wolves in washington

[RustneckNW]

Just imagine one of those buggers coming in to your predator call!

[caseyv21]

wolves only eat 25% of what they kill, they are the only animal that i know of that kill for fun. as far as i'm concerned its shoot, shovel, and shut up. I refuse to let wolves kill off the washington elk herds as they have already done in montana and idaho

[7mmfan]

I fish and hunt up the Skagit valley a lot and a few years ago we ran into these critters on the Sauk river. WAY to big to be coyotes, but don't look like pure breed wolves either. I got out of the boat to get a closer look at them and had two of the adults actually confront me while the pups boogied on up into the woods. I'd say they each weighed close to 100#.

[7mmfan]

Oh there were two adults in the pack that were jet black as well, didn't get any pictures of them though.

[bankwalker]

I fish and hunt up the Skagit valley a lot and a few years ago we ran into these critters on the Sauk river. WAY to big to be coyotes, but don't look like pure breed wolves either. I got out of the boat to get a closer look at them and had two of the adults actually confront me while the pups boogied on up into the woods. I'd say they each weighed close to 100#.

they sure look like wolves to me. i wouldnt dout it at all either.

[norsepeak]

I hunted the middle fork of the clearwater river about 8 years ago and had a whole pack of about 15 wolves come in to our cow calls.  SSS for me.

[SHANE(WA)]

This is a serious issue in NE Wa, the time it has taken to get the moose population and the elk herds to what they are now are going to be effected a ton if they dont get something in place soon to manage these things.Next we will begin to see our moose permits starting to drop, already hard enough to draw

[ICEMAN]

7mmfan, incredible picture. What year? Crap, I do not like to see that...

[highhunter]

Now this is second hand info, but a rather credible source (who works for the tribe) told me that the Yakama's introduced wolves on the res. a few years ago, hence the wolves reported south of I-90. 

[fc2038]

Man I do wish they were not here. I have seen what they are doing to the animal in the north part of the Frank in Idaho. Not a pretty sight

[WAcoyotehunter]

wolves only eat 25% of what they kill, they are the only animal that i know of that kill for fun. as far as i'm concerned its shoot, shovel, and shut up. I refuse to let wolves kill off the washington elk herds as they have already done in montana and idaho

I'm not so sure about this info.  There are other animals that hunt/kill for practice...coyotes, fox,...?  Though I'm not sure how much this really happens.  The "save the elk" crowd will tell you its common.  I'm inclined to think that hunting/killing is dangerous enough and takes enough energy that wolves know its a waste, and it's dangerous.

Where did you get the 25% figure?

[caseyv21]

a few years back in high school i did my senior project on wildlife biology and i got the chance to work with several biologist out of yakima, i'm not sure exactly which one of the guys gave me those numbers. yes i do understand that coyotes and other predators hunt for fun as well but they don't kill elk or moose.  i do some hunting down around cottonwood idaho in the salmon river region and the rancher that owns the property there said that he's seen a pack of wolves suround a herd of elk and got them cornered in the bottom of a canyon and just wiped them out. now i don't know anymore details i'm just going off of what he told me.

[fc2038]

Hey 7mm did you talk to WDFW about that photo? If so what did they say about it?

[7mmfan]

That picture was taken back in 04' I think, and we did talk to WDFW about it, the guy we talked to was a Game Warden at Rockport and he was pretty tight lipped about it. Said that he had heard about them but didn't have any substantiated evidence that they were a pack that had migrated into the area. He tried to lead on that they were pet wolves of someones that had gone wild and bred with dogs in the area.
*NOTE* Within a year of that we found 2 dead ones, one solid black big male and one colored like the ones in the picture dead beside the river and haven't seen much sign of them since then. I think a few locals decided to SSS.

[270Shooter]

Lets get the "Natives" involved