Yellowstone wolves move on to Bison

[hunter399]

It's interesting, on the mountain in the central part of Okanogan county that I've been hunting since 92. We went from seeing on average 15 Mule deer, 3 to 5 Whitetails per day and no Moose whatsoever during the early years to seeing at most a dozen Mule deer, no Whitetails whatsoever and 2 to 3 Moose in an entire season over the last few years. Based on the sign, it's possible that there's a few more deer than what the few daytime sightings indicate but the few deer that are there, have all changed their behavior to where seeing them during the daylight hours is just a fluke. All of the tried and true places to sit at dawn and the last hour of daylight that produced opportunities for years have became really nice quiet places to relax before going back to camp to cook dinner. The one new situation that's really nice is the "guard dogs" that roam the outskirts of camp most nights, howling and carrying on so nothing will mess with you while you're trying to sleep.
 It's too bad I don't have a better poker face. I just don't think I can pull off with a straight face, no really ma'am, when it came through the trees, I totally thought that thing was a really big Mule deer.

Ya I see a lot of changes in the past ten years or so.

[wolfbait]

No different than NE Washington.
Most don't realize that moose hunting will be gone soon and all your points will be worthless.
Deer and elk will go to permit only,the only place you'll find a deer or elk is in someone backyard.
Where wolves won't go.

Not every place is a biodiversity/natural habitat as Yellowstone, although seems as if many people in Washington are trying to go that direction.

  Except

Wolves don't have a problem killing deer in the yard, had two come through my yard the other night, one left a track 3/4 the size of my baseball hat. Had two looking in our living room window in 2004.

Ten years ago or so wolves killed a deer in my uncles yard right next to the house, of course fitkin came and investigated, he said it wasn't wolves. Game warden at the time told my uncle it was wolves and they were training the pups to hunt, there were guts strung out all over.

[nwwanderer]

Stop spending money on them, give them the same status as a coyote, they (and we) will be fine.  The are beyond recovered and will become an expanding problem without pressure.  Protect them and your porch is a dinner site, pursue them and they are generally not a problem.  With pressure stock losses would decrease and the budget to pay for losses should be small, no pressure and continued spending is a recipe for failure.