haha that would be funny as hell, hanging in the living room.....

It'd be a Crowd Favorite,without a doubt.

I personally have not seen or heard of any confirmed reports of wolves on the west side at least since a friend of mine swears he saw one in the late 60's near green water while elk hunting.
I did do a little homework on the subject and found a couple of interesting things on deer and elk predation.
A single wolf will take an average of 15 to 19 deer per year. This average goes down with elk as they are larger and provide more food.
Wolves will also eat almost anything they can catch from rabbits to earthworms and everything in between.
The main predator of deer and elk (mostly deer) in this state is the cougar.
While a single wolf takes 15 to 19 deer a year.
A single cougar who's population in this state is estimated at 2500 animals takes one deer every 9 to 12 days.
I did not get into livestock predation as wolves, where there is a self sustaining population always seemed to get the blame, even though it was proven to be other predators. ie Bears, Cougars, Bobcats, Coyotes, even the family dog.
Here is the latest report on the states wolf population from our wdfw.
Ramprat



Washington's second wolf pack confirmed,
wolf activity being monitored in Pend Oreille County

Washington's second gray wolf pack has been confirmed and an adult wolf has been equipped with a satellite-telemetry tracking collar by state biologists in northeast Washington's Pend Oreille County.

This morning, biologists with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) led by a wolf expert from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game temporarily captured a 105-pound wolf-believed to be the alpha-male pack leader-to equip it with a satellite-telemetry collar so its movements can be tracked. Two wolf pups also were temporarily captured, equipped with ear tags and released.

The collared wolf's movements will be monitored with periodic relocation data transmitted by satellite and downloaded on a computer. The Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment allows monitoring without the aerial or ground tracking required in standard radio telemetry.

Biologists found earlier evidence of the wolf pack-they have named the Diamond Pack-through howling responses from multiple wolves of various ages, and from photos of up to four young wolves recorded on a remote, motion-triggered camera. A wolf pack is defined as two or more wolves traveling together.

Biologists with WDFW and the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) have been monitoring the area in recent weeks, after a DNR remote camera recorded images in May of what appeared to be an adult male and female gray wolf. The female wolf was lactating, indicating she was nursing pups. Subsequent genetic testing of a hair sample collected from a camera station indicated the hair came from a male gray wolf from the northwestern Montana/southwestern Alberta wolf population.

More recently biologists conducted howling surveys, and responding howls were heard from multiple wolves-both juvenile and adult.

Last summer, Washington's first breeding pair of wolves found since the 1930s was radio-collared in western Okanogan County in north-central Washington.

Gray wolves were removed from Washington by the 1930s as a result of trapping, shooting and poisoning, and later listed as both a federal and state endangered species.

Gray wolf populations in nearby Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have rebounded in recent years as a result of federal recovery efforts in the northern Rocky Mountains. Gray wolves were recently removed from the federal endangered species list in those areas and the eastern third of Washington, including Pend Oreille County. They remain federally listed as endangered in the western two-thirds of Washington and state endangered throughout Washington.

WDFW is in the process of drafting a gray wolf conservation and management plan, which will be circulated for public comment later this year, and will be considered for adoption by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission in 2010. The draft plan was developed with a 17-member citizen working group composed of wolf conservation representatives, ranchers and hunters.

Anyone wishing to report a possible wolf sighting or activity should call a toll-free wolf reporting hotline at 1-888-584-9038. Those with concerns about possible wolf-caused livestock depredation should contact the USDA Wildlife Services office in Olympia at (360) 753-9884 or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Wenatchee at (509) 665-3508.

Wolves prefer venison to most everything else and only 20 victims a year per each,is grandiose folly.

Saw wolves two different trips in the Nile unit last fall - both early and late archery seasons. I expect that'll be a more common siting going forward. Had the biologist neutered those wolves he was referring to or is there an official clamp down on information relating to the spread of them?

The Official approach is to let people who know less than nothing,call the shots and make statements.

You'll note that trend.

Just like incompetent fishermen enjoy blaming Sea Lions and Orcas for their inability to land a fish.

