CHAT Might have seen a Wolf today?

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
First thing this morning I went to start our morning fire, but I needed to remove some ash. So I go out on the back deck to grab my Ash Bucket. I heard something moving through the brush below our place. So I'm up 2 1/2 floors above the seasonal creek behind our place. Not twenty yards away across the creek on the up slope is this big critter. Not skitterish like a normal coyote, but pretty self assured. Just looked up and me and took off up the creek on the other slope and threading itself through the brush. Not running but moving quickly.

Now I know coyotes. I know coyo-dogs. I know Shepherds and Shepherd mixes. This critter was close, twenty yards or less away. It was BIG.....at least 90 pounds or better, way bigger than a coyote. It had a thick coat, (it's winter with snow on the ground) mottled grey, brown, dark brown and splashes of white. I looked through all the google search images and I think this critter I saw this morning was either a California Grey Wolf or a very close copy, i.e. a Coyote/German Shepherd cross of some type.

Wish I'd had my cell phone on me and could have taken a quick picture. But regardless....I think it's cool that it MIGHT have been a California Grey Wolf.....could be, maybe.
 
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Meemur

Voice on the Prairie / FJB!
I wouldn't be surprised!

I also suspect that the DNR or others have secretly re-introduced wolves to areas to help control rodent populations.
 

jward

passin' thru
Best get into the habit of carrying that phone; we want pictures : ) I've nver seen a wolf here, though they're around. Seen some big cats, though they're "NOT" according to the local ministry of truth :: rolls eyes ::
 

Double_A

TB Fanatic
First thing this morning I went to start our morning fire, but I needed to remove some ash. So I go out on the back deck to grab my Ash Bucket. I heard something moving through the brush below our place. So I'm up 2 1/2 floors above the seasonal creek behind our place. Not twenty yards away across the creek on the up slope is this big critter. Not skitterish like a normal coyote, but pretty self assured. Just looked up and me and took off up the creek on the other slope and threading itself through the brush. Not running but moving quickly.

Now I know coyotes. I know coyo-dogs. I know Shepherds and Shepherd mixes. This critter was close, twenty yards or less away. It was BIG.....at least 90 pounds or better, way bigger than a coyote. It had a thick coat, (it's winter with snow on the ground) mottled grey, brown, dark brown and splashes of white. I looked through all the google search images and I think this critter I saw this morning was either a California Grey Wolf or a very close copy, i.e. a Coyote/German Shepherd cross of some type.

Wish I'd had my cell phone on me and could have taken a quick picture. But regardless....I think it's cool that it MIGHT have been a California Grey Wolf.....could be, maybe.


Trail Cam's ???
 

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
I actually have had a trail cam set up to capture local critters that would have taken a pic, however I just took down because it wasn't recognizing it's memory card....DAMN!! :bhd:

I've seen coyotes here, bobcats and foxes. My neighbor behind me had a bear on his back deck and regardless of what the official B.S. says, I always side with nature. We also have a Mountain Lion cruising our location....within a hundred yards. LOVE IT!!

It's probably a coyo-dog, but maybe......just maybe....it might....could be.....maybe....a wolf.

.....................and I think it time to start carrying...period!!
 

Double_A

TB Fanatic
I actually have had a trail cam set up to capture local critters that would have taken a pic, however I just took down because it wasn't recognizing it's memory card....DAMN!! :bhd:

I've seen coyotes here, bobcats and foxes. My neighbor behind me had a bear on his back deck and regardless of what the official B.S. says, I always side with nature. We also have a Mountain Lion cruising our location....within a hundred yards. LOVE IT!!

It's probably a coyo-dog, but maybe......just maybe....it might....could be.....maybe....a wolf.

.....................and I think it time to start carrying...period!!


Damm about 15 yrs ago in San Francisco a Black Bear cub was found strolling along, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge!

My brother has trail cams scattered around his fav' hunting area (Nor Cal) he's had some mighty big looking mountain lions passing with 3-5ft of his cams. Cool to see.
 

dioptase

Veteran Member
Someone in our town/small city caught a mountain lion on his backyard cam. One of the open space preserves nearby (just a few miles to the trailhead) has warning signs at the trailhead about mountain lions. Never saw one there, hope never to! (I could see mountain lions coming down from that OSP to that person's house - there was not that much distance between the locations.)

