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Northern WI wolf attack

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Wolf attack

Is near one of my frequent camping spots so guess not a bad idea to have a self defense plan.

Pack of wolves surround and aggressively close in on some duck hunters. One hunter killed one of them with a shot to the head with 12 ga duck load at about 5 yards. The behavior of these wolves sound really bizarre…another wolf tried dragging the dead wolf away?

Probably have to read this article a few times.
 
No mention of a dog, but that would make more sense.

Being a group of teenage hunters I’d be impressed if they actually had a trained retriever with them. Probably just a borrowed pair of waders to retrieve their ducks and decoys.
 
Personally, I'm usually more leery of wolves than I am of bears. This is, most likely, due to my lack of familiarity with wolves but I also think part of it is that they are pack animals.

It seems like it might only take one to decide "Look, I know it's a human but we're really hungry, there's 12 of us... I think we can take him". If that one happens to be fairly charismatic (or all are really hungry) the others might fall in and the human might be in for a rough patch.

Admittedly, such personification might be a stretch but to what extent are these animals capable of reasoning?

I also have to wonder if these were emboldened by the fact that the hunters were all young?
 
My grandfather shot wolves for bounty in Montana around 1910. He was a teamster on the Northern Pacific RR. Wolf populations in remote areas and wilderness areas perform an important role in functioning ecosystems. The problems start when encroach on places where humans live or raise livestock. They are very smart and wily animals which makes them hard to hunt and hard to trap. They become accustomed to humans and lose their fear of us.

Iin the western US wolves are very mobile and fill up the habitat. We have them in NE California and I have seen them in NE Nevada. As their numbers continue to increase human/wolf interactions and problems are going to increase exponentially. Most people are in favor of wolves until they show up at the bus stop or the playground at school or their are tracks on your welcome mat. There are some reasons why wolved were extirpated in the first place. Be ever vigilant.
 
Hope the DNR biologist gives an explanation for this behavior rather than just letting this story quietly fade away. Honestly makes me a bit uncomfortable. If these wolves are brazen enough to surround 3 hunters they certainly wouldn’t hesitate to move in on a solo camper.

Kid showed more restraint than I would have considering he let another wolf get close enough to attempt to drag away his fallen comrade. Said they were setting up at 4am so I assume this went down before sunrise.
 
Hope the DNR biologist gives an explanation for this behavior rather than just letting this story quietly fade away. Honestly makes me a bit uncomfortable. If these wolves are brazen enough to surround 3 hunters they certainly wouldn’t hesitate to move in on a solo camper.

Kid showed more restraint than I would have considering he let another wolf get close enough to attempt to drag away his fallen comrade. Said they were setting up at 4am so I assume this went down before sunrise.
I am a long time WI resident who has spent much time in northern WI and the UP. I know there has been some recent debate on opening a hunting season on wolves. I bet this incident will really amp up this debate. My main canoeing buddy lives in Boulder Junction area, which is not far from this incident. I will check in with him on this. Vilas County has an extensive network of paved bicycle paths running through the woods which I have seen families with small children using.
 
Familiarity breeds contempt. Both wolves and black bears. I once heard a biologist say that you are just so much protein walking around. He was referring to black bears at the time but I can’t think wolves would be different.
 
A member on another forum I frequent claims to know one of the witnesses. Said the kids did not have a dog.
 
I find the whole incident strange...
for one, even the most naive wolf realizes humans are a top predator, and wolves rarely go after other meat eaters unless starving.
for two, wolves rarely interact with humans because we generally travel in larger though dispersed packs ie. multiple duck hunters around a pond.
and for three wolves are highly intelligent and wary and rarely put themselves in a position where they can get killed or seriously injured, weakening the pack.
that 6-7, which by all indications is a large pack, would stalk dangerous, armed, humans once they caught their scent is bizarre, as is their confronting humans- wolves are stealth hunters, only breaking into a run once the prey starts to run themselves, equally bizarre is the wolf dragging off it's dead packmate, which is a huge waste of energy and serves no obvious purpose for the pack.
I strongly suspect that either those animals are actually dog/ wolf crosses, whose historical familiarity with people has bred the fear out of them, or they're habituated and have been taught not to fear other predators- us
There's also the reliability of the witnesses- after all they ARE hunters who may actually hope for a season on wolves and may, consciously, or unconsciously, have a built in bias that affects their memory and actions.
While not a biologist, I've spent years hunting, fishing, and living in some of the most wolf dense areas outside of Alaska or Siberia- northern Ontario, Alberta, and Quebec, and In the last 50-60 years have seen exactly 2 wild wolves, both of whom turned and went the other way, but I've seen dozens, if not hundreds, of fresh tracks, and at least a dozen fresh kill sites (still largely intact and not starting to spoil) where they've actually moved on when I arrived, and returned after I passed.
Even when dogs are around their normal MO is to draw off the dog away from their human, then kill, or sometimes breed with, it out of sight or sound of their master.
 
