Contributors to this thread:
While hunting early one morning last week I heard wolves going crazy, like they were on a feeding frenzy; this was at about 0930 hours. After finishing my morning hunt I headed back to my camp only to be flagged down by hunters from a neighboring camp. They told me that they needed to show me something. They proceeded to show me several sets of large wolf tracks in their camp, it had snowed the previous night. The wolf tracks go to the back of a pick up truck with a topper. As I looked at the rear end of the truck I can see that the tailgate of the truck is scratched to all to hell and there are smudged wolf prints all over the back of the truck. As it turns out, the guy had his chocolate lab in the back of his truck and the wolves were trying to get it out of the back to kill it. The only reason that the dog was in the back of the truck that morning and not on a tie out was because it was in the upper teens to low 20's that morning.
Anyone else run into anything like this? Pretty ballsy of those wolves to move into a camp during broad day light and attempt to kill a man's dog in the back of his truck. They are fearless.
Have called wolves in a couple of times and am always surprised at how brazen or bold they are. A long look into the eyes of a wolf is not cool gives you all kinds of irrational fears. I tell ya they are so evil, when you look into their eyes I sweat it cannot be much different than facing satan.
oz
Complete Horse chit Oz. Wolves have no emotions like us. They are neither good nor evil. They are just what they are, a Apex predator doing what an Apex predator does, and that's eat everything that will let them catch it.
You have a very terrifying imagination Oz, and you sweat to much.
Not sure they are evil (We have a very harsh lack of understanding of the animal kingdom) but I am sure staring into the eyes of such a critter at close range can stir strong emotions in most anyone. Don't be so dismissive. After all we are pretty damn sure dogs have a range of emotions from stages of happy to stages of sad and all kinds of anger.
I don't think I have ever seen a dog at a hunting camp (that wasn't for bird hunting).
Thanks for setting me straight Shoots. As stated staring into the eyes of a wolf will give you all kinds of "irrational" fears.
Sorry for attributing human emotions to a wolf I realize they do not have emotions, just an insatiable desire to kill. Maybe it is that I am going to kill you look they have that I interpret as evil. It is not evil they just want to kill and it is evident when you are face to face with them.
I grew up with the preaching that all wolves were bad. After living among them for a year or so I long to hear them howl in the evening, it is fun to hear and interpret the different reasons for howling.
I have found the moose kills and the deer kills and collected the antlers I have seen the devastation. My ultimate conclusion when staring them in the eye they project evil.
From my reading the wolves are very territorial and a dog in their territory will bring them out. Just standing on the deck and howling with my voice will bring out howls if they are within earshot. I tried getting my kids' shepherd to bark and howl to bring in the wolves but was unsuccessful.
But to get back to the point of the thread I find it very believable that they would enter camp and damage a truck in an effort to get at a dog.
oz
Even though, I am not a fan of OZ, I can believe the wolves came into camp. I am a life long houndsman and bowhunter. The wolves are a pain in arss when it comes to other dogs in territory. When we are cat hunting now we use snowcats to cover more ground and pretty much stay with the hounds and check for wolf track after we have found a lion or bobcat track.
The wolves need to be put in the same status as the coyote to shoot year round.
Everyone should be aware of a ballet I-177 initiative here in Montana to ban all trapping on federal and state lands. if this passes our ungulate herds are going to suffer and one of the states most effective tools Trapping will be erased.
look at the link
I wonder if I-177 were to pass what the trapping quotas would be?
they would have to greatly increase the trapping quotas to get a fraction of the wolves they are currently getting. At the rate wolves reproduce the population is sure to boom.
This would put a larger burden on hunting to keep the wolf population down.
I agree I-177 will be devastating to our ungulate herds.
oz
Plenty, I didn't say wolves or K-9's didn't have emotions. Evil or good are not emotions they are traits, or a personification of good or bad.
Wolves don't know good or bad, so how can that move to evil?
Hunger is something that really none of us in North American really experience. If your really hungry, you will do just about anything to make it go away. That's why wolves do extreme things. Hunger, and that effect on any living thing, might be the evil part of what Oz was translating.
Wolves have been know to eat other wolves that were caught in traps. Not sure that this situation is too much different than that - they saw a potentially easy meal and investigated.
Or, there is also some evidence that wolves will kill other canids in their area - especially coyotes.
Who knows? Sounds like it is good that the owner kept the dog in the truck. There are more than just wolves that would have made a snack of a tied-up dog if the owners aren't around. (I couldn't tell from your write up if the owners left the dog in the truck while they went off hunting for the day or if the wolves came overnight while the owners were in a tent/camper?)
We need to thin wolves significantly. Enough with the puppy love folks.
got a pack howling this weekend but was not patient enough. I had what I thought was a good set-up, then they quit howling. I bailed on my set up and headed south to pursue them. Went about a mile south, and set up again, then I howled with no response, I then hoofed it back to my first set up to pack out my stuff. While I was packing up they started howling again to the east of me, while I was moving so were they. They worked their way in on me for a few minutes, then one Barked and they were silent, gone. Must have worked in close enough to have winded me. This is the second time they have barked and gone silent. grrrr oz
I remember a time hunting up in the Swan and I came across a small pack of 4 wolves while out deer hunting. It was a very eerie feeling knowing they are just watching you. As soon as I saw them I turned right around and headed back for the truck and always made sure I was looking back behind me. Getting back to the truck felt like it took forever.
