I wanna know how people know they have more than one pack in an area?
While wolves are social animals and like to communicate by howling, howling also helps them keep track of who’s who on their marked territory. Members of one pack are together, not spread all over. So howling is one way to determine both pack size and numbers of packs within a four to five mile area. Their howling can be heard for several miles. I’ve heard three distinctly different packs howling at one time at the cabin.
Visual sightings are another way, but maybe not as accurate as those doing the studies think. Like any alpha predator, if they don’t want to be seen, they won’t be… meaning fly overs alert the dogs to what’s coming long before the plane or helicopter gets remotely close and they disappear like magic. It would take a very concerted effort of many seriously good spotters to coordinate a grid to be covered simultaneously by driving and counting locations of sightings within that grid and noting the exact time said sighting occurred. BUT, this would have to take place in one day, statewide for accuracy….remember that these packs can travel a long ways in a 24 hour period: 20 miles is nothing and 50 miles has been reported.
Lack of game is perhaps the best indicator. A pack of 6 wolves with 4 pups will have to kill a deer every 2-3 days….throughout the entire year. Greater pack size, greater the need for more deer to be killed. Areas where deer populations were normal and healthy have seen near decimation inside of a year when two or three or more packs encompass that area. At our cabin last year we had no trouble seeing perhaps thirty deer in two days in the yard thru the daytime. We’ve seen three deer in the yard so far this year, one right along with a wolf sighting within a minute of each other.
Bucky brings up another very valid point on the dogs. Last year a report of a guy grouse hunting with his dog having a run-in with a wolf near Isabella. In my opinion if people are going to use dogs to hunt in wolf territory they had better be very ready to break the law if they want their dog to survive an encounter because they’ll likely have to shoot the wolf, which at the time is a federal offense. Be appraised that the only time one can justify shooting a wolf out in the wilds is when a person is in eminent danger, not a dog. A bit different if one is at home and a wolf enters property and threatens livestock, which can include a dog.
Personally I think the federal protection order placed on these animals has outreached its intent, across the nation as a whole. What was established as a way to help get the species back on its feet is now run afoul. Way too many wolves. Wayyyyyyy too many. If this isn’t turned around very soon I’m sure people will start enforcing the 3S management plan a bit more rigorous than it already is and I don’t dunn this at all.
To support my bleeding heart comment, I’ll use an example from two years ago. Ma and I drove to Brimson just for a drive and to stop and have a cold beer. While there a DNR officer came in and was cussing like crazy saying he just ticketed a Twin Cities couple who were feeding “the wolf pups up the road” Apparently a wolf pack stashed the pups near a nearby road and they’d wander out and snoop along the shoulder. People driving would see them and start feeding them. The DNR had warnings against doing so on local tv/radio stations as well as signs warning against doing so posted in three directions. People still fed the darn things. After a while I’m sure the wolves could smell human on the pups or too close to where they were dumped and decided to move the drop site…yes people were handling the damned pups. Lots of these do-gooders were calling in to the dnr saying the need to do something with these cute little abandoned puppies located at such and such location. When they checked they found food wrappers all over left after the pups gnawed thru the plastic and found pup feces with plastic in it. The dnr had a heck of a time, not keeping the people safe, but rather the wolf pups. Idiot bleeding heart people.