I find the whole incident strange...
for one, even the most naive wolf realizes humans are a top predator, and wolves rarely go after other meat eaters unless starving.
for two, wolves rarely interact with humans because we generally travel in larger though dispersed packs ie. multiple duck hunters around a pond.
and for three wolves are highly intelligent and wary and rarely put themselves in a position where they can get killed or seriously injured, weakening the pack.
that 6-7, which by all indications is a large pack, would stalk dangerous, armed, humans once they caught their scent is bizarre, as is their confronting humans- wolves are stealth hunters, only breaking into a run once the prey starts to run themselves, equally bizarre is the wolf dragging off it's dead packmate, which is a huge waste of energy and serves no obvious purpose for the pack.
I strongly suspect that either those animals are actually dog/ wolf crosses, whose historical familiarity with people has bred the fear out of them, or they're habituated and have been taught not to fear other predators- us
There's also the reliability of the witnesses- after all they ARE hunters who may actually hope for a season on wolves and may, consciously, or unconsciously, have a built in bias that affects their memory and actions.
While not a biologist, I've spent years hunting, fishing, and living in some of the most wolf dense areas outside of Alaska or Siberia- northern Ontario, Alberta, and Quebec, and In the last 50-60 years have seen exactly 2 wild wolves, both of whom turned and went the other way, but I've seen dozens, if not hundreds, of fresh tracks, and at least a dozen fresh kill sites (still largely intact and not starting to spoil) where they've actually moved on when I arrived, and returned after I passed.
Even when
ogs are around their normal MO is to draw off the dog away from their human, then kill, or sometimes breed with, it out of sight or sound of their master.

I find the whole incident strange...
for one, even the most naive wolf realizes humans are a top predator, and wolves rarely go after other meat eaters unless starving.
for two, wolves rarely interact with humans because we generally travel in larger though dispersed packs ie. multiple duck hunters around a pond.
and for three wolves are highly intelligent and wary and rarely put themselves in a position where they can get killed or seriously injured, weakening the pack.
that 6-7, which by all indications is a large pack, would stalk dangerous, armed, humans once they caught their scent is bizarre, as is their confronting humans- wolves are stealth hunters, only breaking into a run once the prey starts to run themselves, equally bizarre is the wolf dragging off it's dead packmate, which is a huge waste of energy and serves no obvious purpose for the pack.
I strongly suspect that either those animals are actually dog/ wolf crosses, whose historical familiarity with people has bred the fear out of them, or they're habituated and have been taught not to fear other predators- us
There's also the reliability of the witnesses- after all they ARE hunters who may actually hope for a season on wolves and may, consciously, or unconsciously, have a built in bias that affects their memory and actions.
While not a biologist, I've spent years hunting, fishing, and living in some of the most wolf dense areas outside of Alaska or Siberia- northern Ontario, Alberta, and Quebec, and In the last 50-60 years have seen exactly 2 wild wolves, both of whom turned and went the other way, but I've seen dozens, if not hundreds, of fresh tracks, and at least a dozen fresh kill sites (still largely intact and not starting to spoil) where they've actually moved on when I arrived, and returned after I passed.
Even when dogs are around their normal MO is to draw off the dog away from their human, then kill, or sometimes breed with, it out of sight or sound of their master.

I agree that it's strange, but there's this ...

A DNR conservation warden and biologist were able to follow up that morning to investigate and confirmed that it was a wolf.
 
I agree that it's strange, but there's this ...
the only accurate way to find out if it's a purebred wolf and not a mix is to do DNA testing, and unlike on CSI, testing can take weeks or months, I've seen many hybrids that completely fool biologists and naturalists that work specifically with wolves until DNA tests confirm it one way or the other.
 
There is a famous story about big game biologists from Idaho Fish and Game. They did some field work on wolves years ago in the Sawtooth Wilderness area on the MT border. They were all experienced field people and there was some anticipation about the study. The biologists were careful to explain that there have been few if any wolf attacks on humans in the last 100 years.

A pack of wolves showed up at their camp. Then they showed up at night. Soon they were surrounding their camp fire. The wolves quickly lost their fear of humans, and became a serious nuisance. Finally the biologists called in a helicopter to be evacuated because they "feared for their lives." Be ever vigilant.
 
the only accurate way to find out if it's a purebred wolf and not a mix is to do DNA testing, and unlike on CSI, testing can take weeks or months, I've seen many hybrids that completely fool biologists and naturalists that work specifically with wolves until DNA tests confirm it one way or the other.

Thinking about this more, if the biologists determine that these are not wolves but wolf/dog hybrids it would seem proper and prudent to identify all such examples and exterminate them. In fact, wouldn't that render the legal questions of this shooting moot?
 
Thinking about this more, if the biologists determine that these are not wolves but wolf/dog hybrids it would seem proper and prudent to identify all such examples and exterminate them. In fact, wouldn't that render the legal questions of this shooting moot?

Not sure whether these were purebred wolves, hybrids, or Chupacabras is really the issue. Issue is we have some wild predatory animals who are getting brazen enough to provoke uncomfortable encounters with humans.

Why? We can speculate maybe they just want belly rubs, or maybe they are testing the waters to see if humans are food.

Again, why? Northern WI is fairly populous. Is there not enough undeveloped area for them? They cross paths with humans too often? Can wolves and humans really coexist in these conditions? Are these animals diseased or starving? Is it just the natural order of things that if you’re not a predator to them you’re prey?

WI did a couple wolf hunts years past but that was shutdown when they got relisted in Feb 2022. Exception being the Northern Rocky Mountains.

Wolves ESA
 
I did some logging and seeding on a lady's property after a fire. She had a big female wolf named Jezebell that was 7/8. She would wander the property while I was working on the 10 acre property. There was an invisible fence but Jezebell would run right over it. I avoided eye contact with this wolf and she would watch me from a distance. It was unnerving, but we had peaceful coexistence.

When the contract was over, my girl and I were invited for dinner at their exquisite house made in the traditional adobe style. From the lofty site, we could see the lights of Reno far away. Finally we went up on the flat roof of the house and howled at the full moon with Jezebell. That wolf taught me a lot.
 
Seems like the thread title "Northern WI wolf attack" is a slight bit of hyperbole as the wolves approached but never did actually attack anyone before the teen shot one. Not saying the wolves didn't have the intent to attack or that the teen overreacted. We just don't know enough. There are plenty of instances of bears ransacking camps for food while ignoring the campers who were close enough to become bear snacks but didn't.
 
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