A Methow Valley rancher lost two calves last fall to unknown but suspected wolves. He said he had heard many reports of people seeing wolves in his range allotment on the west side of the Loup Loup. He calves in the fall and brings the cows down right before the cows calve. His neighboring rancher to the east had told him they had seen 3 wolves one day while riding and two at another time. They actually told the people at the WDFW Okanogan wolf meeting they saw some dead wolves. They were just trying to convince WDFW that if they did not take some sort of action on wolves killing cattle that there are those out there that will fix the problem themselves. He said he had seen some himself but was not aware of any confrontations from his cattle until last fall. He got a report that some of his cattle were up near the top of Loup Loup so he drove up to look for them. He met them hussling down the road at a fast pace and took his dog out to help take them home. The cattle chased his dog and would not respond like they had always in the past. He was amazed at the lack of respect for the dog and in fact the cows kept chaseing his dog instead of running from it. The dog eventually got in front of the cattle and they chased it home which is what he wanted to happen but had never had his cattle respond this way. He was highly suspicious of what caused the cattle to respond with their actions toward the dog. He brought his cattle home and two of his cows were dangerously close to calving. In fact he said those two cows started calving before he got them home only about 30 minutes away so he drove them back up on a hill above the Beaver Creek golf course and left them to calve that night. He went back and checked on them before dark and they had calved fine and the calves had nursed and all was well. Next day he went back up horseback to bring them home. The two calves were completely gone. Something had eaten them. He did not see what it was but whatever it was had a huge appetite and were very brave since the new moms are very protective.
This is a typical observation from ranchers in wolf country. This rancher had never seen in his life of rasing cattle them respond to a dog like these cattle did. He did not see wolves but something killed and eat his two calves in what he said about a 6 hr. stretch between when he observed them and when they came missing. No conclusion can actually be made since nobody saw what killed and ate the calves but if one observes a skunk in his chicken house he has a high suspicion that skunks likely ate his chickens missing.
