Just read in the paper where the State Of Alaska has been ordered to pay the legal cost of Friends Of Animals. FOA who won a court case against the state last year over aerial Wolf Control has said it will use the money to continue their court battle against the state, to stop all Wolf Control.
And here we are with Wolves running out our ears. They are multiplying faster than we can shoot them from the ground. We even have had wolves come into villages and grab kids. They wreck havok with a dog lot, they will come in and kill every dog if no one is around. Many mushers have lost whole teams to wolves, yet these idiots and the people that feed them money think we need more wolves. Some of our Moose and Caribou herds are in such poor shape now from wolf predation, that it will be decades before they recover, if we are allowed to do something about the wolf predation. The great hunting that got Alaska so much attention in the 50s and 60s was due to the heavy wolf control program done in the 40s is no more. Back then some aerial hunters would take 150 to 200 wolves a day. And trappers using chemicals got many more. (I strongly agree with the ban on chemicals, but not hunting of any kind). They made a dent in the population but a few years of not hunting them and they are right back. You can't kill them off completely, and no one wants to. We just want to lower their numbers that currently are out of control.
There just is not that many hunters out there hunting wolves, and they are hard to hunt. They are the smartest animal you will run across. They will run from most preditor calls, the only ones I have had success with are Wolf howls, Cayote howls, and Fawn Bleats in the spring. I've had some success with feeding Ravens, sometimes then sometimes they run. Any sign that a human has been there and they avoid that area. They will use a snowmachine trail because it is easier than breaking a new trail themselves. But anything out of place such as a stick to guide them to step on a trap and they will back up 100 yards or so and go around. They will take animals out of traps, they seem to know it is safe once an animal is caught. But you will not get them close to a cubby or any other trap set, it's like they have a sixth sense that tells them the trap is there and active. If they hear a snow machine come into a valley they quitely fade into the brush, then head straight out of that valley. If they hear an airplane they will hide in the brush till the airplane is gone, even in areas where they have not been hunted by air for decades. They equate any engine noise to man, and they know man is the only thing out there for them to be afraid of.
To find a pack of wolves I scout till I find tracks going into a valley. I run up the next valley with a snow machine till I get up near the head of the valley. There I get off and walk to the top and look over without skylining myself. I sit down and glass the area. If I see ravens in the air circling an area I start working closer, till I can see what they are circiling. Sometimes it can be wolves, cayotes, foxes, or even an eagle. If it's wolves or cayotes I will try and get close, by going back over the top and working my way in the direction of the pack. Once there I will again cross over and get a good position to shoot from. This is why I need a good long range rifle, and good camoflage. Sometimes the range will be 300 or 400 yards, other times it will be 600 or 700 yards. And with snow covering everything between me and them, there is nothing to hide behind to get closer. I have to take the long shot, or be seen. I have learned to watch the pack to determine the Alpha male and female. Then wait till they are the farthest away from me. Shoot the Alpha male first, the pack will run from the loudest noise, the bullet strike, sometimes in my direction. The Alpha female will lag behind, she will stop and look back for the Alpha male, giving me a good standing shot. The rest of the pack will stop and wait for her, but when I shoot they will again run away from the noise. If they are running parallel to me I keep shooting. If they are coming toward me, I then wait till they get closer, once the Alpha animals are gone the pack will disinergrate, so let them come closer, the better the odds of getting them all. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't.
There is a pack of over twenty four animals (counted from airplanes)right now working the Wood River area. I have run across their sign a few times, gosh there is a lot of animals there. But they always go into the steep mountains, up into sheep country, where I can't follow on a snow machine. I know they are ruining the sheep herd in that area, but so far I or no one I know of has been able to get close enough to them to do any damage. I'm hoping the trapper in a nearby area will take on the challenge. He is a much younger man than I, and the most experienced wolfer that I know of. At two to four hundred dollars a pelt, that could be a chunck of change for him.
