Brian – We believe for certain that the introduced wolves to the Idaho, YNP area were the Canadian gray wolf from regions considerably farther north. There is ample historic documents as well as tons of anecdotal evidence that there was still the “native” wolf living and making a come back on its own before the introduction. And yes there is historic evidence to suggest that in many of those areas, if not all, where wolves were brought in from Canada, the “native” wolves were a different subspecies of wolf than the Canadian gray.

Wolves don’t belong running around in people’s neighborhoods. We need to give them the fear of man they are losing.

Generally speaking wolves will not move into human habituated areas unless they are forced, usually be hunger, combined with young males being forced out of the pack, etc. Once they have become habituated only trouble ensues.

The wolves have become brazen as demonstrated by coming onto your porch. They obviously lack any fear. Without knowing all your details, my guess is the next step would be attacks on your pets and livestock if you have any. This will progress into what Dr. Geist describes as a “playful” attack on a human. They are testing the response.

Hunger is the driving force behind what wolves do and their natural instinct to kill. Some are offended by this but truth should not be offensive. The wolf is a vicious apex predator that sometimes kills for the mere enjoyment of doing such.

Until we can educate enough people in order to effect some changes in how we manage these creatures, you and your family need to be on your toes and don’t assume everything is fine. Be vigilant.

I’m not intending to frighten you only to make you aware. I don’t want to read about another statistic in the local newspaper.

This winter, wolves have been approaching our home at night and tipped over the garbage and we found they had dragged a bag off 700′ and tore it apart.

We let our dogs out on a lead while we usually stand outside with them for potty break. A couple of months ago, I heard a sound about 400′ away and I could hear it move along the edge of our yard – shining the flashlight at the sound I saw it’s eyes shining back at me. It skirted the perimeter and still was about 400′ away from me.

The dogs have been barking and turning around instead of going for potty break several times in the evening recently.

In the last two weeks…
I have been working in our log home sanding with a grinder till 7:00 – 7:30pm every evening. I have come out into the dark more than once and had the hair stand up on the back of my neck. One of those occasions, I came in and my husband said there’s something out there – the dogs have been going nuts barking at something.

We were outside with the dogs a couple of days after that and our small lab mix saw something near the cabin in broad daylight that she was growling and hair on her back standing straight up but she did not advance toward it. We went inside immediately.

Three nights ago, I was sanding on a ladder inside the cabin about 7pm (late dusk) and I heard loud steps run up onto the front porch – the front door was cracked. I stopped the grinder, listened and it crossed my mind it may have been a wolf but I dismissed it as imagination.

The next morning, I husband called me outside to look at the largest wolf tracks we have ever seen. We tracked it up the path to the cabin and then the tracks disappeared and reappeared from the edge of the steps back toward our small cottage. It came up to the cottage as well. There may have been another set of prints of a smaller wolf with it but we can’t confirm that.

I can see the stages of escalation pretty clearly over these last 9 months. We’ve had one pack splinter into two. This winter we saw a pair running up our river together and they may be splitting into three packs this spring. Wisconsin, our neighboring state allowed too many deer to be taken this last season. I do not know the status of the Minnesota deer population but I know the moose are in serious decline due to the warming of our weather.

After reading your article I would very much appreciate your thoughts if you and others on this site read this long thread. Thank you, Angie Silberberger