Isle Royale Forums

It is thought no pups were born this year (2014).
http://www.thetimesherald.com/story/tra ... /17765557/

I talked to a pair of friends who hiked the Feldtman loop this year late in the season and both had very alarming encounters with the pack on the west end. When they were at Feldtman Lake there was a high school biology (fairly) local teacher who was supposedly sent to gather some research on the pack at the west end as they've become pretty agreesive.

The stories I heard indicate that the wolves in that area are quickly loosing their instinctive fear of humans. One of my friends was hiking on the trail just after the fire tower and was challenged on the trail by a wolf. Scared him to death. He won't hike alone up there now. I won't be hiking without bear spray from now on after hearing them talk.

Tightlines01 wrote:I talked to a pair of friends who hiked the Feldtman loop this year late in the season and both had very alarming encounters with the pack on the west end. When they were at Feldtman Lake there was a high school biology (fairly) local teacher who was supposedly sent to gather some research on the pack at the west end as they've become pretty agreesive.

The stories I heard indicate that the wolves in that area are quickly loosing their instinctive fear of humans. One of my friends was hiking on the trail just after the fire tower and was challenged on the trail by a wolf. Scared him to death. He won't hike alone up there now. I won't be hiking without bear spray from now on after hearing them talk.

There is usually a reason for that behavior. My guess they had a kill near by. Take second hand stories with a grain of salt. The pepper spray is still a good idea.

These were close personal friends I've hiked with many times. Nothing flusters this guy normally and my other buddy who caught up to him at Siskiwit has known him for 20 years and never saw him like that. I fully trust him. The other guys had an encounter with them not going away at the beach at Feldtman. The biology teacher was asking him about his encounter the next day as two other wolves were growling in the tent behind her when he tried to make noise/yell to frighten the approaching wolf that evening by the lake. Just kept coming down the shore toward him.

Dont discount the use of a good loud wistle.I have carried one for years and they work well for scaring many small animals and I have been told you can even scare a bear with them.It just isnt a sound that they hear in the bush.Of course the spray is always close too

I was on the bottom half of the Feldtman loop in early September and there were tracks everywhere between that first overlook of Grace Creek to Siskiwit. I never heard them though. Doesn't NancyT have a photo from last season of a wolf headed towards the shelter at Siskiwit with people standing around a fire ring in the background?

I remember that photo, I have one of a wolf in Feldtmann site #2... he paid me a visit while I was taking a break from fishing.



This was in June this year...

Nice picture. How did it act toward you?

very skittish... didnt hang around long. I was being quiet... I'm not sure it saw me until I said something, then it jumped and turned to go the other way. Didn't run away at an all out run but I would call it a jogging pace. I followed it's tracks backwards to see where it came from and then followed them the other way to see where it was going, lost them pretty quick both ways. It was walking down the beach towards my buddy fishing (he never saw it) and turned into the campsite ~200 yards from where he was.

we saw another one the next day on the trail to windigo... it was coming down the trail towards us and we saw eachother at about the same time and it dissapeared very quickly into the trees west of the trail.

I wonder what was he smelling for? Was there food or something spilled there.There is a real possibility that they are learning people = food scraps & such. The foxes have learned, why not the wolves?.....or have they? To a wolfs sense of smell or packs are probably like walking past Mcy D's
Plus if you consider they have never known humans to be aggressors, so they have no reason to fear us. They are the dominant predator, that has never been challenged. It is their home , and I certainly don't want to have a scrap with one. I just don't know for shure if I could take him

we didnt spill anything there... we had fried fish earlier that day but not where he was, and where we cooked and where the food/ I was is downwind from him.

I'm not sure one would want to take on large prey like a human without help anyway. Anything that dosent turn and run looks scary because it isnt scared of you, aka willing to stand and fight. One wolf I feel like I could win that fight. Might be a little cut up and worse for the wear, but a pack would be a lot tougher. I am also almost always within earshot of my "pack" or hiking buddys which has the same effect on our success rate as the wolf and the same deturant for the wolf. We are not all that different.

hooky wrote:I was on the bottom half of the Feldtman loop in early September and there were tracks everywhere between that first overlook of Grace Creek to Siskiwit. I never heard them though. Doesn't NancyT have a photo from last season of a wolf headed towards the shelter at Siskiwit with people standing around a fire ring in the background?

I mixed up the ladies who post here. Here's the thread with pictures.

http://isleroyaleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... kiwit+wolf

Doesn't NancyT have a photo from last season of a wolf headed towards the shelter at Siskiwit with people standing around a fire ring in the background?

No that wasn't me. I believe it was BlackCoffee. I saw Isabelle in Grace Harbor, but didn't get a pic.

Edited to add: Yep, it was her, here's the link... http://www.blackcoffeeatsunrise.com/201 ... y-two.html