Dealing with wolves at bait sites?

[Basseyes]

Sorry, it's late and very frustrated with wolves. This is a new pack in our area, that already has a more than healthy wolf population. We've seen the male and female on and off over the last 2 years and this is their first batch of pups. Had bears hitting 3 out of 3 sites, this is just off one site. Got video too, but way to whipped to post it up. This has been a great bear site and now it stinks so bad of musky wolf p, it makes you gag a bit. Imagine old carpet dipped in a bucket of old dog p for a week and let sit in the sun for a month. It is bad! And not in a good bad way for bears I'd imagine?

We spent some time eliminating the end digging issues with big logs laid parallel to the main stack. And used more and better logs on top.

But is this site screwed now? Never seen a pack squat on a site like this and hate giving up on a great area. I'm baiting for my two sons who are in school and working full time. The last time we got tags this site was the site my one kid shot his first bear off of and we had 7 different good bears on it. The last night my other son and I hunted it then, we had a big sow with two cubs come in, who was very concerned about a big boar we had hitting it. It got hit quick by bears and now the wolves have found it. The logs are saturated with molasses and the dogs are digging away at the wood and chewing on it to get to the bait. We use no meat, dog food or grains, only fresh pastry, cookies and candy bars and keep it table top clean, well as best we can.

Does anyone have any experience with wolves running bear off a site?

The dogs all look healthy in the videos and they don't look like they are starving. Just amazed how little fear they have of humans. The friend who is helping bait shot a wolf up in our area the first year they had the wolf hunt, in the late season. He saw 7 different wolves and had 3 in his scope in range. I never considered myself a wolf hater and think they are a cool creature. But the joke use to be funny about wolf tracks compared to deer tracks. Now we are seeing we figure 3- 5 wolf tracks to a single set of deer tracks. Them's not good odds for deer. Now we have to deal with wolves screwing up bait sites? Oh well I guess we will have to figure out a way to deal with this now too. We might just give up deer hunting the next couple years and concentrate on getting wolf tags and starting to put some pressure on the wolf population, especially after starting to be a problem at two bait sites.

[leech~~]

You may just be screwed on that bait this season.

If it was a lone Wolf or two the Bears may work around them but since it looks like a small pack with pups, the adults may keep the Bears at bay knowing they have a good food supply for their pups. We had a lone Wolf hitting one of our baits but it didn't seem to bother the Bears much.

It did seem to bother the locals in a little bar we had dinner in that evening as we brought it up, they were all like

" didn't you Pop um"

[Boar]

Boy dump in as much chocolate as yu can carry. Just kidding. I dont think theres much u can do here. Like leech said if it was a one or two a bear might work around them or you could shut it down in hops they mov on. But now with all the urination and feces I dont think that would matter right now. A bear aint gona come close. Id shut it down and maybe try it late season when big boars are lookingfor a foodnsource and the wolves have hopefully moved on.

[Basseyes]

Appreciate the responses, that is what I figured but was hoping against hope this could still be a great option.

Has anyone every seen a breeding pair with pups squat on a site like that?

The idea to stop baiting it is hard to do but I think now that is a great idea. When we go back up am going to open it up and just be done with it till we stop seeing them on the t cams.

How the cattle guys in our area deal with the amount of wolves we have just baffles me.

[protrapper]

Quit baiting. The wolves will leave. And the bears will comeback. I deal with this every year.

[Basseyes]

Quit baiting. The wolves will leave. And the bears will comeback. I deal with this every year.

Thanks, good to know!

[Farm_Kid]

How the cattle guys in our area deal with the amount of wolves we have just baffles me.

Im a large animal veterinarian in the area north of Isanti an can attest that there have been a LOT of wolf depredation of calves complaints in the last 3 weeks from roughly Hwy 70 and north

[leech~~]

Quit baiting. The wolves will leave. And the bears will comeback. I deal with this every year.

NOT!

What will the Bears come back too without the bait? That's the reason they showed up there in the first place. Do you think they have nothing else better to do but sit around and look pretty for your T cam! They have some weight to put on before the winter just like the Wolves do!

[nofishfisherman]

Where are your other bait sites in relation to the one being hit by the wolves?

Any chance that if you stop baiting this site the wolves will move on to one of your other sites in search of the free meal? If so maybe keep baiting this site but only a minimal amount, just enough to hold the wolves interest. At least that way you keep them away from your other sites and perhaps a bear will still move in later in the season once the wolves have hopefully moved on.

