Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Wolves Kill, Eat Human

I dont know about Wolves eating humans but they are doing a job on pets in our borough here lately. Two dogs eaten in 2 seperate incidents in the last month and another dog attacked yesterday morning. We got woof problems for sure and they dont appear to be too scared of humnas around here. It appears they are acquiring a taste for canines too!

Mr. bearhuntr:
Very nicely put sir!

Regards,
Dwayne

Had that problem in Fbx in the mid 70s too. Armed-guard parents at the school bus stop to protect the kids waiting to go to school.

Well put Bearhuntr. I wish I had the way with words that you and Klikitarik do. Nothing like a good educational smack down to open up minds .

Thats what scares me the most, we got little kids wrapped in snow suits that arent very mobile at bus stops every morning and every afternoon, and if the wolves are bold enough to snatch a dog outa the back yard, I am afraid to see what happens when they find a bus stop full of little ins!

Aerial culling? And here all along I thought y'all used foxy chicks on snowmobiles!

Yeah, well said Bearhuntr!

I don't think there's very many people who want NO hunting. Even down here in Oregon my anti-hunting friends concede that if they lived somewhere like, oh, ALASKA they'd probably hunt! :-)

Well, like it or not, you guys are the last area in the US to see the types of pressures that are changing (wrecking) the mainland west. It's coming your way and you aren't gonna like it. I grew up in NM and it was really depressing... same here in Oregon. I won't cast it in liberal/conservative terms myself, because it's much more nuanced than that. The real root of the problem is usually too damn many people! Hearing the justifications people make for just about anything, once they move into an area, is nauseating to us all. I'm sure you know exactly what I mean.

If global warming does actually happen, hang onto your hats up there because you will be under a microscope like you can't believe. Lots of critters up there that are very marginalized into corners in terms of the habitat they need, the habits they have, etc. The tundra starts melting, ice starts melting, holy crap there will be threatened and endangered species under every rock... if ya'll even HAVE rocks up there!

Anyway, you guys know way more than I ever will about this. It's interesting to read what you are typing. Thanks.

-jeff

Jeff, it's time to be quiet for awhile.

Sigh... back to lurking...

-jeff

Let's see. I think it makes 4 dogs so far. 2 from 1 family several weeks ago, 1 on Turkey day on CHSR & 1 just last night. Interestingly, my wife works with the lady whose dog was taken on Thanksgiving. Originally, her husband took a shot at one but wasn't sure if he hit it. Turns out he did get one after all. From what I understand, there were 5 in the family - 4 large ones & a smaller one. Pretty evident they're running between Badger Rd. & CHSR - Potlatch Ponds area.
I've got a sled dog that I run with my 4-wheeler & we live just off Brock. I take him down by Potlatch Ponds at the end of Peede. Even tho we have houses surrounding us, I moved both of his dog houses next to the garage facing the driveway. Am leaving the yard lights on at night and the .44 is locked & loaded next to the front door. I think those wolves may well have been driven out from the upper Chena basin so came down this way. I don't expect the state to do anything about it so if they aren't shot, trapped or perhaps harassed so much they leave, I think we'll be in for more trouble later on. They'll just multiply. Since it's a family, Ya can't expect them to take on a full grown moose. A calf? Ok. But that's about it. Once they've tasted "puppy steak" that's it. Evidently they've cut across the Potlatch Ponds area since they were on CHSR last week 'cause the latest "hit" was over on Nelson Rd., not too far from my house.
Anyway, I picked up some extra gear today & I'm heading out in the early A.M. on the 4-wheeler to take a look with the 'ol .270 Win. We've got a waning moon & it's getting colder so I dunno, think it's gonna get tougher.
So, for now, ya'll take care. Later. Bear in Fairbanks

Reminisced on those locations and road names...

Best of luck on the wuffs Bear.

