Growing wolf numbers

[Muthagoose]

Well here is a good example of what to expect. My Nephew got it off of his trail cam recently.Its only natures way of thinning.. Kinda sad tho to see a animal go through this suffering..Dont love em,dont hate em. Seen plenty of yotes and fox go through this and once it starts it can be drastic to a area population..

Doubt this young wolf will see much of winter..

[Shack]

Kind of hard to tell in that picture, but kind of looks like a Yote to me. Maybe mange or sick?

[Neighbor_guy]

mange is a terrible thing

[Big A]

!!!!

[Muthagoose]

It aint no yote.

Look at the high frame,feet and squareness to the head and yes it has mange...

Granted its not a great picture but C'mon..

Ill see about posting a better picture when I get back from camp.

I have one trail cam pic with 1 in the bait and multiple eyes in the background.In nearly 10 years of baiting have never seen so many wolves.

[lichen fox]

I would agree, that wolf definitatly has the mange...we've had it in our fox and coyote populations around here for the past 10 years...It really devistated the population...If you've got alot of wolves, which I'm sure you do up in the Virginia area, not to worry...the ones with mange will not make it through the winter, they will simply freeze to death and the problem doesn't dissapear very fast...like I said, it's been an ongoing problem in NW MN for the past 10, or more, years...Don't be surprised where affected animals show up as they'll be looking for any kind of cover they can find when the weather gets really cold...when we were out varmint hunting we'd find coyotes in old abbandoned buildings...heck one of the guys I hunt with had one in his shed when he was getting ready to head out varmint hunting one morning....as the mange spreads the wolf population will eventually be cut by 70 to 80%...that's just mother natures way....overpopulation-disease-die off....we never had any disease problems until the fur prices dropped and the trappers for the most part quit....then for a few years we had just awesome hunting and then the mange hit...not enough animals were being harvested...I used to trap and I harvested about 100 to 150 fox per year for 7 or 8 years in this area, then when prices dropped I quit...started hunting and it was not uncommon to see over 30 or more fox in a day...one day I called and shot 21 myself....but the population was still too high and thus disease and now I'm lucky if I see one or two when out all day....if it is mange....you won't have half as many wolves next year and even less each year after...

[HunterLee]

I have hoped that the wolves would get the mange. Like others have said, there were tons of fox until mange hit. They are finally started in to come around again, but now the coyotes seem to get them.