The Big Bad Wolf

Trout Whisperer posted on September 30, 2009 15:28 :: 3355 Views

What’s mans best friend, rumor has it, it would be a dog right? “Wolves strengthen the biodiversity of a region by bringing into balance species with large populations, and bolstering species under stress.” That’s a direct quote from the Maine wolf coalition and I couldn’t agree with it more. Now before anyone accuses me of biting off more than I can chew, try gnawing on some four legged facts.

Wolves not only play a part in the balancing of our deer herd, they have time and again been shown to regulate smaller canines like coyote numbers. Sometimes they go for an aquatic meal and dine on the dam building beavers. The big bad wolf in some worried minds, turns out actually to do more good, than the legendary bad.

We run into conflict as humans when we live in the wolfy woods. Ask little red or grandma when For instance, we let Fido off the leash in the great outdoors or in some instances just out the back door and lobo takes permanent care of Fido. See sometimes wolves do, what wolves are programmed to do, woods or not. Naughty, naughty wolves, you bad, bad, dog.

Wolves kill a variety of critters. From the moose, to the fury little bunny rabbits but Wolves don’t take a doggy bag with them after dinner so the remains “bolster species under stress”, which parlays into a feast for crows, fishers, pine martens, ravens on down to the smallest little chickadees or mice that feed on the kill sites.

Maybe I camp there too often but late in August on into early September up by hog lake in Cook county I can hear the wolf packs many times just bust out howling. The pack is bringing the new of the year pups that survived so far this summer out on some real meal training runs in preparation for the winter ahead. Call me wild or crazy but I prefer a good wolf howl to a domestic dog barking any day.

Here are some basic wolf tracks to gaze upon. Genetically speaking, dogs and wolves share a common ancestry. An adult wolf in tip top condition can be 38 inches tall at the shoulder and above those four large padded feet amass 80 pounds of body weight. Wolves are so specially designed they can trot continuously over five miles at a maintained pace or speed of five miles per hour. Fur coloration runs the gambit. The black furred wolf which is considered rare, has to do with a mutant gene and my, what big yellow eyes they have for gathering light at night to see.

The famous gun dog trainer Bill Tarrant once wrote “every one who owns a domestic dog, has in essence a small wolf in there home”, mine mainly chews on milk bones, but I agree with Bill too.

Trout Whisperer

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