PREDATORS -- A 20-year-old Stevensville hunter thought he'd done everything right before he let his three mountain lion dogs go on a set of fresh tracks Sunday afternoon.

He'd been hunting with others in the Ninemile drainage north of Missoula since Sept. 3. In all that time, they had not seen any sign of wolves in the area.  He saw no wolf tracks in the snow heading up to his hunting area last weekend.

This day wasn’t any different than the rest of the season -- until his GPS unit indicated his dogs had stopped.

Read the chilling story in the Ravalli Republic.