We saw another wolf today on the Butze Rapids trail - closer to the highway portion of the trail - a grey coloured wolf that was far from aggressive. Unfortunately - both my small dogs were off leash at the time - and the oldest one charged at the wolf barking up a storm. I’m glad his recall worked this time and he came right back to me while my husband made some noise and kept walking towards it yelling “GO AWAY” - the wolf backed into the woods with a low but very quiet growl. So hubby let off a bear banger and the wolf scurried behind us.
A little ways down the trail it was following from a short ways back - so he let off another one to be sure it was scared away and we carried on.
Just as we get to the car, about 10 minutes later, we see a lady jogging with her little Yorkie down the trail - wearing HEADPHONES! We stop her, tell her about the wolf, and she’s all “oh no big deal, I’ll hear it coming”
Stupid people should not be allowed to own dogs!!
Anyways - that was our exciting encounter - both dogs are totally fine - and no way will they be off-leash on that trail anymore - and I had never used or heard a bear banger before - they are quite effective.
I’m not sure there’s a sign still posted at the beginning of the trail that you should never walk your dogs there. But yeah, wolfs do frequent around the Butze Rapids area.
Oh there absolutely is - I’m not trying to post this in an attempt to get people to be unnecessarily afraid of wolves. I’m also not trying to blame someone else for my dogs possibly losing their lives as a result of this encounter - that would have been mine alone.
That being said - to see a lone woman in headphones with a small dog that was oblivious to any danger was a little much for me. To be fully aware of the dangers as we were - and did what we considered to be the right thing when encountering said dangers is another.
I was just posting our experience I guess to say possibly to other “newbies” that yes - the threat is real and you should heed it - nothing more, nothing less…or just to shout from the rooftops “HEY WE SAW ANOTHER WOLF!!” because the wolf did absolutely NOTHING other than what should be expected from a wild animal.
Great post, kaleid:-)
A few years ago I was having an early walk (6:00 a.m.) down park avenue. It was dark and as I was going along two large grey dogs crossed the street, angling towards me. As they passed me one meter away I could see they were two large wolves. The glanced at me briefly and went on their way. They chose to do nothing to me. The close encounter rather unnerved me to say the least.
I don’t walk in the very early morning now:-)
I have gone out at 4:00 AM and in the middle of the night and ran into wolves most times I have only ran into one or two, but they have always left us alone, as long as you know how to read the behavior you should be ok, the other thing is being cautions and slow, not making any sudden moves that can be interpreted as deer or other animal, also when you are with pets, it’s not you the wolves are interested in it’s the pets. Pets in a wolf eye are a competitor for the same food source wolves are hunting.
I have been talking to people in the Bulkley valley; Smithers and area have seen an increase in wild life such as deer and other large animals, In Terrace cougars have been seen and on one occasion one was shot. I’m wondering if this is because of the pine beadle destroying large parcels of land, driving the herbivores in search of food. And in their tracks the carnivores are just following the food source.
Back to wolves here, the use of common sense is all that’s needed; don’t take your pets with you unless you are plenty sure there is no sign of wild life. Pets such as dogs make great targets, oh I’ve seen cat tracks and wolf tracks following each other near the land fill and have seen the same wild cat there for the last year….funny stuff.