Wolves continue as a problem and threat in Idaho

I had contacted a couple that does wolf research. They and one other source told me that there has been no verifiable cases of wolf kills of human in the U.S. They did mention the Alaskan woman. They were suspicious of the report. They said the Alaska Fish and Game was under heat for their policy of aireal shooting of wolves. I found the Alaska paper report of the killing. The article said the killing may have been wolves. It also mentioned the possibility of a bear being the killer. Papers outside of Alaska, picked up on the story and indicated wolves did the killing.
I am sounding like a defender of wolves. What I am attempting to do is understand for myself. As I said before,there is more misinformation than true information. For example one gentleman on this thread talked about a 80% reduction in elk due to wolves. I have found from a couple of sources,that there are about 110,000 elk in Idaho and only about 1,600 wolves in the entire mainland U.S.

I am reading a book “Yellowstone Wolves In the Wild”. It appears to me that the study taking place in Yellowstone may be the best ever done on wild wolves. This study does claim that the wolf reintroduction revitalized a struggling Yellowstone ecosystem.

This guy is a potential ZOT candidate. I can smell the progressivism through my screen. Keep an eye on this guy... he just joined yesterday to talk about wolves of all things.

“I had contacted a couple that does wolf research. They and one other source told me that there has been no verifiable cases of wolf kills of human in the U.S.”

Of course not. Their damn funding depends on a healthy wolf population and wolves killing folks means a reduction in pack numbers and money.

Here’s the dirt on your fluffy puppies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_attacks_on_humans#History_of_wolf_attacks

rickk...1st, the Yellowstone Research. When introduced those same researches assured the public that the wolves would not "range" outside the park. All that has proved to be hogwash. When I lived in Dillon, MT, well over 100 miles from the park, we had wolves from the park ranging past our country and over into Idaho. It has been proven that those wolves did in fact range, breed and multiply well outside of the park.

And yet they still felt compelled to "re-introduce" them into Idaho as well...which has proven to be disasterous to the point that they are no longer endangered but must be hunted to control. And they have damaged cattle, sheep, and other stock animals...and clearly hurt the deer and elk populations. I cannot tell you exactly how much...and I do not trust US Wildlife claims or any organization with any attachement to, or members of the "environmental" groups in them. Why? Because I have seen them blatantly "create" science to meet their preconcieved notions and agendas.

As to wolf attacks and fatalities on humans in the US and Canada. Here are eight instances I found in about 10 minutes of research (took me longer to format the html here on FR than to find them):

“NEW ROCKFORD, DAK, March 7 - The news has just reached here that a father and son, living several miles northeast of this city, were destroyed by wolves yesterday. The two unfortunate men started to a haystack some ten rods from the house to shovel a path around the stack when they were surrounded by wolves and literally eaten alive. The horror-stricken mother was standing at the window with a babe in her arms, a spectator to the terrible death of her husband and son, but was unable to aid them. After they had devoured every flesh from the bones of the men, the denizens of the forest attacked the house, but retired to the hills in a short time. Investigation found nothing but the bones of the husband and son. The family name was Olson. Wolves are more numerous and dangerous now than ever before known in North Dakota." (Saint Paul Daily Globe, March 8, 1888}
John James Audubon, of whom the Audubon Society is named, reported an attack involving 2 Negroes. He records that the men were traveling through a part of Kentucky near the Ohio border in winter. Due to the wild animals in the area the men carried axes on their shoulders as a precaution. While traveling through a heavily forested area, they were attacked by a pack of wolves. Using their axes, they attempted to fight off the wolves. Both men were knocked to the ground and severely wounded. One man was killed. The other dropped his axe and escaped up a tree. There he spent the night. The next morning the man climbed down from the tree. The bones of his friend lay scattered on the snow. Three wolves lay dead. He gathered up the axes and returned home with the news of the event. This incident occurred about 1830. (Audubon, J.J., and Bachman, J.; The Quadrupeds of North America, 3 volumes. New York, 1851 - 1854)
George Bird Grinnell investigated several reported wolf attacks on humans. He verified this attack.

