Wolves

[curteric]

Interesting article in The Duluth News Tribune Sunday edition.
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/247209/publisher_ID/36/



Former bounty hunter thinks Minnesota wolf season may be tough goingReynold Laakso was among the last of those who trapped gray wolves in Minnesota for bounty payments in the 1960s.By: Sam Cook, Duluth News Tribune

• Reynold Laakso of Two Harbors

• 
  Reynold Laakso of Two Harbors describes some of the techniques he used when he was trapping wolves for bounty during the 1950s and 1960s. Laakso trapped with Buck “Bucko” Snyder of Ash Lake, one of Minnesota’s premier wolf trappers. (Bob King / rking@duluthnews.com)

[/list]Reynold Laakso thinks Minnesota’s wolf hunters may have a tough go this fall, especially those hunting during deer season.
“Having coffee with the boys, I asked them, ‘When you were deer hunting, how many wolves did you see in your lifetime?’ Some said, ‘One.’ Some, ‘Two.’ I can’t see how they can get ’em hunting unless they use bait. Even then, they might have to sit there a week or two weeks,” Laakso said.
Laakso, 86, knows something about the taking of wolves. The former conservation officer from Two Harbors was among the last trappers who caught wolves for bounty payments back in the 1950s and early 1960s.
He trapped with Buck “Bucko” Snyder of Ash Lake, whom many considered among the best who ever trapped wolves in Minnesota.
On a cloudy afternoon this past week, Laakso paged through an album of black and white photos of his early days, some of them depicting his wolf trapping.
“Timber wolves are easier to trap than coyotes,” Laakso said. “It’s easy after you get the method.”
But trapping wolves was always hard work. Laakso and Snyder would drive up a remote road. One man would go one way for three or four miles on foot. The other would go the same distance in the other direction. They trapped the country from Orr to Ely.
“I think we got around 18 timbers the last year me and Bucko trapped. Sometimes it would be a dozen, you know. Sometimes less,” Laakso said.
Snyder, in a 1982 interview with the News Tribune, said he trapped 50 wolves one year. A wolf would bring $35 in bounty payment in 1965, the year the bounty ended.
Snyder was well-known regionally as a wolf trapper. To make money, he taught his trapping techniques to other trappers and sold his homemade scents. Laakso, then a young man in his 20s, paid Snyder $100 to teach him trapping techniques, and he bought scents from Snyder.
“The biggest thing is having good scent,” Laakso said. “You’d put it in front of the trap, and the wolf would have to step on the trap.”
Laakso used No. 4 Newhouse leg-hold traps for wolves, a large double-spring trap with smooth jaws. The trap was secured to a log or tree. Once sprung, the wolf could not escape and would remain alive until the trapper arrived. The wolf was then shot in the head with a .22-caliber rifle, Laakso said.
He had about 100 wolf traps and another 80 to 100 snares, he estimated. Snares are loops of strong wire suspended from a branch along a trail. When a wolf entered the snare and proceeded ahead, the wire loop would tighten around the wolf’s neck, choking it to death in most cases.
Wolves were usually docile when found in a Newhouse trap, Laakso said.
“But you had to be careful of a bobcat or lynx,” Laakso said. “They’d jump at you.”
The scent that Snyder and Laakso used near their traps was made from the glands of wolves, Laakso said.
“The rectum, parts around the rectum and all his other external glands,” Laakso said.
A wolf would be attracted to the scent, much as any dog is attracted to scent, he said.
“You see dogs. They walk up to another dog and sniff the other dog’s rear end,” Laakso said. “I imagine wolves do that, too.”
Sometimes rotting deer meat would be used in a scent mixture, he said.
Like many trappers, Laakso and Snyder boiled their traps and dipped them in wax to seal in any human scent. After that, they would handle the traps only with gloves. Another set of gloves was used for handling scent, Laakso said, and carefully put away afterward.
An average wolf weighed 70 to 75 pounds, Laakso said.
“You hear a lot of people talk about 100-pound wolves,” he said. “I had a couple that might have been close to that.”
Asked about his attitude toward wolves, Laakso didn’t hesitate.
“Oh, I respect them,” he said.
He quit trapping actively after he became a Department of Natural Resources conservation officer in 1964. He served in Hill City for one year, then in Two Harbors until he retired in 1987. Minnesota’s wolves were added to the federal Endangered Species List in 1974, and it became illegal for citizens to hunt or trap them.
Laakso said he’s “kind of neutral” on the matter of wolves being removed from the Endangered Species List and now being hunted and trapped again.
“I see there are groups who want to protect them, but I don’t see how you can protect them. … I think they should be controlled a little bit,” he said. “One big surprise was when the wolf population was high, the deer population was real high. The hunting and poaching probably makes as much difference (to the deer population) as the wolves killing them.”

[mjh]

Thanks
Interesting to hear from an old timer who's been there.

[ihookem]

The old man is way wrong in some ways, although I never even seen a wild wolf. He thinks we will have tough going filling our quotas.  A lot has changed since then. 1: at 35 bucks a wolf hide them wolves were trapped, snared and shot a every chance a hunter or local got  a chance. 2: there are a lot more wolves out there because of being protected for 40 years.   Noe days many say wolves just stare at ya like they are waiting for a hand out. I have heard many stories of them coming right into small towns with no fear at all. Wisconsin got 18 wolves the first week it opened since last week.  There are only a few hundred tags out there so there should be no problem by deer season.

[FPH]

The old man is way wrong in some ways, although I never even seen a wild wolf. He thinks we will have tough going filling our quotas.  A lot has changed since then. 1: at 35 bucks a wolf hide them wolves were trapped, snared and shot a every chance a hunter or local got  a chance. 2: there are a lot more wolves out there because of being protected for 40 years.   Noe days many say wolves just stare at ya like they are waiting for a hand out. I have heard many stories of them coming right into small towns with no fear at all. Wisconsin got 18 wolves the first week it opened since last week.  There are only a few hundred tags out there so there should be no problem by deer season.

I'll take the old man's experience over conjecture and anecdotal evidence.

[ihookem]

You can take the old mans experience if ya want!!! The time came and went. Wisconsin wolf quota is all but filled. They even shut down some zone for fear of over harvest (LOL) Minnesota is right the boarder of filling every tag too.   I  WAS RIGHT!!! As a matter of fact some zones in Wisconsin shut down before some of the tag holders even had a chance to get out.