Wildlife

StG58

StG58

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Orygun, the wet side...
Got to talking with the nieces and nephews at the family get together this holiday season. Naturally, the topic of conversation turned to our latest outdoor adventures. What we saw, what we caught / shot and all the tales that make up being in the backwoods. Good stories.

One of the nephews has become an avid and skilled bow hunter, not afraid to hike in and spend some time getting his Elk. He relayed an experience he had in the Oregon Coast range this bow season on the headwaters of the Trask River. That's some rough country (very vertical and mixed open and dense forest) that doesn't get much hunting pressure, and not a lot of logging activity. Not many roads or trails.

He had hiked in and spent the night in a bivouac to get a good start on an Elk herd he was tracking. Just as the sun was coming up he heard wolves howl. He counted six individuals by voice and relative location. Bummed him right out because the herd he was chasing just evaporated...gone like they never existed. He un-assed the area with some alacrity.

The take-away from this is interesting to me. ODFW swears that there are no wolves that far west and north. The officials, when pressed, will tell you that there haven't been wolves in the area for over 100 years and that they have no indications that they have moved back in.

On the other hand, this isn't the first reported sighting in the general area in the last three or four years. Some I discount as fanciful, but others are at least credible. I've not seen sign that a reasonable person could unarguably call wolf sign yet. I have seen scat and tracks that were very suspicious.

Things that make you go Hmmm...
 
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They don't want you to know they are here. They have been in the north east corner of California for awhile....why wouldn't they be in Oregon!? You can kiss our wildlife good bye.....when more move in, and we aren't allowed to control/hunt them.
 
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lowranger said:
They don't want you to know they are here. They have been in the north east corner of California for awhile....why wouldn't they be in Oregon!? You can kiss our wildlife good bye.....when more move in, and we aren't allowed to control/hunt them.
Click to expand...

We have wolves in Oregon, but ODFW only admits to them east of the Cascades and down south in the Rogue River area.

I have seen changes in behavior and numbers in the local wildlife. Both in predators and prey. The local cougar population, especially the females with kits, have been acting in a way that can be best described as bizarre for a couple of years now. Even the coyotes are acting different.
 
We have the same issue here in the east, more specifically in Western VA and in the State of West Virginia.

DNR denies the claim of any existence of Mtn lions even though locals have photos via game cameras and many claimed encounters.

It baffles me why it's such a secret.:nusenuse:
 
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We have wolves in MI too, growing in numbers. The predator that the Mi DNR refuses to acknowledge are cougar (mtn lion) There have been multiple sightings in the UP, including photographic evidence from trail cams. Still, the DNR says they are migratory cats, they've come in from Minnesota or Wisconsin. Its all BS. The local theory is that if they acknowledge them, they have to deal with them, either by making them protected or instituting a hunting season, etc and they don't want to do that.
 
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Bird said:
We have the same issue here in the east, more specifically in Western VA and in the State of West Virginia.

DNR denies the claim of any existence of Mtn lions even though locals have photos via game cameras and many claimed encounters.

It baffles me why it's such a secret.:nusenuse:
Click to expand...
Ranger_b0b said:
We have wolves in MI too, growing in numbers. The predator that the Mi DNR refuses to acknowledge are cougar (mtn lion) There have been multiple sightings in the UP, including photographic evidence from trail cams. Still, the DNR says they are migratory cats, they've come in from Minnesota or Wisconsin. Its all BS. The local theory is that if they acknowledge them, they have to deal with them, either by making them protected or instituting a hunting season, etc and they don't want to do that.
Click to expand...
We have our fair share of cougars around here. The ODFW folks got pressured into outlawing the use of dogs for hunting them some years back, which made the cats so happy they moved into the suburbs. The stray dog and indoor-outdoor cat population has decreased radically. Cougars are curious critters, but pretty much harmless, as long as you're not a stray.

The wolves, that don't exist, may be another matter though. On the bright side, shooting something that doesn't exist if you have to may not get you into too much trouble.

I think you may be onto something @Ranger_b0b, you don't have to put time and effort into trying to manage something that doesn't exist.
 
They are FOS. My hunting partner is a wildlife biologist and knows people in the Ca fish and game. They have seen, and shot, several in the last 5+ years in the far north east part of the state. They have been keeping it quiet until they could figure out how to deal with them. Now that the general public knows, surely the tree huggers will squeal with delight at the thought of them being here and protecting them.
 
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Rob5589 said:
They are FOS. My hunting partner is a wildlife biologist and knows people in the Ca fish and game. They have seen, and shot, several in the last 5+ years in the far north east part of the state. They have been keeping it quiet until they could figure out how to deal with them. Now that the general public knows, surely the tree huggers will squeal with delight at the thought of them being here and protecting them.
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NE California? If wolves are on the Rogue, and they are, then NW California is an easy walk. NW Oregon is an entirely different deal though. If they are truly there, they crossed the Willamette Valley and toodled north a bit.

I plain don't want anything that hunts in packs and kills for sport in my neck of the woods.
 
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Would you like some more of our wolves ..... ?
They're from a good gene pool ....... vigorous and adaptable.
They came from Alberta and British Columbia in 1995 .... to be re-introduced into the Yellowstone eco system.
They are the 'apex predator' here ..... above bears and cats.
They have everything going for them ...... smart, social, mobile, and relentless.
Have seen them 'in action' a few times, and have shot three. Don't know if I'd ever shoot another .....
Would the 'wilderness' really be 'wild' without the cougar, wolves, and the big bears ?
 
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Head Lice said:
Would you like some more of our wolves ..... ?
They're from a good gene pool ....... vigorous and adaptable.
They came from Alberta and British Columbia in 1995 .... to be re-introduced into the Yellowstone eco system.
They are the 'apex predator' here ..... above bears and cats.
They have everything going for them ...... smart, social, mobile, and relentless.
Have seen them 'in action' a few times, and have shot three. Don't know if I'd ever shoot another .....
Would the 'wilderness' really be 'wild' without the cougar, wolves, and the big bears ?
Click to expand...
Thanks a bunch, @Head Lice, but I think I'm good actually. Our little black bears are lazy, our cats are pretty timid, and life is good.
 
Just food for thought ......

You, me, others who hunt ...... we collectively head to the 'wilderness' in an attempt to harvest a moose, deer, elk ..... often in the best of the fall weather.
Maybe you were successful. Good for you !
Other times .... no such luck.
After the hunt, we pack up and head to our 'other' life ..... food readily available, heat is not a problem. We don't have to 'go without' very often ... it's not a life or death situation.

That wolf lives through the good and bad .... year round.
When times are good, the moose meat is plentiful ....... when times are bad, that wolf is digging down through the snow to chew those old moose hides, to find and crack those old bones, and hopefully the coyotes didn't find them first. Life isn't easy. There's only two ways for life to end I the bush ..... killed and eaten, or starvation.
You and I sit in the warmth, sip our drinks, and lament how hard it is to be a 'hunter' for the short period we were in the 'wilderness.

Maybe that amber eyed canine knows some things that we don't ..... maybe he knows how to survive.

Again, just a few thoughts ....
 
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