Is it time to cry wolf? (Wolves in Vermont?)

St Albans (VT) Messenger ^ | Friday, November 15 | LEON THOMPSON

[Straight Vermonter]

SWANTON ­­ Tim Kougias has a mystery on his hands, and he knows it may remain unsolved, but it has added a touch of excitement to his life nonetheless.

On Tuesday, the Swanton resident and his wife, Maria, had just returned from a lengthy trip to Greece, Tim's homeland. As they settled back into their Country Club Estates home, Tim set his video camera on the kitchen counter.

"What is that?" Maria asked suddenly, pointing to the edge of their backyard, which straddles a wooded area.

Roaming along that border was a dog, or so Tim thought, until he noticed it was abnormally large, gray with a rusty tint and collar-less.

"It was big and huge," he recalled yesterday. "I knew it wasn't a dog, and I knew it wasn't a fox."

So Tim shot it.

With his video camera.

Tim's short footage is a bit shaky, but the animal can be seen clearly. As Tim's camera zooms in on the creature, it looks amazingly like a wolf.

Or a large coyote.

Or a wolf.

Or a large coyote.

"I don't know which one it is," Tim said.

When Tim's friend Joe Desrochers, of Swanton, saw the enigmatic footage, he told Kougias about the small pack of wolves experts say live in the Quebec wilderness, about 20 miles from the U.S. border on the south side of the St. Lawrence River.

Desrochers knew experts had predicted those wolves or their offspring will find their way to northern New England forests.

European settlers worked for centuries to eliminate wolves from the Northeastern U.S. and succeeded about a century ago. There has been debate about whether wolves should be reintroduced to the region, but the recent developments in Quebec could stop that argument.

Now another question remains: Did Tim Kougias photograph a wolf?

"When I saw Tim's film and remembered what I heard about in Quebec, I thought, 'This is weird timing,'" Desrochers said. "It looks like a wolf to me, but I'm no expert."

Residents from northeastern sections of the county, where coyotes are rampant, said yesterday they thought the animal looked like the coyotes they see roaming near their homes. Kougias and Desrochers hope to show the footage to a wildlife expert for a more educated guess.

In any event, the Kougiases have captured a gorgeous wild animal in a sliver of time.

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Contact Leon Thompson at 524-9771, ext. 112, or leon@samessenger.com

[Straight Vermonter]

I am of 2 minds about having wolves here. I know the farmers don't want them but as a backpacker I would kind of like the romance that wolves add to an evening in the mountains. Aaaaaaoooooooooooooooooo!

[The Other Harry]

I think we want the wolves. The deer population would certainly benefit from their presence.

[Dick Vomer]

I would rather have a 30.06 than a wolf for deer control.

[usconservative]

Amazingly, the wolves have re-appeared in the part of Illinois that I live in. I used to hear them frequently, occasionally see them about 10 years ago, then they stopped.

Back in August, I was awakened to the howling of a few wolves around midnight - 1am. The windows were open in the bedroom and they didn't sound too far off.

I live in Will County, in a somewhat still rural area of the county. Frankly, I welcome the wolves back. The deer population here has EXPLODED and something needs to trim the deer herd back since the damn' state won't let us shoot them.

[Sam Cree]

So, Rosie, do you hear these things at night? Pretty interesting, I wonder what danger they could pose.

[JimVT]

I wouldn't mind having a couple in my neighborhood.

It might solve the the problem of cats allowed to wander around crapping in my garden and elswhere.

[KeyBored]

Wolves in Vermont?

Saw the headline, and thought the thread would be about Leaky Leahy or Jumpin' Jeffords.

If it were about them, I'd say keep them in Vermont - don't send them to Washington to plaque the rest of us.

[toddst]

. . . as a backpacker I would kind of like the romance that wolves add to an evening in the mountains.

The wolves won't be such wonderful company for you if their numbers go up. Backpackers will become endangered, as opposed to wolves. The romance of it goes away quick.

[BillCompton]

The wolves won't be such wonderful company for you if their numbers go up. Backpackers will become endangered, as opposed to wolves. The romance of it goes away quick.

