Predator

[tamarack]

A neighbour phoned the other day and told me that a wolf or cougar got a 500lb heifer in his pasture next to his house. He had phoned the F&W and they came out and confirmed it so they will pay 80% of market price ( I think because that is what they paid me a few years ago) I thought it must have been a wolf as I have never saw a cougar or a track in our area. A few days later I was having coffee with another friend a couple of miles away at 11 am and his dog started making a fuss we looked outside and a big grey wolf was chasing the dog to the porch my friend stepped out and hollered scaring the wolf away he only had a few more steps to get the dog. My rifle was in the truck and by the time I got it the wolf was too far away we went in pursuit but too many fences and gates to open lost him in my pasture. Have been on lookout for days but not a sign I put a few trail cams out but no sign. Think I will have to move cattle to home 1/4 where there is less bush to watch but will have to feed hay but even one calf will buy a lot of hay. We live on the edge of wolf country and the ones we get here are the old loners that are kicked out of the pack they are too old to keep up with the rest and are not good killers any more but they pick on the easy ones and pets. Gives one the creeps when out in barnyard at night.

 

[Aaron]

Sounds like it is time for hotdogs and antifreeze, but you didn't hear it from me.

 

[tamarack]

Yes but you couldn't keep up with all the coyotes around

 

[Aaron]

Alternative is get lots of deer hunters on your place and tell them to get anything with paws and teeth.

 

[Jogeephus]

There are many who think it quaint to have cougars, bears and wolves in and around your fields, parks and playgrounds. I think they call this biodiversity and it gives them that fuzzy feeling inside. I'd be careful not yo do anything to upset these folks because they are many.

 

[highgrit]

Good luck on getting deer hunter's to shoot wolves. I used to see wolf tracks while hunting every day. But never have seen a wild wolf yet, did hear one howl once after I shot a deer. Kind of a weird feeling knowing a wolf was within 100 yds and having no idea it was there.

 

[Aaron]

Good luck on getting deer hunter's to shoot wolves. I used to see wolf tracks while hunting every day. But never have seen a wild wolf yet, did hear one howl once after I shot a deer. Kind of a weird feeling knowing a wolf was within 100 yds and having no idea it was there.

I agree entirely, I am just offering ideas if the poison method isn't acceptable to him. Their is not enough hours in a day to trap or shoot wolves.

 

[hillsdown]

I lost a 7 month old heifer calf to a cougar(s) a few weeks ago . The cougar ran the crap out of the herd , and separated the calf . I found her in a slough ,unable to stand. We drug her out and tried to nurse her back to health but even with an IV she was too weak to pull through . F&W told me I should have let them eat her then I might have recouped some of my loss . Hard to track a cougar in the fall without snow , so we will wait . They have been spotted by quite a few of the neighbors and lots of livestock especially sheep have been going missing with only a tail or a hoof left in it's place . Unfortunately no one has their rifle on them when they see it .

 

[Nesikep]

Thankfully the cougars we have around here seem to prefer wild horses to cattle.. lots of horses are getting caught by them, but not a single cow or calf.. there's also plenty of horses to go around. A guy a few miles away with really remote range lost 18 of 25 calves to wolves about 5 years ago. last couple years I don't think he's lost much though.
I hear wolves are very hard to trap or hunt.

 

[tamarack]

Lots of hunters around now and it is legal to shoot a wolf as it is to shoot coyotes so if one is seen it is shot. A neighbour to the north got a wolf this weekend showed me a pic but it was different color of the one I saw so still on lookout.Got about 6in of snow today and still snowing will look for tracks tomorrow morning. Last night the long yearling bulls were making a fuss at 1.30 am got out of bed and went out and checked all cows,( in my truck )but all looked well. The M.D. to the north west have a bounty of 500$ per wolf pretty good incentive to shoot or trap. Only people allowed to poison is F&W . I remember when lots of people used poison and lost one dog to it not a pretty way to go. I guess that is why I don't like to see it used.

 

[Nesikep]

That's quite a bounty! We wish there was a bounty on pest birds, we have a lot of them.

I figured you were getting snow, around here the snowline on the mountains came down to about 5000 ft or so... I lit the fire in the shop (my house) for the first time last night... 14C is just a little cooler than I like it, 18 is just fine.

Good luck finding them!

 

[tamarack]

The MD that I live in has a bounty on magpies and crows of 50c a pair of legs or an egg most of the kids around here wont bother but when my son was at home there wasn't one that was safe. He could climb a tree like a monkey, he said if he left an egg in the nest he could collect eggs all summer from one nest !

 

[boondocks]

I lost a 7 month old heifer calf to a cougar(s) a few weeks ago . The cougar ran the crap out of the herd , and separated the calf . I found her in a slough ,unable to stand. We drug her out and tried to nurse her back to health but even with an IV she was too weak to pull through . F&W told me I should have let them eat her then I might have recouped some of my loss . Hard to track a cougar in the fall without snow , so we will wait . They have been spotted by quite a few of the neighbors and lots of livestock especially sheep have been going missing with only a tail or a hoof left in it's place . Unfortunately no one has their rifle on them when they see it .

Don't know much about cougars and am curious why wouldn't they have just chowed down on her once she was separated and caught it the slough? Just wondering why it would leave the kill...maybe got scared off by humans at the moment???

I saw the aftermath of "Elk versus Cougar" while backpacking near Takkakaw Falls (in Alberta) a few years' back. The cougar had launched from a tall pine when the elk came to drink at a small, very isolated late. It killed and dragged the elk away.