Why we moved camp

[jon_norstog]

Guys,

you might like this picture. This is not one of the Lolo wolves - they are bigger. This one was shot east of Yellowstone. Actually, ther are wolves where we are going too, they just didn't move in after a huge winter kill.

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[Bill Hollinger]

Jon, I'm thinking that is one huge wolf! Is that a six year old holding it up or is that thing really that big? My god!

[jon_norstog]

Bill,

I don't know the man, but he's probably regular size. They're magnificent creatures, but we just gotta reach an understanding with them. And not let them take over.

Since they came around hunting has gotten tough for us, but a lot tougher for the road hunters. The elk and deer that get wolves figured out have plenty to eat and get huge. And they are **very** wary.

jn

[Bill Hollinger]

That is unreal Jon. Thanks for sharing. I've been a hunter all my adult life. 35 deer, 18 antelope, three elk, two bear and a gang of coyotes. In fact, I'm due to get some blood on my hands!

[mack]

I am going to save that pic if you don't object. There are a lot of folks in these parts I want to share it with who will not believe that wolves get so large. I know, I live in the East where game is smaller, except for black bear maybe, but this thing could eat it's way through a herd of good-sized deer in short order and even more if it were in a pack, which I suspect if would be.

Most folks don't understand that nature provides an animal with the ability to grow to match its environment. We have coyotes the size of German Shepherds and these are the ones I have seen in recent years. Doesn't sound possible, but I nearly hit one on a backroad a couple of years ago late one night. When the pack stopped in the road to look into my headlights, I could clearly see it was not a domestic, but a pack of very large coyotes. These and others like them ate a couple of sheep farmers out of business about 4-5 years back in these parts.

God bless whoever shot it. The wolves are in need of control in the West from all I read.

We tried a re-release in our own Smoky Mountains a few years back and that was a disaster I have written about recently on here. Much egg on many Sierra-Club-type faces over that fiasco.

Any more releases or re-populations should be reserved for the remotest spots on the continent, not near settled territory. Right now we have coyote problem around here.

[jon_norstog]

To the list:

Well Idaho Wolf season is moving right along. IF&G set a harvest target of 220 wolves. So far 98 have been taken. This is during the height of elk and deer season when lots of hunters are in the field.

Two things I predict: they will not meet harvest targets,and two, the hunters are getting the dumb slow animals out of the way. The survivors will be the smartest, fastest, and probably most wolf-ily competent. Predation culls the weak. Are we all ready for a superior breed of wolf?

My own thought is maybe IF&G should put out drinkers for them, and fill them with whiskey. Get the alpha males staggering drunk, so the runts can nip in there and sire litters of substandard wolves. I wonder if we could get them smoking as well? 2 packs a day? Like Joe Camel.

jn

[dastier]

Last year one of my hunting buddies saw a wolf while he was scouting deer during the preseason. Later the area where we hunt was less productive than in the past. We moved as we were seeing wolf tracks in the area and what looked like a pack of tracks near an old dump site. This year not as many but some tracks - it spooks me when I think there are wolves around when I'm hunting. I spot and stalk in heavy brush - wonder if wolves might be doing the same?

[jmoore]

I had a wee bit of the same, dastier, there's a bear on or about our hunting ground. Saw it a week or two before the season opened. Its bigger than me by a fair amount! Fortunately, blackies aren't generally aggressive, and the deer don't seem to care.

[dastier]

I'm no expert on bears but I'd be cautious with black bears around. My understand is that they can be aggressive towards humans. I saw a supremely scary video once that a guy took of him being stalked by a black bear. He foolishly got off the boat he and his brother were fishing from and went into N. Ontario bush country with his video camera. A bear came towards him and he had nothing to defend himself with. If you can imagine this he was afraid to turn his back for fear the bear would charge so he backpeddled through the brush towards the shoreline, stumbling over deadfalls and falling down, all the time screaming at the bear to go away. The bear came at him and he actually hit it with his camera. The fact that he was aggressive towards the bear saved his life. Unlike grizzlies, they say that playing dead gets you killed by black bears. And don't even think about climbing a tree.

I'm in Manitoba and a few years back we had a older fellow killed by black bear. He went out to pick raspberries on his property and met it doing the same. This was in the country but not in the bush - farm land and built up home lots. Same year they were bears going thru peoples yards and mauling dogs (chained - couldn't escape) up near a small town. This occurred in September - it was a lean year for berries in the bush. I took slugs with me when I went grouse hunting just in case. (would have preferred a Magnum revolver but not allowed in Canada).

[jon_norstog]

Well, Idaho F&G just updated their website. So far, hunters have bagged 117 of the 220 wolf quota. In the Lolo area, our old hunting grounds, the quota was 27 and so far 6 have been taken.

I guess my old buddy Cujo has made it through another season! I'd do him in except I won't shoot anything I'm not going to eat.

I did not think Idaho hunters would take the quota and it looks like I was right. Allowing hunters to take wolves is not going to get Idaho F&G where they want to be. Either they will have to pay a bounty, or else do the job themselves. In the meantime, there are more lawsuits brewing

Good luck, guys!

jn