Unless they have rabies, wolves are not dangerous. You have watched one too many disney movies.

[Betteboop]

There are signs on the ski lifts at Killington that say: "These woods are as dark and lonely as they were two hundred years ago--don't ski off the marked trails!"

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

I had one for a pet once. He was the sweetest thing imaginable, except for his unbreakable urge to eat my chickens. The reaction he got from dogs we met in the park was remarkable. They would turn inside out when they smelled him. I was training security and guide dogs at the time. He could do either superbly.

Definitely NOT for amateurs, however. You could train him to do anything but could never intimidate him. You definitely couldn't spank him except while he was a puppy.

I still miss him.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Perhaps they're just dropping to form civil unions?

[toddst]

Unless they have rabies, wolves are not dangerous. You have watched one too many disney movies.

I disagree. Back up your assertion, please. As a varmiter I can tell you that feral dog packs are very dangerous to people. This is well documented throughout the south by surveyers and others working the timber stands. And you are going to tell me that wolf packs are not a threat to humans? I want to see some evidence.

[sasquatch]

Unless they have rabies, wolves are not dangerous. You have watched one too many disney movies.

Shall I assume you are not a farmer or rancher?

[sasquatch]

I live in Will County, in a somewhat still rural area of the county. Frankly, I welcome the wolves back. The deer population here has EXPLODED and something needs to trim the deer herd back since the damn' state won't let us shoot them.

See #14 and consider this: What are you going to do when the wolf population is out of control? Shoot them?

[armourup]

Two or three years ago when they released wolves on the NM AZ border a newly retired AZ man shot one of the wolves that was running toward him to attack in his rv camp with other family members. Poor guy thought he was going to spend his retirement in prison! I a can guarentee you that with the liberal politics in goverment that if there was ANY question that his version was not accurate he would be in prison right now!

I personally met some guys in NM that watched Game Commission guys shoot cow elk in the hip so the wolves would pick up the blood trail and "get their kill" on a wounded elk. The Game Commission denied it of course.

I had a enviromental biologist friend who about 5 years ago met a group of biology grad students from U of A in the field on Gray's Ranch. (The Gray Ranch is essentially the boothill of NM and is owned by the Nature Conservancy.) He asked them how many Mexican gray wolves they had counted. Answer: none. He informed that he personally had seen 4 different wolves on the Ranch. They were developing a managment plan without even doing a real inventory of what was there! Yes, I'm talking about real native Mexican gray wolves, not those dog mixed half baked domestics that the Game Commission is releasing!

The animal in the article may have been a coyote-dog mix. Also in NM, about 5 years ago, we picked up a dog from the pound for my youngest son...looked like a nice little shepard mix. Maggie turned out to be a coyote mix! Damn thing run down to the neighbors house and killed a chicken every time you loosed it!

[Righty1]

Coyotes are the best check on cat populations. Where I live we have a huge abundance of birds because there are NO feral cats. Coyotes will perform magic acts to steal a cat.

[Vinnie]

The deer population would certainly benefit from their presence.

From the reports I've read, everywhere wolves have been introduced, the deer population has plummeted.

Actually, I think the re-introduction has a motive other than 'natural, native species'.
If deer and elk become scarce then hunting can be stopped. The liberals can argue there is no need for firearms at all. ( Some liberals grudgingly give us hunting as a reason to own certain types of firearms.)

[JimVT]

Well, according to the info below maybe I should be looking to import some coyotes into the neighborhood.

Coyotes were found only in the Great Plains and western areas until relatively recently. The existence of coyotes in Vermont was first documented in 1948; they apparently moved into our area from New York(1) and southern Quebec as they migrated eastward from the upper Midwest.

(1)Along with the Sanders Socialists.

[TigersEye]

Sounds like you live in SW NM. I lived near Pinos Altos from '98 - '00. Loved it there.

Another thing that wolf releases in AZ/NM have proved is that wolves will take livestock before wild game like deer and elk. Once they learn (and it doesn't take long) that domestic critters are easier than wild ones that will be their preference. They aren't stupid.