Talking about Wolves

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Because we need to, I know this is a subject that has a possibility of getting heated so I want to say that I am not posting this to push anyones buttons. I just want to post this to get some good information out in the open in a place where "horse people" and livestock owners frequent. Discussions as long as they are kept civil can be helpful and healthy.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion - I know that, I just want everyone to be basing their opinions on facts and not on "what they've heard" or "rhetoric from each opposing side of the issue", the media, or on fear. I would love it if you take into consideration the health of the ecosystem too.... please hold all flaming comments till you at least read the facts.... disagreeing comments won't be deleted but if they are mean and directed at specific people they will be.


Here are some wolf facts - some information provided by science to chew on:

photo: Steve Jurvetson/Creative Commons

Wolves are shy by nature and avoid contact with humans. As with other wildlife, wolves should never be fed or approached to avoid habituation to people. Campsites and other areas of human occupation should be kept free of accessible garbage or food. In the very rare chance of a close encounter with a wolf, people should take the same steps as with cougars to avoid problems – stand tall, act aggressively, raise your voice or shout, don’t run, and slowly back away while facing the animal. Yes, they are big - big does not = mean and want to eat you.


Wolves usually consider domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) as territorial threats and may attack and kill them. Responsible dog owners need to keep pets safe when recreating or living in wild country. Dogs should be kept on a leash or kept close by when walking or hiking in areas with wolves.

Although wild wolves primarily feed on elk, deer, and moose, they will occasionally prey on domestic livestock (much like Mountain Lions will).  Livestock producers can prevent or reduce the chance of such attacks in several ways, including removal of sick, injured, or dead livestock from grazing areas, use of herders like llamas or guard dogs, keeping livestock in pens or corrals at night, and delaying of livestock turnout on grazing areas with wolves until after calving.

Wolf tracks are about five inches long by four inches wide, with four symmetrical toes and evident claws, and a single lobe on the front of the foot pad. Coyote tracks are similar, but about half that size; even the largest dog breeds usually have smaller tracks. The paths of wolves usually show a direct, energy-efficient or purposeful route, whereas those of dogs often meander.

Wolves are highly social and live in packs. The pack usually consists of a dominant breeding pair (an alpha male and alpha female), their offspring from the previous year, and new pups. Other breeding-age adults may be present. The pack hunts, feeds, travels, and rests together. It also shares pup-rearing responsibilities, including hunting and tending pups. Pack size is highly variable, but commonly averages 4 to11 animals.

With their large body size, powerful jaws, large teeth, speed, endurance, and habit of hunting in packs, wolves are keenly adapted to hunt large prey. In the central and northern Rocky Mountains of the United States and Canada, elk are often the favored prey, but deer and moose are more important in some areas. Despite their hunting abilities, the majority of wolf hunts are unsuccessful. Wolves are selective hunters and tend to prey mainly on younger, older, and debilitated animals. This can leave prey herds with more animals of prime age and in good health, thereby enhancing productivity.

Wolves will also scavenge carrion and eat smaller animals such as rodents.

A pack will establish a large territory. Territory boundaries and sizes can vary from year to year, but usually average about 140-400 square miles. Territory size is often smaller when prey is common and other packs live nearby.

Wolves can benefit natural plant and animal communities in a number of ways. Wolf predation can prevent the overpopulation of prey, thereby helping maintain the natural occurrence of some plant and other wildlife species in ecosystems. (For example, in Yellowstone National Park where wolves were eliminated, over-browsing by too many elk during the past 80-100 years has caused substantial changes in riparian habitats, including severe declines in small and medium-sized cottonwood and aspen trees.)

Increased availability of wolf-killed carcasses can help scavenging animals, such as black bears, grizzly bears, wolverines, foxes, mink, ravens, magpies, jays, crows, golden eagles, bald eagles, and vultures, especially during winter when other foods become scarce.

Wolves DO NOT kill for fun. This is a myth. They don't, really. This is what leads to that thinking: Entire herds of sheep wiped out in Wyoming by a pack of wolves in one night. Ranchers see that the wolves have only eaten one or two of them and wasted the others and think "The wolves were killing for the fun of it" In reality what was happening was this: Wolves hunt differently than coyotes  and lions - they are not used to hunting and killing prey that is helpless, contained in a fence, and in general doesn't try to get away. They are opportunistic just like any other animal and are programed to go after and catch prey on the run, and while they may have begun the hunt focused on a single young animal, when they attacked and the heard didn't flee a different instinct kicked in. The instinct that says "There's one! GET IT! Bring it down now while you can!" Wolves never know if they can catch the intended target. As long as there are more sheep standing around the next one is targeted, then the next, this can become a loop and each member of the attacking pack will bring down sheep after sheep after until they are almost all dead.  This doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen. In a wild predator's mind they NEVER have enough meat, its feast or famine all. the. time. This is the way a predator must act to survive. When ranchers see this - distraught over their loss and the carnage, and apparent waste they come to the "emotionally incorrect" conclusion that they wolves were killing for fun.


