I live in the Southern Missouri Ozarks on a dead end forest service road, way back in the woods. This past year my wife and I have heard wolf howles. No doubt about it, not coyotes for sure. About once a month the deer stop coming around and our outside dogs will not come out of their house for a few days, I guess they know the wolves are passing through. My Uncle lives about 20 miles from us and he said he saw one. Earlier this spring there was a deer kill sight on the lane to our house, blood over a large area. The deer was torn apart, there were a few strips of hide about 2'' wide and a foot long and one hind leg from the knee down also the stomach contents only was left at the kill seen. Nothing else. I followed the blood trail which was a drag trail and it just went away. I never found a carcass at all even watching for buzzards and crows. There were no tracks due to being gravel and grass. I called the local State Conservation Agent ( Game Warden) and he came out and brought with him the area biolegest . They acted like I was stupid to even think it could be wolves. I guess the kill could have been a couger which they admit we have but I never found the body covered with leaves or in a tree that comes with a cat kill. What do ya'll think, am I nuts to think we have wolves moving in? I'm also not the best speller or typest.
Wolves in southern Missouri??
- Thread starter Mike68
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Your game warden probably acted like you didn't know what you were talking about because the turned some loose like they have in Indiana. They won't admit it but a lot of people are sure they have. We have had some killed in our area the last 5 years
Just remember, they are the same game wardens that were telling everyone "no mountain lions in MO" until about the 4th or 5th dead and captured ones were turned in.
That's the truth! We knew mountain lions were here 20 years before there was enough evidence that they had to admit it. I guess it will be the same with wolves. Our cattle ranchers here loose calves every year and its plain as day that it wasn't cats or coyotes. So I'm sure we will see some wolves show up shot for killing cattle.
maxcarp
Member
Very interesting. When the game warden said that it was not possible for wolves to be in your area, you should have said "Well it must be coyotes then,so I better shoot the next one I see"Watch his eyes light up then!
maxcarp
Member
Do you have any links to news reports? What part of Indiana?
East Central Indiana I have no links the DNR says there have been no documented kills. In the last 5 years there have been at least 2 shot, 1 hit by car and 2 at a taxidermist that looked just like a coyote that weighed 90 lbs.
maxcarp
Member
Interesting.If a taxidermist has 2 of them,that is better than any news account.If someone would get DNA from the 2 wolves the taxidermist has and have it analyzed,it could be determined if they were Timber wolves or Canadian Gray wolves,and where the packs originated from.Determining just how the wolves got there would be a much greater mystery.
6fatrat
Well-Known Member
When you hear a wolf howl there is no doubt what it is. If you don't deal with this problem quickly you will regret it.
Steve Bair
Steve Bair
I know, they are a hard animal to even catch a glimps of. Other people in the area and myself are trying to do some predator hunting. Any of you that have experience with wolves have a way to keep them from coming around. I know wolves are not scared of much of anything. I have a Rem. 700 sps varmint .308 that I've customized to look like a M40A1. I keep handy because the kill I was talking about was next to a ranchers cattle that I keep an eye on about 600 yrds from my front porch. I just don't want to end up with a problem like the Northwestern states have.
Havoc
Well-Known Member
Are you sure it's not a coyote domestic cross? I hunt a ranch in Ca western Sacramento valley, and I've seen one yote I swear that thing was 70 lbs. I chased him on my quad but never got a shot at it. Unfortunately as a Ca resident we have bigger fish to fry besides yotes, like an unchecked mountain lion population (they're illegal to hunt in Ca). Either way, I hope you get this problem sorted out before it gets a strong foot hold.
I have seen coy dogs around here, like you say some of them pretty big. I have even seen one with a saddle like it was crossed with a german shepherd!!! But I haven't seen wolves myself I have just heard them and seen sign. I did see tracks on another property once about 3 years ago in mud that were about 5 inches across and they were going in a straight line just like a coyote but 5 inches wide I could almost fit my hand in the tracks!! My sons Grandpa was out in his Jeep wrangler in one of his cornfields that had been picked and disk down for the winter and said he say 2 wolves, they appeared to be timber wolves he said. They were at least 4 ft. high at their head and he said when they saw him come in the field they ran and he chased them. He said it was muddy and about 35 was as fast as he could go in the jeep and they left him like he was setting still.
Here in Minnesota we are lousy with wolves and I'll go so far as to say I know they are not just a northern woods critter anymore. I saw a dead wolf lying along Highway 52 just north of Rochester a year ago. A friend in Winona, along the Mississippi River in the SE has had DNR confirmed sightings in his backyard. To the east across the river Wisconsin's Fort McCoy has three confirmed packs.
Here in the SE we see bear when we never used to as well as an occasional moose. Wolves don't surprise me. And only a couple years back a farmer shot a cougar that was cornered in a culvert under his driveway and was charged with taking a protected animal while the dnr swore that no cougars were in the state.
We have a cabin and property not far off Lake Superior's north shore and have moose, deer, bear, coyotes, WOLVES and COUGAR on a regular basis. We see them in the cabin yard. Neighbors see them in their yards. Back here at home the dnr has confirmed sighting of transient cougar so it doesn't stretch my mind to believe that wolves are in this area but the dnr won't fess up to it because of the can of worms it would open up with the anti's regarding the need to control them....which we seriously need to do.
Here in the SE we see bear when we never used to as well as an occasional moose. Wolves don't surprise me. And only a couple years back a farmer shot a cougar that was cornered in a culvert under his driveway and was charged with taking a protected animal while the dnr swore that no cougars were in the state.
We have a cabin and property not far off Lake Superior's north shore and have moose, deer, bear, coyotes, WOLVES and COUGAR on a regular basis. We see them in the cabin yard. Neighbors see them in their yards. Back here at home the dnr has confirmed sighting of transient cougar so it doesn't stretch my mind to believe that wolves are in this area but the dnr won't fess up to it because of the can of worms it would open up with the anti's regarding the need to control them....which we seriously need to do.
