Spokane7
36°
Today
the CDA Press ran a front page story on a local hunter who shot a wolf in the Joe recently. The story needs clarification. In that story, is the quote “It was the head and fur of what had been a massive wolf…The 2002 Coeur d’Alene High School graduate got what he estimated was a 180-pound wolf…” This wolf was NOT weighed by anyone, and was presented for check-in as stated – only a head and hide. It “felt” like 180 lbs to the hunter - that doesn’t make it 180 lbs. You can probably tell, chasing down these kinds of rumors ticks me off a bit, but it’s important for us all to deal with facts, not guesses/Jim Hayden, regional wildlife manager, Idaho F&G department. More below.
Question: Aren’t you glad there aren’t 180-pound wolves in the North Idaho woods?
That wolf was indeed a nice mature male, but the head was not any larger than the other males for which we have verified weights. Here’s the up to date graph for Panhandle wolves killed, with the weights from the transplanted wolves included as well. The average adult male weights have ranged from 89 to 126, averaging 105 lbs. Recently a 128 pound wolf was verified taken downstate in another zone. We’ll get wolves in the 130 to 140 pound range over time, maybe even a little higher, but nothing in that range yet. The largest transplanted wolf was 135 lbs. 180 lbs is silly.
Sorry if I’m a bit cranky this morning, it’s that time of year.
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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Sam on February 24 at 11:31 a.m.
If Jim is going to get this cranky, perhaps he should consider offering a scale to weigh these animals for the hunters in the future? That might help, for the sake of his own sanity, too.
Phaedrus on February 24 at 11:36 a.m.
The weight might be a guesstimate, but that was a darn big wolf!
Cabbage Boy on February 24 at 11:47 a.m.
The CdA grad is still taking down them ‘wolves.
OutofStaterTater on February 24 at 11:55 a.m.
Yes, but even if the hunter was off by, say, 60 pounds, that’s still a pretty big animal. The biggest dog in my neighborhood is probably in the ballpark of 100 lbs. Maybe. And that does not make me feel good.
LarrySpencer on February 24 at 12:34 p.m.
Look at the picture. BIG! My dog weighs around 110, and is the size of a small horse. Coyotes are almost never over 40 lbs. I think the problem here is that a canine over 100 lbs could kill any person it wants to kill.
DFO on February 24 at 1:31 p.m.
@ Cabbage re: “The CdA grad is still taking down them ‘wolves.”
Dyne-oh!-mite line. On the other hand, the T-Wolves took down the Trojans last night for a berth in the boys’ basketball state championships. So the old T-Wolf carcass still has some life in it. Particularly in football.
Stickman on February 24 at 3:05 p.m.
I wish there were more of them in the woods, even carrying registered handguns, then maybe we wouldn’t have so many of these so called hunters trying to bring one in.
Stickman on February 24 at 3:42 p.m.
Sorry about that, my distaste for guns and killing things did get the better of me.
OrangeTV on February 24 at 3:50 p.m.
I’m with Stickman. If my fate is to meet my death via an attack by a hungry wolf, so be it. I could never bring myself to kill such a magnificent creature, and I especially would never boast publicly about doing it even if I could. I get a little queasy when I hear about these sorts of things.
Stickman on February 24 at 4:51 p.m.
I guess my passion comes from the war, in Vietnam I mean. We killed things every day, even humans, so when I see things like this, I revert back to the movie ‘The Deerhunter’, when in the end Robert DeNiro just couldn’t pull the trigger on a magnificent deer. He was a hunter, but couldn’t kill anymore. I feel the same way, so when you see my comments against guns and killing just for fun, I don’t get it. Simple.
MarkU on February 24 at 7:34 p.m.
Wolves kill for fun, at times. And unlike DeNiro, they keep doing it.
Stickman on February 25 at 12:46 p.m.
Mark: I doubt wolves kill for fun. DeNiro stopped because he was done with it all. He had enough of what he did and what he saw. Wolves are killing machines, but I doubt that allows us to take the initiative and begin killing them because of whatever reason you feel is justified. Is there too many? Do they kill all of the other animals that the hunters want for themselves? I say let nature take control, unless we feel we need to step in, which happens quite often.