This occurrence was in northwestern Colorado. An eighteen-year-old girl went out at dusk to bring in some milk cows. She saw a gray wolf on a hill as she went out for the cows. She shouted at the wolf to scare it away and it did not move. She then threw a stone at it to frighten it away. The animal snarled at her shouting and attacked her when she threw the stone at it. The wolf grabbed the girl by the shoulder, threw her to the ground and bit her severely on the arms and legs. She screamed and her brother, who was nearby and armed with a gun, responded to the scene of the attack and killed the wolf. The wolf was a healthy young animal, barely full grown. Grinnell met this girl and examined her. She carried several scars from the attack. This attack occurred in summer about 1881. (Grinnell, G.B.; Trail and Campfire - Wolves and Wolf Nature, New York, 1897)
In 1942, Michael Dusiak, section foreman for the Canadian Pacific Railway, was attacked by a wolf while patrolling a section of track on a speeder (small 4-wheeled open railroad car). Dusiak relates, "It happened so fast and as it was still very dark, I thought an engine had hit me first. After getting up from out of the snow very quickly, I saw the wolf which was about fifty feet away from me and it was coming towards me, I grabbed the two axes (tools on the speeder), one in each hand and hit the wolf as he jumped at me right in the belly and in doing so lost one axe. Then the wolf started to circle me and got so close to me at times that I hit him with the head of the axe and it was only the wielding of the axe that kept him from me. All this time he was growling and gnashing his teeth. Then he would stop circling me and jump at me and I would hit him with the head of the axe. This happened five times and he kept edging me closer to the woods which was about 70 feet away. We fought this way for about fifteen minutes and I fought to stay out in the open close to the track. I hit him quite often as he came at me very fast and quick and I was trying to hit him a solid blow in the head for I knew if once he got me down it would be my finish. Then in the course of the fight he got me over onto the north side of the track and we fought there for about another ten minutes. Then a west bound train came along travelling about thirty miles an hour and stopped about half a train length west of us and backed up to where we were fighting. The engineer, fireman and brakeman came off the engine armed with picks and other tools, and killed the wolf."

It should be noted that this wolf was skinned and inspected by an Investigator Crichton, a Conservation Officer. His assessment was that the animal was a young healthy wolf in good condition although it appeared lean. ("A Record of Timber Wolf Attacking a Man," JOURNAL OF MAMMOLOGY, Vol. 28, No. 3, August 1947)
In August, 1996, the Delventhal family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were spending a nine-day family vacation in the Canadian, Algonquin Park and joined a group of Scouts in "howling" at the wolves. They were answered by the howl of a solitary wolf.

That night the Delventhals decided to sleep out under the stars. Young Zachariah was dreaming when he suddenly felt excruciating pain in his face. A lone wolf had bit him in the face and was dragging him from his sleeping bag. Zach screamed and Tracy, Zach's Mother, raced to his side and picked him up, saturating her thermal shirt with blood from Zach's wounds.

The wolf stood menacingly less than a yard away. Tracy yelled at her husband, Thom, who leapt from his sleeping bag and charged the wolf. The wolf retreated and then charged at Tracy and Zach. The charges were repeated. Finally the wolf left. Thom turned a flashlight on 11-year-old Zach and gasped "Oh, my God!" "The boy's face had been ripped open. His nose was crushed. Parts of his mouth and right cheek were torn and dangling. Blood gushed from puncture wounds below his eyes, and the lower part of his right ear was missing." Zach was taken to a hospital in Toronto where a plastic surgeon performed four hours of reconstructive surgery. Zach received more than 80 stitches in his face.

Canadian officials baited the Delventhals' campsite and captured and destroyed a 60-lb wild male wolf. No further attacks have occurred since. (Cook, Kathy; "Night of the Wolf" READER'S DIGEST, July 1997, pp. 114-119.)
The late David Tobuk carried scars on his face from a wolf attack on him as a small child in Alaska. The incident occurred around the turn of the century in interior Alaska. David was playing in his village near a river. An old wolf came into the village and bit David in the face and started to carry him off. Other Eskimos saw the wolf dragging the child off and started yelling and screaming. The wolf dropped the child and was shot by an old Eskimo trapper who had a gun. (Interview with Frank Tobuk, brother, Bettles, Alaska, December 1988.)
Paul Tritt, an Athabascan Indian, was attacked by a lone wolf while working a trap line. Paul was setting a snare, looked up and saw a wolf lunging at him. He threw his arm up in front of his face and it was bitten severely by the wolf. A struggle ensued. Tritt was able to get to his sled, grab a gun and kill the wolf. Nathaniel Frank, a companion, helped Tritt wash the wound with warm water. Frank took Tritt, via dog sled, to Fort Yukon to see a doctor. The arm healed, but Tritt never regained full use of it. Several years later, the arm developed problems and had to be amputated. (Interview with Paul Tritt, Venetie, Alaska, November, 1988)
Reported by the Hamilton Spectator in September of 2007: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada - A lone wolf that attacked six people, including several young children, in a provincial park over the long weekend has tested negative for rabies, the Algoma Health Unit said yesterday. The wolf, which has been blamed for several separate attacks Monday at the popular Katherine's Cove beach on Lake Superior was shot by park staff.
Chignik Lake, Alaska as reported by MSNBC in March 2010: In a small southwest Alaska village where natives have forever lived side-by-side with wild animals, the fatal mauling of a schoolteacher by wolves has shattered an uneasy co-existence.

