scouting ?? a meal

[red oaks lumber]

today at the shop i went out back to check the wood stove. i suppose i should explain the shop layout, it sits in about 80 acres of open pastures. any way when i stepped outside and could see one of my herd of  beef that pasture fairly close were running all towards one direction. i moved to were i could see the patures better, sure enough about 250 yrds away up on a knowl a big timber wolf was walking slowley and then stopped.
after standing and looking for maybe 30 seconds he sits down then lays down, like  dogs do when they watch over everything. i went in the shop and got my binocs , he was a very big impressive male! by this time the cattle have gotten within 50 yrds of the wolf without anyone getting spooked. he watched for maybe 20 minutes and then stood up and slowly walked away.
my guess is he was scouting out the herd to see if there were any weak ones they could sort out for a kill. come morning i'll count cattle and see what happened, i suspect they will try for a kill tonight. ;)

[OneWithWood]

It is nature's way.

[drobertson]

Not sure I would like to see this, are you opposed to snuffing him out?  is it legal to do?   david

[chevytaHOE5674]

That's why you always have to have the rifle handy.....

[SPIKER]

Lots of them critters have collars for tracking on them, not sure in your area however.   I know at one point if you can prove relocated wolf killed your cattle Gov will pay you for the loss cost.

One of the other threads about the logging TV Shows I posted about ALASKA Kiltchers TV show (forget the name) they have cattle and show this week they took out Grizzly & week prior a Big Wolf on one of the other shows.

Mark

[justallan1]

I'm not totally sure of the specifics of the law, but in Montana if it's harassing the livestock I believe it's free game.

Allan

[Peter Drouin]

It's like that in NH play with my livestock and your done   ;)

[red oaks lumber]

went out this morning, did a head count all accounted for. then i realized that i was missing a goat. not just any goat, this ol girl came from an abusive farm,its front leg was deformed from getting it broken years ago,and was raised with cattle.
when we brought her home she would not stay with my wifes goats, instead make her way out to the pasture where cows were. so thats where she called home.
sadly i found her partially eaten body on the edge of a grassy fenceline. :(
yesterday the position of the wolf, there was no safe shooting lane. so add this to another chapter of the farmer trying to co exsist with the wolf .and the battle lives on.

[Chuck White]

Same here in New York!  As others have said, if a coyote, wolf, bear, domestic dog, whatever the animal, if it's messing with someones livestock, anyone witnessing the event can legally shoot to kill even if they have no connection with the livestock or the owner!

[luvmexfood]

I would check with the US Fish and Wildlife about replacement cost for your "best prized goat".

[WDH]

Steve,

Sorry to hear about your goat. 

[red oaks lumber]

the thing i have learned about the state wildlife agency if, you have problem wolves or other animals and  you report the problems to the athorities, you suddenly become under servalence. they acutally will try to catch you killing problem animals and will try connecting you to any activity within about 20 miles. this is a fact, ive been harrassed and also my niebors.

[ND rancher]

There are certain things that you do when you have problems with predators, and state agency's aren't one of them.The practice of the three S's is most used I'm digging a hole    

[gunman63]

shoot, shovel ,shut up

[red oaks lumber]

we should be able to use the defense of "stand your ground" :D

[beenthere]

And worse than just the state agency will be the Feds (USFWS).

Fellow I met had a wolf tag for northern WI and got one. First had to go through the hoops with the State DNR, and then come to find out, had to go through more hoops with the USFWS which couldn't be done without traveling at a later date back to northern WI to claim/retrieve the hide. Something about the carcass couldn't be separated from the hide (completely) until the USFWS did their thing with the carcass. Everyone needs to be in on the action... maybe even the Indian tribes.

[red oaks lumber]

the  native americans get half of the wolf tags. since they veiw the wolf as a brother those tags wont be filled ;)

[beenthere]

red oaks
How do they figure in those tags when the managers are closing the zones when they get close to or over the zone quota?

If the native tribes hold on to their tags, then seems they would not close any zones.  Puzzling...

[chevytaHOE5674]

I've "heard" from people who know some people who know a guy someplace that the way to deal with them is shoot them in the hindend so that they don't die on the spot they will run away and die someplace else and nobody will know who shot it.....

This is all just a story I heard from a guy at the local watering hole though.

[coxy]

Same here in New York!  As others have said, if a coyote, wolf, bear, domestic dog, whatever the animal, if it's messing with someones livestock, anyone witnessing the event can legally shoot to kill even if they have no connection with the livestock or the owner!

me  shot first ask permission  later  ;D ;D

[coxy]

I've "heard" from people who know some people who know a guy someplace that the way to deal with them is shoot them in the hindend so that they don't die on the spot they will run away and die someplace else and nobody will know who shot it.....

This is all just a story I heard from a guy at the local watering hole though.

sounds good to me

[Magicman]

If it is wearing a tracking collar, I guess that you would also need a big hammer.   ;D

[red oaks lumber]

its not wearing a collar, i was looking at it this morning thru my scope not saying my scope is connected to my rifle tho :D
he showed up to the same grassy knowl as he did the other day, the weird part was i walked 200yds sorta towards him in the wide open pasture and he never got spooked or even concerned .
beenthere
why is that puzzling? if the "managers" have a harvest goal, knowing the indians get half, raise your tag numbers to reflect that.

[red oaks lumber]

this morning like most sunday mornings my wife and myself walked down to the farm with our small dogs with us.the walk is about 3/8 of a mile thru the open pasture, just after we got into the pasture i noticed a wolf slowly trotting from my left to right at maybe 75 yrds. he kept trotting when my smallest dog started chasing the wolf, i took running after whistling at my dog.the wolf stopped looking back at us, im still whistling and running towards my dog.the wolf starts trotting again and went in the edge of the grassy fenceline, i finally catch my dog and noticed at about 30 yrds the wolf was standing in the taller grass of the fenceline just watching us.
with the absence of deer in our area , im afraid this might be a long and costly winter. we worked cattle yesterday, and the total number of calves born in the spring to the number we counted yesterday we were 3 short. did they get sick and just die? sure anything is possible but, weve been doing this for over fourty yrs. and whenever we have shortages we always have a increased sightings of wolves.
they drew first blood! let the war begin

[LAZERDAN]

It's been said here before:  A few candy coated doughnuts and your life will get alot better.  We always have coons in the sweet corn, some times you need to be quietly proactive.           Lazerdan