wolves.

thought it was a good read from another forum.copied from norwester,
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17735990/

www.isleroyalewolf.org/photo_ess/pe_EP_kills_moose.htm

Can't get enough of them in our province either....and i'm one to talk...i think i only tried for them once this year...was just a bad year for time for me.

Anyone who likes to hunt elk and moose should be chasing wolves at every opportunity in this province...forget ice fishing and coyote hunting...head to the hills and get some wolves and for gods sake...don't ever pass on one while big game hunting in the fall either....way too rare an opportunity.

We are easily 1500 too many wolves in this province...even the wolf lovers admit to almost 5000 a few years ago...and we're apparently supposed to run about 3500 according to some managment numbers document i ran across when i was first learning about Albertas wolf numbers. And they are breeding how many more each year? Scary eh?

It gets worse if you think about the rest of the predators in this province and how well they are doing too! Yikes.

B

Gang,
All one has to do is go to the Yaha Tinda Ranch. Remeber the days of 3000 head of elk feeding in Feb and March. Not any more!
This is one area the biologists show several different packs of wolves interesecting. As they follow the elk around. The wolves have devastated the elk in that area and many others.
Blakeinator, good comments!
The true blue hunters that I know, appreciate and respect animals. Care for them.. When things get out of balance like they have. We need to our best to restore the balance.
Mike

Me and my bro killed 3 in 06 and 3 in 07:eek

I've been in Alberta since 1995, and hunted since '98. Every area that I first started hunting in that had lots of game, now has lots of wolves and limited game. I once investigated (Devil's Gap) a flock of Ravens and found a wolf killed Whitetail buck. All that was left was the head, a leg, some hide and scraps. The head was still WARM!

I think that wolf populations may be (outside of CWD) the largest issue that hunters and game managers will have to deal with in the next ten years. Hell, I ran into two of them in Sibbald (Moose Creek Trail) last week, no gun, just a chainsaw!

I have permission to hunt a ranch on the condition that I kill every wolf I can. It's possibly a good way to gain landowner's permission.

Brownbear,
How about posting a picture or two? Would be nice to see!
What part of the world did you shoot the wolves, if you dont mind?

Mike....I dont know how to post pics but would be happy to email them to someone if they could do it for Me.

I live 2 1/2 hours north of Edmonton.

tucumseh@canada.com

Tuc will post em for ya. If not i'll post em ...email badblake at telus dot net.

B

I always shoot at them...........hitting them is another issue! I have missed 4 in the last 2 years.

Brownbear.
You can email them to mikerae@aimexfoods.com
Happy to post them for you!
Way to go!

BrownBears Wolf.....

Looks like nice big males too! NICE WORK! Still haven't gotten any myself but just need to put more time in...it will happen...we couldn't be living in a better place to get wolves right now i bet. Too many of them and very long and liberal seasons without bag limits.

Probably one of the hardest to get trophy's in this province fellas...if you don't think so...go try and get one and prove me wrong. More guys get lucky on them while targeting other species but see what happens when you try specifically for them....needle in a haystack.....but lots of fun.

The dream is to call in a whole pack to close range. I can't imagine a hunting experience that could top that. A griz, a cougar...those would be amazing also but....a pack of wolves called to close range....that would be purely awesome. (and hopefully you've got a semi-auto with red dot sight and a 10 round mag! )

Good pics, glad to see more guys getting after them and being successful too!

B

Brownbear,
Absolutely fantastic job! Good on ya!
Im headed up your way for spring bears the week of May long.
Would much sooner kill a wolf than a bear..

Mike

Personally I wouldn't shoot a wolf but I had more than enough opportunities. I guess I'm in the right place at the right time.

On one occassion my dog and I went for an early morning quad ride one summer while camping in Waiperous. We came upon a pack of 11 wolves in the big muskeg behind the sand hills and watched them for about an hour. Timber seemed to sense they meant danger and he stared at them intently and never left my side for 1 second. The wolves knew we were there too (maybe 200 or 300 yards away) and never payed us much attention.
(and wouldn't you know it, that was the morning I forgot both the movie camera and camera)

It was an amazing site to watch the younger wolves play and older ones stretch out in the early mornning sun. As the sun eventually got higher and they slowly made their way back towards the heavy timber. One or two of the larger wolves started to howl and the others joined in. I got a real errie feeling and the hair on my dogs back stood straight up. (mine too...lol) I would sometimes howl back at them and they'd answer me everytime. I think Timber was a little confused and he started to growl. Not sure if it was at me or at the wolves.

Funny thing..... later as I was driving back to camp and thinking about the wolves, I realized, had those wolves wanted me and Timber for breakfast we were pretty much defenseless and at their mercy. I doubt the quad would have out run them for the road was rather rough and I wouldn't have been able to drive very fast.

Nature is amazing and that was the first time in my life I was able to experience that many wolves in one place.

A day I'll never forget!

Thanks guys for offering to post pics for me and thanks tuc for doing it.

These were the only one's that i had on email to send.

The wolf in first pic was trapped and was the lead female in the the pack.The other one was shot and is a big male.The pic does not really show it very well but this wolf has a really big mellon.We are boiling the skull so we can measure it.

The other 5 wolves we shot were 3 black ones (not good hide) and 2 grey females that were average size.

Mike...we have tons of bears up here so you should have a great hunt.Maybe with spring just around the corner we should start a thread where everyone can post there bear pics from past years.

Maybe someday you'll want a wolf Tuc. We can all hope. It would be nice if we all went to bat when we could for the management side of things. Still waiting fro my browning bar shortrac stalker camo....will probably eotech red dot it...and then i'll be hoping for exactly the scenerio you just descriped tuc...only a little bit closer.

B

Brown,
I have shot a dozen or more bears in my life, and have yet to kill a Wolf. Closest Ive come is missing one on the trot with my bow at 50-55 meters.

Im really impressed with the number of wolves you have taken. Well done.

Thanks again for the pictures.
Mike

Thanks Mike...


Your chance will come I am sure.

Tuc.

Cool story. Its great when you get to see something like that.

Jamie

Nice looking wolf hanging it looks real big thick coat nice .

Ya, those are pretty nice dogs. Seen two get er, just havent got the squeeze on one.....yet.

Thx Jamie.....It may very well of been my first and last time to see that many wolves together in one place. On 3 or 4 occassions I have seen lone wolves and wondered why they were travelling alone. I guess when the younger males get to be a certain age the alpha male will kick them out of the pack. I also believe they will do the same for a sick wolf that can no longer pull his or her load.

Heres one I got a couple years ago. Was about 120-130 pounds. I held him up and stood on the bathroom scale so it was hard to tell but he made a nice rug for behind my fireplace.

Thats a good size wolf you killed M.M.. Nice wolfs you have as well BrownBear.

I had my changes to kill wolfs during hunting season some even in the rut, but I passed them up as I didn't want to spook any deer. Also in the pass I didn't have the money to get the hides tanned...but this year may be different. Anyhow we well see.

My favorite wolfs was the ones feeding on a deer on highway 16 between Edson and Hinton....Both were Grey Wolfs, but one was an albino wolf, real nice.

Wolves are alot more numerous than they were 20 years ago, one hunter I know killed two of them, 1 in the South Castle and another at the Spruce Coullee grazing coop a few years back. I heard a pack of them howling back in the Carbondale last November and seen the tracks.

I hear you 59whiskers, I also go down Carbondale, Lost Creek, Lynx Creek way and see lots of tracks and howling. I think after the big fire of 2003 it brought in alot of wolves Don't go down South Castle much though. But a beautiful area. Good fishing there also.