A story that comes to ODU via RMEF, for those in the back country who share space with wolves should be read.A grouse hunter in northeast Minnesota sent his German wire-haired pointer in the woods to find a grouse only to watch it eventually come sprinting out for its life.
“He was coming at me 100 miles per hour, and right behind him was a wolf, biting at his heels,” said Justin Bailey, told the Forum News Service. “They probably passed five or six feet from us.”
The incident happened near Isabella about 80 miles north and east of Duluth. It wasn’t just Bailey and his dog either. His three-year-old son and five-year-old nephew were with him.
The dog jumped in the window of the truck as the wolf quickly circled around it. Bailey then noticed two more wolves coming out of the woods and three more further down the road.
“I think we saw six total,” he said. “I was yelling at the one that went around the truck. He wasn’t very timid, that’s for sure. He was 15 feet from the truck and turned around and watched me put the kids in the truck.”
Bailey also fired his shotgun into the air to try to scare off the wolves but he said they didn’t flinch.
Earlier the same week, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced the state’s wolf population jumped at least 25 percent in size to at least 2,856 wolves from a year ago, well above the state goal of 1,600 wolves.
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation maintains that predators have a proper place on the landscape. RMEF supports science-based management of all wildlife including wolves, elk, mountain lions, deer, bears and other species in line with the North American Wildlife Conservation Model.