After the herd of sheep disperses, the wolves see what is dead and feed on those animals.  With wild herds such as antelope and elk, a wolf may only manage to sink its teeth into one small or weak animal, as the flight-drive of these wild prey is so attuned.  Sheep, being so domesticated, are easily flustered and simply don’t have the instinct to flee.  And so the wolf hits many.


Wolves may wound animals and let younger members of the pack kill and eat the animal to teach them how to hunt and kill, this may appear as if they are playing, but again, they are not.

Wikimedia Creative Commons / Photo by Daniel Mott 

Here is my Opinion

I live in an area where, for the first time since the 1920s, is claimed as range by a confirmed wolf pack. This does not bother me. There have been several non-violent,  though scary, human/wolf interactions with one interaction ending in a human death, I believe, in Eastern Washington this past year. This also does not bother me. I have a horse on pasture in a rural area - sometimes he can get quite along distance away from the house - this also doesn't bother me. Along with wolves we have Mountain Lions that are spotted regularly just up the road from us and we see Bears every summer within a quarter mile of our house. One winter we had a Bob Cat take up residence under out back deck, and we have a bunch Coyotes that are very much not afraid of people. I am more concerned about the Coyotes than I am of Wolves, Mountain Lions or Bears. 

I grew up in the woods - literally, the nearest town was 12 miles away and it was tiny. We're not talking a city here, we're talking about town with 2 grocery stores, a sawmill, a small underfunded hospital, some bars and a bunch of churches to help keep all us rural sinners in line. The biggest thing to hit the town in years was getting a McDonalds. It was just an accepted fact of life that every year we heard about someone getting killed or attacked by a Mountain Lion, Bear or some other form of wildlife. Sometimes it was a child and that was always really sad, the offending animal was usually taken care of swiftly - but it does happen. We didn't freak out, go on a rampage and try to kill all the Mountain Lions or Bears, we'd cry out for a longer hunting season or more tags for the animal in question but that was about it. Shit happens, shit with wildlife happens when you live in rural areas, its just a fact of life. We had cattle, horses, dogs, cats and birds. Every year some wayward Mountain Lion would attack someone's livestock or get in the habit of eating sheep and it would have to be taken care of. It was sad, it was a financial loss for the rancher, but life goes on. 

I used to and STILL frequently go for rides, hikes, camping trips and walks in the woods alone and completely enjoy myself, am careful, but in general don't worry about getting eaten. Yes I pack a firearm, yes I have encountered those animals before without killing them or them hurting me, and I think everyone should pack regardless of what lurks in the woods, does this mean I won't ever get eaten? Nope - I could be killed the very next time I go for a walk --- by human or animal. I am more afraid of humans. If it is my fate to be killed by a wild animal, it won't be pleasant and it really doesn't matter which animal it is....does it? I will take my chances with the wolves any day over Mr. Serial killer who has "plans" for me.

In rural communities we accept these top end predators as a part of our lives and the world we live in. We know how to keep ourselves and our animals some what safe and we protect them, we know the rules you have to follow. In my mind I wonder why wolves would be any different than anything else?? But they are - ask my parents who vehemently are against letting the wolves come back. I have argued with them, but to no avail, searching for some logic trying to understand. I do understand their point of not trusting anything spearheaded by the government.

But I almost feel like saying, if you can't handle the threat of losing some livestock, or your pets or yourself to a predator, ANY PREDATOR, then you are living in the wrong darn area. Time to move back to the city. But that's really inflammatory isn't it? However, I am pro-hunting. So if, at some point in time Wolves come back to the point where their population can be hunted with no ill effects I think it should be allowed - IF the population has come back sufficiently, and not because there have been a few incidents and people are freaking out. The trouble comes, i think when folks aren't allowed, or think they aren't allowed, to defend themselves. They want to blow away the first wolf they see walking across their property, but the law says they can't so they get pissed. I would be more inclined to load up some bird shot and spray the offending canines with a bunch of shot from a distance so as not to kill but to scare.... which is perfectly legal (and proven effective for the short term I might add) and might encourage them to hunt elsewhere as I have done with Mountain Lions, Coyotes and even Bears.... but that's just me.....

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Yellowstone Wolves

So, the debate continues. It’s a difficult position we are put in, having to make these kinds of decisions.  But we are required to make them, simply because we took the wolf out of the equation to begin with, not knowing what consequences that might bring naming ourselves custodians of the land. Since then we have taken over so much of the land in this country, paved it, built super-stores upon it, but we still don't want all the wild animals gone. Do we keep and manage only the ones we like? Can we learn to live with the wolf? It is a concept that everyone should be actively thinking about, regardless of whether you live in one of the few remaining rural areas or the cities or the suburbs.

Some Additional Reading:

The Nine Mile Wolves by Rick Bass - The New Wolves (About Southwestern American Wolf) by Rick Bass