Bowhunter chased up tree by wolves in GMU 121!

[buckfvr]

Nothing said here means a lick of spit..............in the end, every individual will do what hes going to do when and if faced with it, some will talk about it others wont.  Act any way you want on here, it dont mean spit.  None of it.

[turkeyfeather]

Nothing said here means a lick of spit..............in the end, every individual will do what hes going to do when and if faced with it, some will talk about it others wont.  Act any way you want on here, it dont mean spit.  None of it.

I'm pretty damn sure I know what I would do.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

I'm not worried about you;  I'm worried that people like you will have encounters with wolves - people with very little means of self defense or no means at all - and that will teach wolves not to fear humans in a cumulative manner - and that could get a momma walking her dog into big trouble as in the video link I posted previously.

I guess then by your logic, that momma out walking her dog needs to be reprimanded too for not packing heat and for bringing a wolf attractor with her on her walk. She needs to be teaching those wolves a lesson darn it!

Anyone out walking anywhere "not packing heat" should be reprimanded, but especially in wolf country - be that Idaho, WA, or Chicago. Yes, you are correct. Wolves need to be taught to fear man. In WA so far, that's not the case and we're seeing the repercussions from that.

Bears have been hunted to high heaven forever, and are still more likely to kill you by 1000% than a wolf. When they make up their mind, I don't think fear of a gun is going to stop them.  In my day, I've had close (when I say close, I mean 50 yards or less) encounters with bears, both black and brown, and both armed and unarmed (yes I sometimes go unarmed in bear country the same as in wolf country). Having or not having a gun never affected the outcome one bit. Usually once a bear is aware of you, if they have a choice they will try to go the opposite direction but they also try to "save face" so will usually take their time about it. It can be nerve wracking for sure, whether armed or unarmed. The most scared I ever was I happened to be armed as I was deer hunting. Part of the reason was that it happened so fast, and when I first saw the bear it was running right at me at about 25 yards. But it stopped on a small knoll about 20 yards from me and my buddy who was behind me and was sniffing the air while turning his head in all directions. I had my gun on the bear when he stopped and I hollered to my friend, "There's a bear". The bear then looked down and saw us and turned and ran. We gave him time, then quickly got high on the mt. and out of the alder jungle we had been in so we could see better. In hind sight, I don't think the bear was charging us, but trying to locate us because he had either smelled us or heard us. As soon as he knew where we were, he got out of there. Another incident happened when a young lady and I went for a hike unarmed near a remote village on Kodiak. We were on a gravel road that went a couple miles to the town reservoir. About halfway to the reservoir, I heard brush pop just in front of us and told her, "I think there is a bear coming". So we backed up together against a bluff and waited and sure enough, out popped a bear about 50 yards from us on the road. It was obvious right away he knew we were there, but he acted like he hadn't noticed us. He'd look off to one side, then snap his head around and stare right at us. Then he casually flopped onto his back and started rolling in the grass at the side of the road. Then just as quickly, he'd snap back onto his feet and stare at us. At one point, he was even licking his privates.  Finally, he decided he was going to walk down the road past us. We continued to face him in an aggressive stance and at about 25 yards, his nerve broke and he walked down into the brush and circled around us and came back up to the road about 50 yards past us and continued down the road towards the village. We figured we might as well continue our hike so we went on to the lake and then walked back to the village, never seeing that bear or any other bear the rest of our trip. You might think that was more scary than the first bear when I had a rifle, but from his body language, I didn't sense any ill will from him, plus in that particular village, there is a salmon stream that bears come to feed in right in town and the bears and humans there co-exist with each other without incident that I have heard of, so I figured this bear probably wasn't looking for trouble. Plus that first bear was running at me. And you can't appreciate how fast a big brownie can move until you see it.

These are just a couple examples of close encounters I've had.

