wolves and mice??
The fellow that said all that garbage about wolves eating mice and rabbits, instead of ungulates, and then only the sick and the old, is what is known as an "armchair expert."
He obviously has had no personal experience with wolves and has gleaned his "knowledge" about it from books, written by people who knew no more than he does!
The fellow that said all that garbage about wolves eating mice and rabbits, instead of ungulates, and then only the sick and the old, is what is known as an "armchair expert."
He obviously has had no personal experience with wolves and has gleaned his "knowledge" about it from books, written by people who knew no more than he does!
- Location
- Grande Prairie, Alberta
I will shoot em to, always can use another rug
I hunted the Mesilinka off Omineca reach and I saw the effects of too many wolves.. First time up in '91 we saw cow and calf moose every day.. different spots along the river.. no wolf sign.. lots of grizzly as well. 93' we saw cow moose no calf. No grizzly sign and much black bear.. 95' we saw 1 cow moose.. no calves.. no bear and two packs of wolves. One had 18 and the other had 21.. counted right from camp. They were running the river banks at the same time.. anything jumped and crossing the river figuring they were getting away was doomed.. If I could have shot 800 yards I would have. 97' saw no cow moose.. and only 1 pack of wolves numbering 19. Killed 3 wolves that year, one on the power line near Wasi lake.. 99' again no cows.. killed 4 wolves.. pack of 13 made the mistake of jumping out in front of us at 50 yards on the road.. lotta shooting for 2 guys. Haven't been back since 2004 as the moose populations were so low it seemed a waste of time to drive for 21 hours on a 10 day hunt to see maybe a moose or 2.. I did manage to kill one wolf for every moose I took so I figure I was doing my own management. I hope the moose populations are up..figuring on maybe giving another go this coming year. Nice country.. tough hunting
death junkie
I was back on saunders behind Kitimat a few yrs ao on my atv and stopped for a smoke. a little while and a wolf crossed in front of me..I thought "wow. first wolf I,ve ever seen in the wild" A couple seconds later another wolf crossed..and then another..and then another,,6 in all. I fired up the quad and headed back to town. I was alone and it was winter and didn,t want to be out there with a breakdown and not have a gun.
Last yr ..same road.. 2 wolves ..this time..very close to town.
They,re out there and there,s lots of them.
Gord in BC
I was back on saunders behind Kitimat a few yrs ao on my atv and stopped for a smoke. a little while and a wolf crossed in front of me..I thought "wow. first wolf I,ve ever seen in the wild" A couple seconds later another wolf crossed..and then another..and then another,,6 in all. I fired up the quad and headed back to town. I was alone and it was winter and didn,t want to be out there with a breakdown and not have a gun.
Last yr ..same road.. 2 wolves ..this time..very close to town.
They,re out there and there,s lots of them.
Gord in BC
Wolves
It's the same in the Shuswap and Okanagon region.We are seeing wolf tracks in all the mulie wintering areas where we've never seen them before.This may be because of the increase in the moose population but it does not bode well for the mountain caribou which are already hanging on by a thread.Region 8(Okanagon) does not have a wolf season as the Regional Biologist will not allow one.It's either too much of a political hot potato for him or he truly believes there aren't any!I have recently seen tracks of three different packs in Region 8,one of which had 10-13 animals.I'll be hunting them in Region 3 this winter because "There aren't any in Region 8"! Mur
It's the same in the Shuswap and Okanagon region.We are seeing wolf tracks in all the mulie wintering areas where we've never seen them before.This may be because of the increase in the moose population but it does not bode well for the mountain caribou which are already hanging on by a thread.Region 8(Okanagon) does not have a wolf season as the Regional Biologist will not allow one.It's either too much of a political hot potato for him or he truly believes there aren't any!I have recently seen tracks of three different packs in Region 8,one of which had 10-13 animals.I'll be hunting them in Region 3 this winter because "There aren't any in Region 8"!
Mur
A local outfitter stopped on a line with a client to call moose and have a cook up and before he knew it he was surrounded by a pack of 8 wolves.
He and his client had to pop 4 before the pack would frig off.
There was no snow at this time (mid- Sept). Why would they be so agressive? Thet wouldn't have been short of food.
He and his client had to pop 4 before the pack would frig off.
There was no snow at this time (mid- Sept). Why would they be so agressive? Thet wouldn't have been short of food.
Northman999
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Yukon
Lots more wolf sign where I hunt moose up north as well. Now I usually see as much wolf sign as moose sign. A few years back my wife and father and I were at our moose camp on the river and a pack of six wolves came along the far side, about 425 yards away. When they got parralel to us we cow called and they stopped cold. After a while they got bored and started to play with each other and basically act like dogs. We watched them for about half an hour until the huge alpha male rounded them up and they kept on down the river. I told a conservation officer about it and he told me I maybe should have taken some of them as he says a pack of six wolves will eat one moose a week if it can. Kind of makes you wonder how much a larger pack of 20 animals will eat.
