Picture from neighbor

[cobb]

Here is a picture from a neighbors trail cam in the Bemdji area. Not very good quality, but I think it can be seen as to what it is.

Becida wolf.jpg (16.92 KB) Viewed 2295 times

During the 2013 deer season, even 2 days after a fresh snow there were no deer tracks near stands that we always see deer every year.

[LePetomane]

Cobb, Now we know why there were no deer tracks.

[Nougat]

its some kind of monster?!

looks like its got a bear sized raccoon head on the left the body sort of looks like a fawn and its got a small horse or donkey head on the other side?

maybe its an almost big wolf?

[hunterfreakhd]

Did you guys apply for a wolf permit? The season is closed now but I would apply for next year IMO

[smurfman]

I learned years back when wolves arrived in an area then the habits of deer changed. What was once productive areas became much less so unless it was in an area of the wolves' territory rarely traveled.

What tends to happen is deer stick to denser cover and spend much less time in more open areas unless it is rather large and gives them a large field of view. Something like 50 yards as a minimum and 100 seems better. There also has to be fairly thick cover to travel to and from so any possible threats have to make a fair bit of noise to get to them.

Too, when wolves are actually in the vicinity or have only recently left, deer tend to become much more nocturnal than normal which makes seeing them much more difficult. It can take a week or so before the deer begin to switch back to normal habits which really puts a damper on hunting if one does not change their own tactics.

We had wolves take up permanent residence near our cabin near the Pine/Carleton Co border several years ago. From July to September they are a regular presence as they raise their pups. After that, they begin traveling their territory and they tend to return every 3-5 weeks depending on their mood. The DNR has tracking collars on at least one of them which gives a pretty good representation of the pack's territory size. They have not released more detailed info, at least not yet, which would come in handy if I drew a wolf tag.

Deer numbers dropped and have stabilized between 2/3 and 3/4 of what they once were. Part of that may have been due to hunting permits as two deer per hunter were allowed up to a couple years ago in this zone and we are less than a mile from what is still a 2 deer zone. Time will tell how much wolves affected the numbers though I suspect hunting was a significant part of the drop due to the over all range of the wolves. It is much larger than that of deer by far.

[cobb]

It was 5 or 6 years ago that our area was intensive harvest, last 2 years it has been a draw for a antlerless permit.