My point? When we feel pressured or trapped, it's easy to misjudge the motives of animal we know can do us serious harm. But every close encounter is not necessarily and animal trying to test us to see if we are gonna become dinner. Sometimes the animal is just curious, and other times they were just as unlucky as we were to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And other times something else like the smell of blood brought them in. I know I was probably lucky a time or two. I've had friends who felt they had to shoot bears to save their own skin and I won't question their judgment. I also know people who killed bears that had no clue people were in the area, just because they were bears, not because they were threatened. I do question that. But I can tell you 100%, I've never heard of any of my friends in Alaska having to kill a wolf they felt threatened by.

As for packing heat any time you were out? If I was going to pack, it would be for the human vermin I might encounter not for any animal.

[pianoman9701]

Sitka, My point was more that everyone should carry a firearm when they leave the house to go anywhere, but since the can of worms is open,...

It's a fact that the wolves in WA have no or very little fear of man. They haven't been hunted. They've seen man, smelled him and heard him, and there's been no negative stimuli. As you said, bears have been hunted all along - I'm not sure about "high heaven", but whatever. And, just because you've never been attacked doesn't mean that it's not going to happen to someone else. The odds of someone being attacked by wolves may be small, but they exist and as we get more of them and still don't hunt them, those odds will increase. These are not bears. They're not cougars. And, they're not the wolves that were here before. This are big, hungry, coordinated hunters of opportunity. They will kill people if they get the right opportunity. It's a not a matter of "if", but of "when".

[jackelope]

Do you think deer hunting is what made deer afraid of people?

[pianoman9701]

Do you think deer hunting is what made deer afraid of people?

Really Jackelope? We're comparing the reactions of a prey species to those of an apex predator? Surely you're joking. Wolves use cognition - they're able to think, coordinate, consciously use long and short term memory. Deer rely almost completely on instinct.

[turkeyfeather]

Do you think deer hunting is what made deer afraid of people?

Absolutely!

[jackelope]

Do you think deer hunting is what made deer afraid of people?

Really Jackelope? We're comparing the reactions of a prey species to those of an apex predator? Surely you're joking. Wolves use cognition - they're able to think, coordinate, consciously use long and short term memory. Deer rely almost completely on instinct.

Yes really.

[jackelope]

Do you think deer hunting is what made deer afraid of people?

Absolutely!

So in areas where deer have never seen people or been hunted, they just run up and roll over looking for a belly rub?

[turkeyfeather]

Do you think deer hunting is what made deer afraid of people?

Absolutely!

So in areas where deer have never seen people or been hunted.

Is there such an area?

[jackelope]

Do you think deer hunting is what made deer afraid of people?

Absolutely!

So in areas where deer have never seen people or been hunted.

Is there such an area?

Sure there is. Especially  "No Hunting" areas.
Deer are still terrified of people in no hunting areas.

[jackelope]

Here's my one and only point in this page of the debate from me. I'm not intending to start a pissing match or an argument...but

It's a fact that the wolves in WA have no or very little fear of man. They haven't been hunted. They've seen man, smelled him and heard him, and there's been no negative stimuli.

I don't think the lack of hunting or other negative stimuli are the reasons that wolves are not afraid of people. I also think that only a small portion of the wolves in this state have been close enough, or have had enough interaction at all with man, to build a fear.
I don't think the hunter in this original story got "chased up a tree" either. I think he got scared because wolves were obviously in the area, and decided to climb a tree. Call it what you want, but I wouldn't personally call it getting chased up a tree.

[pianoman9701]

OK, we disagree on this. I believe they have little fear of man because thus far, man hasn't been a threat. Whether or not the guy in the story is telling the truth, I have no basis whatsoever to make a judgment on that.

[jackelope]

OK, we disagree on this. I believe they have little fear of man because thus far, man hasn't been a threat. Whether or not the guy in the story is telling the truth, I have no basis whatsoever to make a judgment on that.

Agreed. My only judgement that I made was based on the story as it was written on here.
 

[wolfbait]

In the Methow Valley it's hard to get a shot at a coyote if they see you first, wolves on the other hand will pace back an forth or just sit their and watch when you whistle at them.  Wolves will come right up on your porch and try to kill your dog. They will kill deer in your front yard. But then you have to remember, coyotes have been hunted steady forever, wolves haven't and they have no respect for man.