Now, villagers in Chignik Lake say, parents are keeping an extra-close eye on their children and residents make sure to take their rifles and guns when they venture outdoors.

“It’s scary. People are afraid,” said Virginia Aleck, 66, a village elder. “It’s just something we’re just going to have to adjust to, but the sense of trust with a wild animal is totally going to be different.”

The death of 32-year-old Candice Berner stunned not only the village of a few dozen residents but also wildlife officials, who say wolf attacks are very, very rare — and fatal attacks, even more so.

Officials say Berner, a special education teacher who moved to Alaska last summer, was set on by at least two wolves while out for a late-afternoon jog on a road outside Chignik Lake, a fishing village on the Alaska Peninsula, about 475 miles southwest of Anchorage.

On Monday, state biologists tracked and shot two of the wolves that they believe were responsible.

“Based on statements of eyewitness observers, observations made at the location of Candice Berner's death, physical characteristics of the two wolves killed, and the proximity of the two wolves to the location of Candice Berner's death, I conclude that it is highly likely that these wolves killed Candice Berner,” state Fish and Game biologist Lem Butler said.

Like I said, I was able to find these documented attacks in a few minutes on the web. There are a LOT more that do not have associated reference material for their documentation.

It is preposterous for the continuing myth to be perpetrated that there are no documented deaths or attacks by wolves. Except the evnronmentalists and ESA advocates will continue to perpetrate the myth because they have an agenda.

The attacks documented also sound very much like what I have explained to you here in Idaho on this thread...the woman above who was attacked, but, thank God was armed and able to kill the wolf before it injured or killed her. The hunters who were surrounded. And the children who were stalked but saved from possible attack because adults came along.

“(Saint Paul Daily Globe, March 8, 1888}”

Oh, come on now, that was over 100 years ago. These modern wolves have evolved to be human friendly. Just cuddly little fluff balls living a lonely existence on the fringes of civilization.

At least that’s what the wolf experts would have us believe.

Good post. But in case you didn’t notice rickk doesn’t belong on this site - he’s a troll. He joined yesterday to progressively support wolves.

Here’s’ the link to the story.

http://www.clearwatertribune.com/Weekly%20Pages/2011/09-29-11/September%2029,%202011%20Clearwater%20Tribune%20-%2001.pdf

BTTT. Thanks for the post.

That is some story. A .44 magnum will not let you down.

We have wolves in Georgia because wolves are back in NC and they don’t where the state line is. But in NC you mostly have the Red Wolf which is about 85 Lbs. There are gray wolves though because one walked through my sister’s yard one day. They lived outside Waynesville, NC in a very rural area. She got a pic of it and it was larger than their Great Pyranees. It showed no fear and just ambled on through and up across a ridge and gone.

‘Good post. But in case you didn’t notice rickk doesn’t belong on this site - he’s a troll. He joined yesterday to progressively support wolves.”

Some the folks on the other side of the wolf debate did not like my questions either. If only people of like minds talk, nothing gets solved.

Some hate wolves,some love them, most don't care. I am in the unfortunate middle of the debate. I admit that I have somewhat of a fascination with the wolfs ability to have a positive affect on an ecosystem and with their strong family ties. I have no toleration for wolves harming people or killing animals on a ranchers owned land.

“Some the folks on the other side of the wolf debate did not like my questions either. If only people of like minds talk, nothing gets solved”

Spoken like a true Delphi technique adept. My ideal “like minded” solution would be to get the pro wolf lovers to agree that the Canadian grey wolf needs to be eradicated from the mainland US with extreme prejudice. There you go... strength in unity!

“Some the folks on the other side of the wolf debate did not like my questions either. If only people of like minds talk, nothing gets solved”

Spoken like a true Delphi technique adept. My ideal “like minded” solution would be to get the pro wolf lovers to agree that the Canadian grey wolf needs to be eradicated from the mainland US with extreme prejudice. There you go... strength in unity!

Latest pic of a large wolf pack in central Idaho mountains...taken here in November during hunt:

(Click on pic for a higher res version)

IDAHO WOLVES A THREAT - GO PACKIN IN THE BACK COUNTRY

Wow!

Good God! Look at that.

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DANG! That is a huge pack!

I agree with other posters that rickk is a troll claiming to be merely curious. When presented with clear evidence otherwise, he still wants to “negotiate” the facts that disprove his dishonest allegations. A prime candidate for the ZOT!

Hang in there on your recovery buddy!

JC

Hey, Jeff. Do you know where that picture was taken? It appears to be of similar size to the pack my friend ran across in Avery in the reply I posted to you in Oct: post #28

Stillwaters, check out the picture of the pack in post #54.