A few years ago, I was walking my dog at the closest county park (through which an urban trail runs). This is a broad open space with few trees, miserably hot during the summer, nowhere really for a mountain lion to hide, except....

There is a bridge off the urban trail, which leads to another less-populated part of the park, where I like to walk. When we went to cross over the bridge (which we had been over a hundred times before) my dog balked. He was shivering, and needed much coaxing to cross the bridge to the other side. Once on the other side he was fine and happy. On the return back, ditto... shivering and balking. This was mid-day, broad daylight, little or no cover anywhere for mountain lions or anything else sizeable, UNLESS if they were maybe denned up under that bridge.

A few days later, it made the news that a mountain lion was treed on that same urban trail a few miles south of where we were. Local LEOs watched it but it caused no problems, and was gone the next day.

I have always wondered since then if a mountain lion WAS denned up under the bridge that day.
 

day late

money? whats that?
It was a couple of years ago. We were having a wet summer, large parts of the front yard were under water. I was at the breakfast table doing something at about 3 in the afternoon. My wife walked up and said,

"Oh, look. A rabbit."

I looked but that was no rabbit. Have you ever seen a cat try to get from here to there, across wet ground without getting it's feet wet? Have you ever seen a bobcat do that? They kind of bounce from dry spot to dry spot sort of like a rabbit hopping. To this day my wife swears that was a big rabbit. All I can say is that rabbits don't have tails, ears or faces like that, but that face would love to be looking at a rabbit.
 

medic38572

TB Fanatic
Best get into the habit of carrying that phone; we want pictures : ) I've nver seen a wolf here, though they're around. Seen some big cats, though they're "NOT" according to the local ministry of truth :: rolls eyes ::
Here ya go this guy trapped his, I was looking for 1 that was shot recently that is being held straight up and is bigger then the man holding it but here ya are.

SRX_WOLF_TRAPPING1.JPG.jpg

Justin Webb poses with one of 18 wolves he's trapped in North Idaho in seven years. Webb is the executive director of the Foundation for Wildlife Management, which pays cash rewards to trappers to kill wolves.


These are several years old.
1614069229033.png
 

zeker

Has No Life - Lives on TB
buddy (native trapper) gets 1 or 2 each month in his snares

last month he caught a fox that stood still and waited

as he released it
 

db cooper

Resident Secret Squirrel
I also suspect that the DNR or others have secretly re-introduced wolves to areas to help control rodent populations.
And deer populations. And moose populations. And cat populations. And dog populations.

My understanding of wolves is they go for the bigger stuff. Minnesota used to be teaming with moose until the lefties introduced wolves.

IMO a wolf is about as trustworthy as a cougar and deserves to be put down on site.
 

Freeholder

This too shall pass.
You are in Northern California, aren't you? There are known to be wolves in Klamath County, just on the other side of the Oregon border -- at least one has a tracking device on it. They were not introduced on purpose, but have ranged into the area from NE Oregon and Idaho. So it's not at all unlikely that they are starting to move down into California, too. As of when we left Oregon three years ago, all of the wolves known to be in Klamath County were males, but it's quite possible that females have joined them by now.

I enjoy seeing wildlife as much as anyone, but do be cautious. There is a reason why our ancestors feared wolves.

Kathleen
 

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
Actually I'm in Southern California in the San Burnardino mountains. There aren't "supposed" to be any wolves this far south. However we have bears, mountain lions, bobcats, coyote and so on....so why not? Although unlikely it is possible. After all animals don't read maps.
 

WalknTrot

Veteran Member
Minnesota used to be teaming with moose until the lefties introduced wolves.

There has always been a healthy wolf population in Minnesota...they were never eradicated, just VERY tightly constrained to the deep wilderness in the extreme N part of the state. Nobody "introduced" them. What the Lefties did was ban trapping and hunting...which boosted the population, expanded the range, and made the wolf lose it's fear of man and settlement.

As far as moose go - wolves aren't that big of a factor. The spread of the white-tail range has probably been far more detrimental to moose than anything wolves did.


