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Wolves in Idaho

Wolves attack young hunters

I am turning off commenting as the moron meter is about to explode.

It is disgusting that I have to put this statement out there. My goal with this post is not to infuriate but to educate the public on a potential threat to their safety. It IS NOT a political statement. My statements are based on an extensive science background and experience in the outdoors over 330 days a year.

I witnessed an encounter with a pack of wolves where another hunter had to shoot a charging wolf to protect his young cousins. While duck hunting early Saturday morning with my sons, a single wolf snuck up behind us and wandered out on the exposed river bed. I think the wolves are struggling to find food after a mild winter. Wolves can’t prey on deer during the winter with little snow effectively. They have resorted to trying to catch ducks and geese feeding on the smartweed and grass growing on the exposed river bed. This may be why the following encounter occurred.

About the time we saw the wolf on the river bed, a group of young hunters was surrounded by wolves 300 yards east of us. 5 wolves surrounded the 19 year old and his 8 and 12 year old family members. One wolf was 10 feet behind their blind and the other was 15 feet down the shoreline. The pack was barking and growling at the young hunters despite the older hunter yelling at them. When the wolf on the shoreline lunged at them he shot it in the face. The wolf jumped around for awhile and put its face in the water. When it died , the other wolf grabbed it by the neck and tried to drag it away. The young man was still shaking 3 hours afterward when he told us the details.

I think this brazen behavior has been brought on by poor feeding conditions for the wolves. There are an unprecedented number of livestock and dog depredations this year and this has to be a contributing factor. I am pretty sure there are 4 overlapping packs in this area. I have attached a map of the area east of the Rainbow and north of Dam lake that has the aggressive pack or packs. Wolf sign is abundant here.

Yes, the young hunter contacted the DNR to report the incident. We hunted the area this morning and it appears that the dead wolf was dragged into the woods.

We chose to photoshop an image of the reality of wolf attacks on livestock using real Mexican wolf photographs and substituting content livestock photos to make it appear to be a problematic situation. We chose to do this so our billboards would not traumatize young children when they travel on the highway and see them.

The image is indicative of a real immanent wolf attack that happens near daily in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery area where ranchers have run cattle and raised families since the mid 1800’s.

But please be warned, this website will contain the actual impacts of wolf reintroduction on ranchers and their livestock as well as the publics other wildlife. Please be aware that all other photographs displayed on this website area real and not photoshopped. Keep your children away from the website if you feel it is too much for them to handle.