[SpitnArgueDuckClub*]

I really like the chocolate idea, sounds like the way to go.

[Spike76]

My nephew used to get a five gallon bucket of chocolate at Fanny Farmer. Bears loved it.

[Basseyes]

Lol, mmmm choc-ah-latte.

Wonder if they prefer milk or dark chocolate?

[protrapper]

Leech. I've been dealing with wolves for over 15 years. I guide bear hunters. I think I have a handle on the situation. The wolves are looking for cubs or small bears.

[leech~~]

Leech. I've been dealing with wolves for over 15 years. I guide bear hunters. I think I have a handle on the situation. The wolves are looking for cubs or small bears.

OK Pro!

[Basseyes]

We are going up today. Kept the site baited after we left up there Wednesday night. Will be interesting to see if the wolves kept trying to hit it after we fortified the site. Or if a bear came anywhere near it. Having wolves squat like that is new to me, so will be interesting to learn how to deal with it.

[jkcmj]

I've only been dealing with the wolf issue at bait sites for a few years now, but I've seen no evidence that the wolves show any interest in the bears...

When it's a single wolf, we seem to have no problems with bears moving off. Just the opposite. The bears, even yearlings, move the wolf off when they approach the site. When it's a whole pack like this, the bears tend to avoid the site entirely until the wolves move on.

Interestingly enough, I've found that even coon will push bears off of a site...I had a site the last 2 seasons that would show the bear laid up on it for hours, then the coon family moves in and the bear is gone until the coon leave, then he comes right back...I'm thinking bears don't appreciate the confrontations with anything.

[jerkbait]

Funny, I see just the opposite with the coons. Seems like once the bears come in the coons skidaddle and stay away until the bear is done.

[Boar]

Huh. Wierd ive seen bear and coons hanging out on the bait pile dealing bear crack back and forth. Obviously a relationship has evolved here.

[Basseyes]

After this last weekend we have at least 8 different wolves on one site. They have driven everything off. Even have bear hair in wolf scat. Had a run in one night checking on a bait site. We didn't see them but they were howling under 75 yards away with a truck running at the bait site and 4 guys talking loudly. After the howling a couple rounds were let off into a stump. This did not spook the wolves only brought them way to close for comfort. They closed the distance to under 40 yards of us and the bait site and the bait site has been clean for a while now. We even had some trying to come through our camp on our land one night sitting around the camp fire, with multiple lanterns going. This does not seem like normal behavior. Called the local CO but not a lot he can do, but he was helpful. Have taken a leak in the bait and all around it multiple times, put gas on the bait logs and a little dribble in the bait and have opened it up. Nothing has stopped them, and we have not even baited that site in a while after opening it up. I am going to leave a radio in the bait pile and see what that does and see if that is a deterrent at all. One thing is for certain, they do not like licorice.

After this there's no baiting alone or without a firearm. And we've baited without firearms in the past. The guy who showed me how to bait, baited for 30 years and never baited with a firearm and never had any issues. He thought your best weapon was between your ears.

We are getting a lot of nice trail camera pics and videos of the "elusive" wolf. The ones we really like are when we bump them off and when they come back behind us in broad daylight. We probably have as many daytime pics and video as we do at night, if not more.

Going up this weekend and going to be checking trail cameras and will post up a ton of pics up next week.

[Boar]

wow thats crazy. know what id do.

[Basseyes]

wow thats crazy. know what id do.

Chain a live puppy with parvo to the tree next to the bait site? I'd never do that but was told a story about an old school guy who did that.

Wolves are a wickedly cool predator. I feel some semblance of kinship with them being hunters. But am seeing why old schoolers and cattle guys have such a hatred for them. And we have a lot of cattle in our neck of the woods.

[Basseyes]

On a side bar, are sweets a good wolf bait in the late season? We are thinking of sitting on sweets vs road kill if we get drawn for wolf tags. And we had a doe and fawn at this bait site. How does a fawn or any deer live with these things all year long.

[BuckSutherland]

Is the safety stuck on your gun?? How about a five gallon pail of tanerite?? Cant believe you are lucky enough to draw 8 in, but then dont do anything about it. Go get some meat and soak it in flybait and coke and they will be gone.

[protrapper]

They're hitting the bait to kill small or cub bears. I see this on my cams every year. I ran around 40 baits this year and had wolves on half. They're dump is full of bear hair. They know they can pick the cubs off at the bait.

[Boar]

Therenya go bass, put out a bunch of bear hair and wahla!