THE WOLF CHALLENGE

By: Jonny Petrowske 11/16/14

I may look around in the morning just out of curiosity and hopefully I stumble into Minnesota’s dumbest timber wolf, but otherwise I am done with this wolf hunt. I have never given up on a hunt before, but I am done with this one. Too many days, miles and efforts for nothing but failure and frustration. Almost sixteen full days other than time to sleep invested in scouting, hunting or the in-between. Hunting during the day, scouting tracks at night in the headlights and flashlights made for some very long days.

As for the forest zone Gray Wolf you can trap them and snare them or you can bait them and shoot them off a pile of meat. They make easy picking when they are forced to run between agricultural fields in areas less forested or around livestock yards and of course the random encounter, but try intentionally to put yourself in line for a clean shot with a wolf in the dense forested zone of northern MN bog country during the winter months is virtual impossible, at least for me. They do not respond to calling, howling or the tricks coyotes or fox go for, especially with eight straight days of high winds drowning out calling efforts. They will respond to howling efforts, but I find only at night will that bring response. If you do get the interest of one or two the rest of the pack pull them in the opposite direction. Wolves in the forest do not pattern and NEVER stay in the same area for more than 24 hours this time of year, even if they have a kill they eat what they can and move on; and they clean up most of a deer in a single night. They will return to the kill on the return trip, but that is also on their schedule. Spring and summer they do hang out in certain regions or “rendezvous points” until the pups go fully mobile as fall sets in making them unpredictable to say the least. When you do get a line on a pack during the whitetail season deer hunters will push them out coming and going into stands, sending them in a completely different direction thwarting the wolf hunters' efforts. From my understanding this is how several are harvested by deer hunters with a wolf tag.

I found forest based wolves are 98% percent nocturnal unless bumped out by man, move where they want when they want following the wind. They travel about any terrain, except in high grass, soft moss or wherever I may be. I was amazed the efforts they go through to not enter the tall grass or get on the bog moss. The pack I was working (that I thought was separate packs until I discovered the same wolf in all three packs that was missing a middle claw) in a single day would travel 6-7 miles cross country on a whim, run down thin ice and even cruise the highway shoulder. Last night they trotted a county road for 14 miles non-stop until ducking into the brush behind a beaver pond…where I thought I finally had them cornered.

With all that said I should have known better. I set up on a very narrow tree line (50’wide) that had a mowed trail alongside, the pack has run this stretch multiple times and is the point of interest for wolf control efforts when they get into livestock in that region. South of this tree line is four miles of tall cane grass they do not like to enter. To the north is 80 acres of plowed fields borderd by the farmers shops and county road. No way will they trot across a plowed field during the day. North of that is an area with deep, soft moss. Figured they were east and heading west and that is the travel route they had to take, it was the fastest moving and safest route for them if they do make the move during shooting hours. Plus, I could see the all the way to the north minus the county road that had deer hunters going back and forth to the state forest nonstop. Plowed fields alongside a busy county road, there was no getting around me if they moved during the day.

I parked alongside the farmers shop then snuck down ditch bottoms to my “nest” on top of a slash pile 15 feet up where I can see even the slightest movement for ½ mile in every direction. I sat motionless as the snow flurries came through and darkness crept in. After the sun gave up on me, I dropped back into the ditch bottoms as if I was involved in trench warfare and snuck back to my truck without getting spotted by those yellow eyes in the darkness.

Upon returning to my truck it was proudly displayed who truly is the master of the Northwoods. Two wolves came right down the county road and swung into the farmer's shop yard before marking the corner of his shed north of my truck 50 feet. Two more wolves came down the field edge and around my truck to the south about 30 feet. The wolf with the big print and missing a claw rolled in the pile of half rotten and frozen soybeans in front of my truck before joining back up with the entire pack as they headed down the county road to the neighbors. From there they cut across his farm yard and headed for points unknown.

Should have stayed in the truck, it has a heater and a radio.

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