Back to ShadowMan: Did you look for tracks?
 
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Khabul

Contributing Member
Last week when it was bitterly cold here in Independence, the dogs down below me were raising quite the ruckus. I looked out the back door window and there was a red fox just sitting pretty on the other side of my chain link fence. Yelled for my wife to come check it out and went to grab the camera. Of course by the time i got back it had disappeared.

This is the middle of the city. Not close to any nature preserves or country side. I do have about 30 yards of creek bed and hillside between me and my neighboors down below so we occasionally see animals you normally would not but i was quite supprised to see the fox. And he was pretty good sized also.
 

jward

passin' thru
Thanks, I think :eek: I truly believe those things are big enough for me to saddle up n ride.
Hmm. Magnificent beasts, but I'd not wanna roll up on em in the dark, unawares, or unarmed

Here ya go this guy trapped his, I was looking for 1 that was shot recently that is being held straight up and is bigger then the man holding it but here ya are.

SRX_WOLF_TRAPPING1.JPG.jpg

Justin Webb poses with one of 18 wolves he's trapped in North Idaho in seven years. Webb is the executive director of the Foundation for Wildlife Management, which pays cash rewards to trappers to kill wolves.


These are several years old.
View attachment 253742
 

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
Back to ShadowMan: Did you look for tracks?

I did look for tracks, but ground is pretty spongy and leaf covered at the moment where it's not covered in snow. I'll probably walk the creek bed further up stream today and see if there's any sign there.
 

Hfcomms

EN66iq
We have a huge male Timberwolf where I work. I haven't seen him but his paw prints are as big as saucers in the snow. We have been doing a lot of logging this winter and the deer are yarding up in the cutting area for the browse and Mr. Wolf is getting nice and fat. Would love to get a picture of him but this one is pretty crafty which is probably why he has been able to get to be this big.
 

medic38572

TB Fanatic
Thanks, I think :eek: I truly believe those things are big enough for me to saddle up n ride.
Hmm. Magnificent beasts, but I'd not wanna roll up on em in the dark, unawares, or unarmed

The problem with these is they were imported from Canada and spread across Idaho and Montana and Washington have now moved other places as well as they were protected for so long. As someone else pointed out they have tracked entire families into Oregon. They have been know to kill 9 cows in 1 setting and not just kill them for food but sport. To kill just because they can. Like I said 9 cows in one night and not a single one was eaten. Goats, sheep Chickens they kill them all. The Elk herds have diminished in recent years to the point that they have basically allowed them to be hunted again. Our Caribou population was down to 39 for the entire state and a train came along and killed 38 of those because the snow was so deep they had no where to go but stay on the tracks. They sent the lone survivor to Alaska to live out its life. But wolves are extreme predators here in some areas of Idaho.
 

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
Well, just got back from walking the creek and both slopes. Not a foot print that I could see. The leaf litter is deep and covers anything not currently covered by snow. No tracks in the snow that I could see. I followed the animal path through the brush and trees but nothing I could pick out there.

Someone else spotted this critter one ridge over from me late yesterday. They confirmed it was too big to be a local coyote. I strongly suspect a Coyo-dog. We've had some locals near us lose their pet dog to a "coyote" and the dog was a good mid-sized part pit mix. Soooooo who knows? I will keep and eye out as this could be a commonly used route along the creek bottom for the critter.

A lot of dogs do go missing around here, but then we've had sightings in our immediate area of mountain lion, bear and bobcat as well as coyotes.
 

Carl2

Pass it forward...
Maybe 20 years ago--not long after the Federales introduced those big Canada wolves here, a friend was driving home in the central Idaho mountains on the ice-covered dirt road where it runs along the river. "Bam" -- a wolf had jumped out in front of the truck, and been run over. He stopped and checked; the wolf was dead. Having previously had a negative experience with Federal "justice" when he was found to illegally possess an eagle feather, he managed to drag the large wolf off the road, rolled it into the river and drove home.

About ten years ago, another friend leading a Boy Scout trail hike about 30 miles from the above incident was bringing up the rear of the group of Scouts. He spotted the fresh trail of a wolf which had passed between him and the last boy. Its paw prints were larger than his hands.
 
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