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Wolves force Elk over a 20 foot fall...
Wolves force Elk over a 20 foot fall...
Apparently Wolves in the Riding Mountain know to force animals over the cliff... trail camera was set up to catch their technique.
They learned that from the Nez Perce...
In summer, wolves turn their attention to deer and even rodents, Smith said. Over the course of a year, an average wolf will kill and consume 16-22 elk per year.— mostly with other pack members.
So 100 wolves in Colorado will kill 1600 to 2200 elk per year. 200 wolves, double that, 300 wolves, triple that. 400 wolves, well you get the point. Not the end of the world but the elk's world will surely change and how we hunt them might also.
“ They learned that from the Nez Perce...”
Or maybe vice-versa??
I just Googled Nez Perce, a tribe of 3500 from Idaho.
Here, the deer are always on alert. They pick us out not because they are worried about us but while watching for wolves, they see us. One study showed( Summer ), after the fawning period, some wolves can go a month and a half without catching any thing more than a coon or small game. Fawns learn to evade predators, but not all. Blue berries make up for the lack of prey animals they don't catch. Summer is the leanest time of year for wolves. Most likely why hunters do so good during Fall baited Wolf hunts.
Wolf with Bear cub...
Wolf with Bear cub...
When prey animals are low in population Wolves will go after Bear cubs.This picture was taken where the deer population is low and no wolf hunting allowed. Northern Minnesota trail cam. Some states and provinces give out a low number of Bears tags..... so they can feed the wolves maybe?? After awhile new born cubs will learn to climb a tree if danger is near.
In our one of our Northern Bear Management areas, the moose population was very low. Deer population was not good either. Wolves moved into this site as it was easy food for them. We kept baiting the wolves all Spring and Fall as we were planning a fall wolf hunt. By the next Spring all the pups died.
I put a trail cam on the same bait right away the following Spring. The male and female showed up right away but after a few weeks of them visiting the site, they were never accompanied by a single pup from the year before.
Wolf Den
Wolf Den
This wolf den was less than an 1/8 of a mile from the bear bait.... where she had her pups.
Does parvo affect wolves?
Wolves can be affected by Parvo Virus.... but rarely.
In northern Wisconsin wolves are known to dig bears out of their winter dens and kill them. In addition to deer numbers being decimated in some areas, bear numbers are also down significantly. Wolves need to be managed.
Wolf dung with Bear claw
Wolf dung with Bear claw
This picture was taken about 8 years ago when wolves were out of hand in Northern BMA. Might have been a wounded bear that we couldn't find or a nuisance bear shot and thrown away or a wolf bear fight going the wrong way for the bear.
Obviously this elk is very old, diseased and injured.
I’m from Minnesota as well. When the wolves get on a bait they really can mess things up. Sows won’t bring their cubs around. Small bears are harassed constantly. So what you have left is a few big ones that are too damn smart to kill. If you do not recover a bear right away good chance the wolves will have beat you to it.
Wolves moved into this site and hung out near it day and night. Fortunately here we can hunt wolves as we took three adults out of this site in the Fall.
Spike buck. In my corner of Minnesota summer seems to be easy living for wolves. Hardly ever see droppings without beaver fur. As few moose as we have these days I still see plenty of moose hair in droppings especially in the spring. Had a pic of one this fall carrying what appeared to be a woodchuck at a bear bait.
Both these wolves were taken in Oct the year this pic was taken. See the treestand in the background.
I’ve also read somewhere plenty of collared bears are killed by wolves while hibernating. Seems highly likely. I’ve found hibernating bears partially exposed in the winter. Seems like they would be very vulnerable in a den.
Such cool animals, I've hunted deer in wolf country for the past 14 seasons, I've only seen one, shot him, and only got trail cam pics of one other
This Wolf knew that the bucket was held by a rope. So he tried to get at the rope. I hung the bait at this site to keep some bait for the bears. We now do not have issues with wolves in this area.
About 10 years ago a guy had a bear bait site 10 miles from where I live here in Minnesota. He posted a picture where you could count 13 wolves on his site.
Last week a neighbor across the road from me called and said during the morning coffee break a string of 10 wolves just went through their back yard.
This fall I was consistently getting pics of a pack of 5 on my trail cams. I shot a deer about 10 before end of legal hunting time this fall - it only went 100 yards and tipped over. I went back the next morning and was going to put a trail cam on the gut pile - the pile was completely gone.
I pulled the chip from my camera where the buck came out onto my food plot when I shot it. I had a pack of 5 wolves on it at 11PM that same night.
Spike Buck, what do you think happened to the pups if it wasn’t Parvo?
Brijake, Starvation.... lack of prey animals. When they rely on a Bear Bait to survive, means no other foods avail.
I am not a biologist, but what I figured out about wolves, I learned from trail cams and years of observing their habits.
Biologist are paid, must come to a conclusion. They have a deadline to conclude. Long term outfitters have years of learning with no deadline to conclude. Trail cams helped me out alot on figuring what the wolves are up to. Also, many studies done on wolves confirmed what I was noticing.