There are wolves in WA-- alot further south than people are aware. I've seen them myself, but I'm not about to go around saying where.
They want to be left alone from what I can tell, they aren't bothering any local livestock, and besides, I don't want a bunch of trigger happy hicks littering up and getting closed off one of my favourite camping places.

I'm all ears,in regards to Vegan Wolves.

Do tell.

If I were worrying about game populations being overwhelmed by predators in this state, there are at least two that would finish well above the distant third, the wolf...and both are more easily controlled by "management", and controlling them would be more effective than worrying over a handful of wolves, too...yet, as usual, the political will to pull their heads out of their asses and just do the right thing is severely lacking.

Sadly, as usual, at the same the will to find an easy scapegoat is alive and well.

Fish on...

Todd

Yeah,

Wolves don't do any damage to livestock....

Wolves kill 120 sheep.

...but I think this rancher might disagree.

Wolves are well beyond ruthless.

Don't slight the pack mentality,in it's literal sense,as few things can compete.

Literally.

Hopefully I don't come across as too tough on ranchers, but when you put a bunch of animals that look a pile of donuts at a fat camp in the woods where predators live, predators will eat them...and I have more sympathy for the predators that are doing what they are supposed to do, than I do for the ranchers who are not...

Fish on...

Todd

I dont think the number of wolves are the problem right now Todd. It is the mentality in seattle/olympia(that control the state) that scares people. It is the numbers exploding as they have in Yellowstone/montana/idaho/wyoming and every other place wolves have gone with a complete lack of will to control the numbers. The legal system holding up any effort for states to control the population(and that is in states that have the balls to attempt to do so. Unlike ours).
Are many other things a much bigger problem than wolves.......of course, but adding the wolf(without control) to that list is not something we should hope for. At least we have our co-managers. They should be able to hunt them as it was their tradition to do so. Our seattle pols attempting to appease the enviros and the tribe. That will be fun to watch at least.

If you're talking about what I said about them not bothering local livestock, it's because there is no livestock in that area.

Here's a new Wolf site that has very good up-to-date information. Also, this site has a list of governmental addresses to contact to voice your opinion and concerns. Those of who wish to responsibly hunt in the future had better get on the ball and see to it that hunting becomes a part of the Washington wolf management plan.

http://washingtonwolf.info/

2 ago year during late archery elk season in unit 336 i found alot of wolf tracks (4 sets) along i-90. you could see where they crossed the freeway and then ran along the yakima river.

one day i heard some howling and the very next day i found the tracks (about the size of my palm) along the river. so i followed them to the freeway and could see where they came off the bank on the far side of the freeway. then i went off towards where the tracks were headed and followed them for about 2 miles before they finally crossed the river. they were heading straight towards the nile unit.

everyone said they were poeple and thier dogs. but there was 3" of fresh snow the day i got up there. and for the 2 weeks i was up there, i never seen or heard another person. never seen or heard a dog. never seen a single boot track or tire track.

Ignorance is going to be the cause for a slap in the face for most I think with regards to this one. I hunt nearly every year in Idaho and every year I have seen more and more sign. Personally I have never seen them. They are very smart, very elusive and if they don't want to be seen, they won't. I have been within fifty yards of them and never seen them. But I could hear them.

The biggest problem with wolves is that they will constantly expand the area they live in. The pack mentality also includes shunning. Anytime there is a pack there is moderator. And sometimes that guy says get the hell out. So now you have a wandering dog looking for more wandering dogs to pack up with. Thus the spread.

I first heard and saw of the wolf sign in Garden Valley, Idaho roughly 15 years ago. That was the first anyone had seen or heard of them atleast that I knew of. It started out as a single wolf that was sighted on more than one occasion. As we all know, those sightings increased into what are now a managed hunting species. Make no mistake about it folks. They are here. And there will be more.

Here's one that was recently killed in Idaho for killing livestock. The guy holding it is close to 6 feet tall.

Damn! That's a big doggie!

Fish on...

Todd

P.S. I think he's long arming it

That photo has been floating around for a bit and there appears to be a couple stories behind it. In any case, that's a HUUUUUUGE bitch!