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Aggressive Wolf Behavior - The Tables Are Turned
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| Written by Wendy Butler |
| Being stalked by a pack of hungry wolves is a kick, until reality sinks in that is. As I prepare for another fall of hunting I’m thinking back to last year’s encounter with a pack of grey wolves in Ontario. Enjoying the outdoors here in Vermont is pretty safe where wild animals are concerned. When we arrived in Ontario last year and the locals started right in telling us about aggressive wolf behavior I figured it was just their way of having a little good hearted fun at our expense.
One of the great things about hunting outside your home state is the opportunity to see not only new country but also new plant and animal species as well. As we made our way out into the Canadian bush we discovered wolf sign, tracks and scat. Some of the other hunters in camp had experienced brief wolf sightings and others, who had hunted for years in Canada, had never actually seen a wolf.
During the second week of our hunt my husband Randy and I were sitting in the truck waiting for day light, listening to wolves howl in the not too distant breaking dawn. We were wowed by their volume and their close proximity when a deer abruptly dashed across the road in front of us. We had had a fresh dusting of snow during the night and I volunteered to hunt alone and let Randy take the fresh deer track. I headed in the opposite direction, and planning to make contact later in the day.
Randy went off and killed a nice buck and was excited about finding great deer sign. We rendezvoused around 2:30ish and headed into some thick swamp in search of a buck for me. Visibility was limited to say the least. We went to where he had gutted his buck less than three hours before and found the only evidence of the gut pile was a rather large blood stain on the fresh snow - cleaned up by martins, Canada jay, ravens and wolves. In fact the sign I noted changed from promising deer sign to a tremendous number of fresh wolf tracks and a total of eight beds melted out of the snow.
We set up to do a little calling with a doe can and a grunt tube. Shortly, I noticed a set of very large legs moving through the underbrush to my hard left and I was sure it was a 200 lb buck coming into our calls. When the beast broke out into a clearing straight in front of us, at about 40 yards, we were surprised to see a large blonde colored wolf. She (my gut just tells me “she”, I have no evidence) continued around to our right into some thick hemlock, where I could hear her moving around on the dry leaves that the fresh snow barely covered. Randy was not carrying a firearm. Although legally he was entitled to he was recovering from an accident that left him with a shattered clavicle, five broken ribs and five broken lumbar vertebrae just eight weeks earlier. (Yes, he’s a tough guy). We were in awe. Having a chance to see a wolf so close seemed pretty special until……
A second grey wolf followed her course and joined the first wolf in the hemlocks. Rustle, rustle, rustle, they were totally hatching a plan for the juicy Vermonters that they undoubtedly could see, hear and smell. Randy, sitting to my right and just behind me counted a third wolf on my left. The wolves had traveled at the very least 180 degrees around us. I was still thinking how really cool this all was however, Randy and perhaps for the lack of a firearm, didn’t find the scenario quite so benign.
The final straw was when the blond she-wolf placed herself strategically out in front of us, where we had fully seen her the first time. She stood their, looking at us and we sat there, looking back. From the corner of my eye I caught a movement to my right in time to see the large grey wolf closing ground at 30 yards. The wolf’s eyes looking directly into mine, it still felt like a thrill!
Randy said aloud, “Now that’s too close” From my seated posture I made a lunging motion toward the closest wolf coupled with a hissing sound and it ducked back into cover. It was getting late and we agreed that this wasn’t the place to kill a buck so we packed up. Randy cautiously watched our back trail as we made our way to a new location in the direction of our truck. Attempting one more set-up before we called it a day only brought more sounds of wolves rustling in around us - we called it a day.
I was under the impression that there were no documented accounts of humans being attacked by wolves…..I was mistaken.
On November 8, 2005, student Kenton Carnegie was working with a survey company in northern Saskatchewan. Kenton went out for an afternoon walk and never returned. Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman Heather Russell said, “There is nothing to lead us to believe that death was caused by anything other than injuries consistent with canine bites. There were wolves near the body and wolf tracks all around….” “The death of Kenton Carnegie” CBC News Online, March 7, 2006
I’m leaving out the details of Kenton’s story. It took months for that experience to fully impact me. Wolves generally evaporate into the bush. Sightings are rare and special experiences but occasionally we the hunters become the hunted. It’s has given much to think about, especially as I consider my choice of firearm for this season. Flintlock or 35 Whelan…….
Till next time, keep your powder dry!
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Training For Elk Season...
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| Written by Wendy Butler |
| Well, this pack doesn't equal an elk quarter but it's a start!! This morning I was feeling a little disapointed because I missed my hour long session of pilates before my "side-kick" arrived to spend the morning. The weather was supreme and the dogs were iching to get out into the bush so, I mulit-tasked.
Now in this shot the kiddo looks really small, well she is small, but not THIS small. I thought photographs were suposed to add 10 pounds not subtract 10 pounds. Anyhow, slogging around in soft snow with twenty pounds on my back is a good workout no matter how tiny she looks. Now if I can only recreate the 10,000 plus foot elevation.....
I'm looking forward to hunting season.....you can never begin to prepare too soon! |
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Fisher Sighting
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| Written by Wendy Butler |
| Last Sunday morning, at 6:45 a.m., I was looking out my kitchen window and was rewarded with a fisher sighting. This is not the first time I’ve seen a fisher out my kitchen window and when it happens I don’t rush for a camera because I want to observe them for as long as they remain in view.
Last summer we planted corn and left it standing so that we could enjoy watching wildlife as it passed in and out of our “yard”. The yard is really several acres in size, surrounded on three sides by mixed woods which falls away to a brook. Beyond the brook is a tangle of overgrown everything, a very wild, difficult mess to even walk through and therefore the prefect place for all kinds of wild animals to take up residence.
Three times during the summer and fall Randy observed a bobcat behind the house. We’ve seen moose, bear, coyote, deer, turkey, raccoon and last spring we even had a bald eagle perched in a nearby tree considering our yard for a good long time while I did take a picture.
Back to the fisher though, I’m very glad to have him around. I don’t have any house cats to worry about but I do have dogs. Since my father’s dog “Lucky” and her sister “Charm” both received a face full of porcupine quills right in their own yard it is a concern for me and my dogs. The fisher has a unique appetite for porcupine and based on a recent skunk kill along the same corn field I’m hoping that Mr. Fisher continues to patrol our “yard”.
Fishers were once common in Vermont but around the turn of the century, like much of our other wildlife populations, became very rare due to heavy trapping and loss of habitat due deforestation for agricultural purposes. During the ‘50s fisher were reintroduced to help control the porcupine population. Fisher will also eat an occasional fawn, small rodents and birds. They will eat fruit and nuts but I’m pretty sure Sunday’s fisher wasn’t in my corn field looking for corn – which is okay with me.
My daughter had a much closer encounter last winter when she entered the horse barn where there are no horses but rather her Subaru. When a startled fisher ran up the interior wall of the barn they looked into one another’s eyes for a moment of shared terror before the critter finished scaling the wall and escaped through the large barn door. Fisher have five semi-retractable claws on each foot and additionally are able to rotate their hind feed 180 degrees therefore able to descend trees, and apparently barn walls, much like we commonly see squirrels descend trees and birdfeeders.
Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife offers a lot of information about fisher as well as other wildlife species – it’s a site I have bookmarked on my computer. Also, available from the state and new this year, is a pocket sized card of animal tracks - great for kids big and small who enjoy going out into the snow to decipher stories discovered in a fresh new covering. I’m still doing the snow dance and we have a new batch of snow. So, while I till can, I’ll pick up a fresh trail and see where it takes me. You do the same – enjoy! Wendy
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