God damn wolves!!
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 12:07 am
Well, this story started yesterday actually, I just didn’t read it till today. Yesterday morning, we were in one of our favorite drainages looking for cat tracks to run the dogs on. As we were driving up the road we saw 7 sets of wolf tracks come off the hill and cross the road in front of us, they looked to be from the night before. The road forked, just up ahead and I thought I’d run up that road just to see which direction the wolves had gone. By taking the right fork, one could just about circle the area. The 7 wolf tracks had crossed the road heading out, only they were much fresher. They were all running there, so I figured I had probably spooked them with the sound of the snow mobile. We didn’t think much of it and ran the rest of the roads, but didn’t find any cat tracks.
Today, we went up the same road. One female cat track heading to the area where the wolves had been (the circle). Before we turned the dogs loose, we ran the right fork as we had done yesterday to see if we could freshen up the cat track. Up ahead further is the tracks of a female and one kitten leaving the circle. Up ahead a little further yet is a female track going out of the circle. I immediately became curious and concerned because this is the area where a female and 2 kittens had been hanging for most of the winter. We treed the family once and had seen there tracks a few times since, but never dumped any dogs on them again, because I didn’t want to harass her too much. Each time, she had both kittens with her.
It was getting late in the day and too late to be dumping dogs out on anything, so LeRee and I decided to check things out. I had a sickening feeling that there was a confrontation with the family of cats and the wolves.
We started by backtracking the female and kitten tracks. We didn’t go far and there was a jumble of tracks going everywhere. After spending 4 hours walking out all the tracks, here is the story that was left “on the white pages” as Walt Earl would say. That female and 2 kittens had a deer kill up on that hill. The wolves must have smelled it from down wind as that is the direction they had come from. They had devoured the deer scattering pieces over a 75 yard stretch of the hill. The wolves had also jerked one of the kittens out of a small leaner tree and killed and devoured it. The female and single kitten leaving the area were on top of all the wolf tracks. They must have been in the trees nearby while all this was happening. From where the deer kill was, there was a heavy wolf trail to another group of trees maybe 80 yards to the east. I suspect this is where the cats were. We could see where the wolves had come back and forth to the area where the cats had been, even scratching at the bark of one of the trees. At the base of the small leaner, which had enough snow on it to see that there had been a kitten up it and wolf tracks on it, you could see where the kitten had finally jumped and ran down the hill or had been jerked out of the tree by a wolf. It had run down the hill maybe fifty yards where it was obvious it had been killed and entirely consumed. The only thing we could find was portions of the kittens hair and hide and lots of bloody snow.
Now, I know it is going to be hard to imagine that we know all this, just by the pictures, but we spent 4 hours in there walking out all the tracks and it was an area only about 400-500 yards around and too be honest, there was not much to take pictures of. The other set of female tracks going in and coming out were where we believe she went back, (first circling down wind) to search for her missing kitten after stashing the one kitten. These tracks were fresher than the set of her and the kitten that had left the area. Needless to say, LeRee and I both left feeling sick about the kitten and having a renewed hatred for wolves.
This is where we figured the kitten that was killed was treed then killed by the wolves.
This is all that was left of the deer kill, 2 legs and a piece of hide...
and this piece of the skull.
Here is where a wolf clawed at the bark of a tree one of the cats was in.
Here is all that we could find of the kitten....
A few pieces of hide like this.
This is a picture of one of the kittens when we treed them about a week and a half ago.
**Also, before anyone says anything about running females with kittens, I usually make it a point not to, the one time we did run her, I only turned out my old dog and one other and I figured the kittens to be about 40-45 pounds, plenty big to climb a tree.
Today, we went up the same road. One female cat track heading to the area where the wolves had been (the circle). Before we turned the dogs loose, we ran the right fork as we had done yesterday to see if we could freshen up the cat track. Up ahead further is the tracks of a female and one kitten leaving the circle. Up ahead a little further yet is a female track going out of the circle. I immediately became curious and concerned because this is the area where a female and 2 kittens had been hanging for most of the winter. We treed the family once and had seen there tracks a few times since, but never dumped any dogs on them again, because I didn’t want to harass her too much. Each time, she had both kittens with her.
It was getting late in the day and too late to be dumping dogs out on anything, so LeRee and I decided to check things out. I had a sickening feeling that there was a confrontation with the family of cats and the wolves.
We started by backtracking the female and kitten tracks. We didn’t go far and there was a jumble of tracks going everywhere. After spending 4 hours walking out all the tracks, here is the story that was left “on the white pages” as Walt Earl would say. That female and 2 kittens had a deer kill up on that hill. The wolves must have smelled it from down wind as that is the direction they had come from. They had devoured the deer scattering pieces over a 75 yard stretch of the hill. The wolves had also jerked one of the kittens out of a small leaner tree and killed and devoured it. The female and single kitten leaving the area were on top of all the wolf tracks. They must have been in the trees nearby while all this was happening. From where the deer kill was, there was a heavy wolf trail to another group of trees maybe 80 yards to the east. I suspect this is where the cats were. We could see where the wolves had come back and forth to the area where the cats had been, even scratching at the bark of one of the trees. At the base of the small leaner, which had enough snow on it to see that there had been a kitten up it and wolf tracks on it, you could see where the kitten had finally jumped and ran down the hill or had been jerked out of the tree by a wolf. It had run down the hill maybe fifty yards where it was obvious it had been killed and entirely consumed. The only thing we could find was portions of the kittens hair and hide and lots of bloody snow.
Now, I know it is going to be hard to imagine that we know all this, just by the pictures, but we spent 4 hours in there walking out all the tracks and it was an area only about 400-500 yards around and too be honest, there was not much to take pictures of. The other set of female tracks going in and coming out were where we believe she went back, (first circling down wind) to search for her missing kitten after stashing the one kitten. These tracks were fresher than the set of her and the kitten that had left the area. Needless to say, LeRee and I both left feeling sick about the kitten and having a renewed hatred for wolves.
This is where we figured the kitten that was killed was treed then killed by the wolves.
This is all that was left of the deer kill, 2 legs and a piece of hide...
and this piece of the skull.
Here is where a wolf clawed at the bark of a tree one of the cats was in.
Here is all that we could find of the kitten....
A few pieces of hide like this.
This is a picture of one of the kittens when we treed them about a week and a half ago.
**Also, before anyone says anything about running females with kittens, I usually make it a point not to, the one time we did run her, I only turned out my old dog and one other and I figured the kittens to be about 40-45 pounds, plenty big to climb a tree.
How close to P-burg were you?