The cause of the wolves hunting in the CHSRd - North Pole area is the lack of snow. Moose are very dangerous for the wolves to hunt when the snow depth is so low. They can run and kick, and are usually healthier, due to mild temp.s and easy to reach browse. These snow conditions are hard on wolves....so they move to where the prey is smaller and pickins easier. Once the snow is deep enough to slow down the moose, the pack will move on to hunt their favorite meal....moose.

Interesting hypothesis. I tend to favor your second, third, and fourth sentence. I do wonder about the first and last though.

Wolves are just like all predators. Their life revolves around a balance between the number of calories recieved from a food source and the number of calories used up in obtaining that food source. Add to that the ability to detect and discern danger (to a rather sophisticated degree I might add,) you are left with an awesome, wolf-efficient machine. I have a hard time believing that once habituated to an easier to catch, high caloric meal like Fido, Rex, or Boomer...they will stop just because of snow. What will make them stop is men taking away the ease of catching their domestic cousin in such an simple fashion. Shoot a couple of them or trap a couple. Then, remove the opportunity by bring Fido inside (take care of Fido, please) and they will move on. If the cost to the wolf is too great, and the fear of man put into them, they will probably leave on their own.

With that said, I'd like to come up and take a poke at em...but I've a few here to manage anyhow.

best,
bhtr

I just love these wolf topics.


I'm so lucky, our MN wolves would never think of harming a human.

MN forestry says so.

Them wolves up north are so uncivilized.

What a shame.

Deep snow winters are hard on moose and easy on wolves. Low snow winters are hard on wolves and easy on moose.

One December, driving back to Fairbanks, I passed through Muncho Lake Provincial Park, B.C., in the middle of a foggy night. The road runs along with Mucho Lake on one side , and the mountains rearing steep on the other. For a distance of about 5-6 miles, there were sheep and moose standing in the road, oblivious to me...in my Mother's Honda Civic. i had to reduce speed to under 20 mph....and, on occasion, had to weave among them. I didn't go more 1/4 mile without having to slow and carefully pass an animal much larger that the Civic, at close range. At the next gas stop, I talked with a couple of locals, who said that there was a large wolf pack locally .... and, nights that they hunt, the local sheep and moose get out on the road, where they have a better chance of fighting or evading the wolves....and the wolves, being the savvy tacticians they are, tended to concentrate on the easier victims in the deep snow.

The pack in this neighborhood is making a paltry living around here....If their whole diet depended on sled dogs and pets, the death toll and the outcry from an enraged citizenry would be overwhelming. Right now, the toll is almost incidental. Much of what the wolves are eating is refuse, manure, whatever garbage they come on, and then an occasional dog or cat. The wolves are just gettin' by. And when the snow finally comes, they'll be gone. That's happened in regular cycles of 5+ years...for the last 28 years in this neighborhood. They always leave. And are years coming back. They aren't going to become habituated....they're simply making the best of a bum season.

Take all sensible precautions....being armed is sensible, but being nervous isn't. I mean, at least they aren't bears....and don't require a .500S&W to dispatch them.

My God, what's hunting and hiking without a little excitement. Snakes and bugs kill more humans each year than all the grizzlies, mountain lions and wolves put together. Protect yourself, kill them in self defense if need be, hunt and manage them, but don't exterminate them. Or put on a skirt and play in the city park.

Chuck

Ah, there's the rub. The green side of the balance makes that so difficult or has in some instances made that impossible.

Yeah, protect ones self at all times, but some places it's illegal to do so vs. lion. No, really. It is.

Hunt and manage? Now there's the ticket. That's all folks are asking for. Yet some places they are off limits to any management program save one that's random and reckless.

That's why some recommend SSS.

colorado:
No-one is advocating extermination of wolves, but just a reduction in they�re number, in areas where they�ve become a problem, to people, to their prey, and ultimately to themselves. This is not easy to do, by any means.

It's been explained rather well in this thread.

Snakes and bugs can be so boring, but you can rest easy. Your life can remain exciting, while you trip the light fantastic, there in the park.
Smitty of the North

"Super Sonic Shovelling?".....grins

bhtr


A.W.G.K.I.L....."a woofs godda know it's limitations"