Quote:
Originally Posted by Bushleague
On rare occasions I've seen deer move in closer to industrial activity when the wolves are around, where the wolves don't want to go, but more often they start avoiding the open areas. Wolves like to use trails, roads, and cutlines to cover ground, just like humans. Favored hunting spots are often the first to go dry, and depressing conversations take place over unfilled tags. A few years back if one drove down practically any road in the Swan Hills after a fresh snowfall and the first tracks down will be wolves and coyotes, while the deer tracks will take far longer to accumulate in these exposed areas, and things can look pretty dismal from the road. When the deer wise up one rarely sees them out in the open, you might find some tracks but to actually see a deer in the open during daylight can become somewhat abnormal. Get 20 to several hundred yards back into the bush and suddenly the ratio switches, far more game tracks, far less predator tracks.
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Wolves are road hunters, they have learned to trot the roads until they catch the scent of a deer, moose, elk, they can tell by the intensity of the scent how close the prey is. Then they go in after it. This is one of the reasons we see so many wolf tracks on roads, cutlines, frozen rivers, etc. They can cover far more ground than in the brush and deep snow. They are far more effective road hunters than humans, we can't smell them and drive by dozens and only see the ones out in the open. The deer can move out of a heavily wolf infested area but it doesn't take too many hours of trotting the roads to find them again. This tactic has enabled them to be more successful hunters and allowed them to breed, raise and feed more young than normal.