Yet another great summer pattern similar to the stoneflopper.
Grasshopper + Stonefly = Stoneflopper
Time for a snap’n!
Time for a snap’n! #snappingturtle #turtle #snapper
Do Not Feed The Wolves, Duh!
Brilliant…
Unwary wolf pups near Brimson concern wildlife officials
By Sam Cook / Duluth News Tribune
BRIMSON — Gary and Jody Hepola knew something was different Wednesday morning. They hadn’t seen the wolf pups.
For the past month, they’ve seen up to seven wolf pups every day near Hugo’s, a bar and general store they own near Brimson, about 35 miles north of Duluth.
“Every day. All day long,” Gary said.
It has become one of Gary’s regular morning chores now to scoop piles of wolf scat from the store’s parking lot. Walking an employee to her car in the dark Tuesday night, Jody said the pair was approached by several of the wolf pups, which came within 20 feet.
One recent evening, a man was putting air in a tire in the parking area behind Hugo’s when he felt something touching his back, Gary Hepola said. The man swatted at it, but it persisted. He looked around. One of the wolf pups had been sniffing him, Hepola said.
Apparently a gray wolf pack has established a rendezvous site not far from Hugo’s at the junction of two rural highways in this quiet piece of boreal forest. Many local residents have seen the pups, which mill about on the road, lie in the road, chase grasshoppers in the road or lie in the shade of a pine tree at Hugo’s.
Some people have been feeding the pups, the Hepolas say.
“We’ve watched people throw food out their car windows,” Jody Hepola said. “Someone put out a bucket of food and a bag of food.”
“That’s why they’re hanging out on the road,” Gary said. “I’ve had to holler at a few people. I tell ‘em, ‘Don’t feed ‘em.’ ”
That’s the message that wildlife officials with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources want to get out, too.
“It’s great to see wolves in the wild, but these aren’t behaving in a way we’d expect from wild wolves,” said Dan Stark, large carnivore specialist for the DNR in Grand Rapids. “If the behavior doesn’t change and they don’t move on, it’s going to end poorly for the wolves.”
The situation could have been avoided, he said.
“This isn’t the wolves doing anything wrong,” Stark said. “It’s something people are doing wrong to encourage the wolves’ behavior. It could have been avoided in the first place if people had observed the wolves, said, ‘This is great’ and moved on.”
A cabin owner down the road has fashioned a makeshift cardboard sign and erected it along the road near Hugo’s. It reads: “DO NOT FEED THE WOLVES. THEY NEED TO LEARN TO FEND FOR THEMSELVES.”
“There were two signs,” Hepola said. “Someone ran over the other one.”
Emotions about the pups — and wolves in general — run to extremes.
“Some people say, ‘Run over ‘em. Shoot ‘em,’ ” Hepola said. “And others say, ‘We should feed ‘em.’ ”
Wolves establish a rendezvous site during summer, the DNR’s Stark explained, after the pups get larger and move away from the den.
“It’s a gathering place where the wolf pups stay while the adults may go off and hunt,” Stark said. “It usually happens at this time of year and goes until later in September or October.”
The pups typically remain near the rendezvous site, and the adults bring back portions of whatever they might kill to feed the pups. These pups appear to weigh about 30 to 40 pounds, Gary Hepola said.
The Hepolas say that some residents claim there were eight pups originally. The most the Hepolas have seen is seven. They have seen an occasional adult wolf, too. One pup was struck by a car and killed last weekend, they said.
“Inevitably, if they’re hanging out on the road, they’re going to get hit,” Gary Hepola said.
On a recent night, Hepola and a friend were sitting near a small fire in a clearing behind Hugo’s. The wolf pups milled around the fire for some time, Hepola said.
“We’ve had all seven of the pups laying out under our pine trees,” Hepola said. “We drove up 5 feet from ‘em. Some got up. One didn’t even get up.”
“When they’re not responding negatively to human presence, that’s a problem,” Stark said.
Besides seeing the wolf pups, the Hepolas also hear the wolves howling frequently.
“Hear ‘em?” Gary said. “I’ve seen ‘em (howling). Right in the middle of the road.”
Stark said it isn’t practical to trap and relocate the pups. If they were released not far away, they would likely return to the rendezvous site, he said. If they were released far away, they likely wouldn’t survive without the adults.
A DNR conservation officer has tried hazing and harassing the wolves, Stark said, to get them away from the road. But Stark said he isn’t sure that practice will help.
Paul Sundberg, a Grand Marais photographer, captured several photos of the wolf pups Sunday morning. He too expressed concern about the practice of feeding them.
“If you start feeding wildlife like that, you’re dooming it to death,” Sundberg said.
On Wednesday morning, at least, the pups were nowhere to be found. Gary Hepola took a drive up and down the road, looking for them. At one place along the shoulder, he saw deer tracks and wolf tracks together.
“I’ll bet you they got a kill, and they’re all full,” Hepola said. “They don’t need to hang out on the road if they’re not hungry.”
Via: The Bemidji Pioneer
Teen attacked by wolf at a Northern Minnesota campground
Well it was only a matter of time, now it’s time to start increasing the number of wolf tags with the new wolf hunting season to help bring back the moose and deer populations and stop the potential increase in future human attacks.
Early Monday morning, an average-sized male wolf of about 75 pounds, matching the description of the wolf in the attack, was trapped and killed in the campground. The wolf is being taken to the University of Minnesota veterinary diagnostic lab to be tested for rabies. Also, the lab will collect samples for DNA analyses and complete a thorough medical examination to determine the health of the animal. (Courtesy Department of Natural Resources)
A 16-year-old boy camping outside in northern Minnesota was roused in the predawn hours by the pressure of a wolf’s jaws clamping down on his skull and face.
While not fully confirmed, that’s the unlikely scenario authorities are investigating after a wolf apparently attacked the boy last weekend on the shore of Lake Winnibigoshish, possibly after tearing through other campers’ tents earlier in the evening.
The teen suffered non-life-threatening injuries — cuts to his head and puncture wounds to his face — in the incident, which happened between 4 and 4:30 a.m. Saturday at the West Winnie Campground of the Chippewa National Forest.
If confirmed, the incident would be the first documented wolf attack of such severity in Minnesota and likely in the continental U.S.
Federal trappers caught the apparent culprit wolf Sunday night or early Monday and killed it Monday morning, ending any sense of immediate danger and prompting wildlife officials to underscore how rare such an occurrence is.
“Freak deal” and “incredibly abnormal behavior” were phrases that Tom Provost, regional manager for enforcement for the Department of Natural Resources in Grand Rapids, used Monday in describing the attack.
There are two documented cases of people being attacked and killed by wolves in North America, one in Alaska and the other in Canada, according to the DNR and a review of scientific literature.
“It’s the first one that I’m aware of where there was actual physical damage to the victim,” Provost said when asked about whether any non-fatal attacks in Minnesota measured up to this one.
Investigators, including University of Minnesota veterinarians, are looking into whether rabies, human habituation or a possibly debilitating jaw condition could explain the attack.
Here’s what happened, according to Provost:
On Friday evening, an animal that several campers said was a wolf caused trouble in the West Winnie Campground, which is operated by the U.S. Forest Service. The animal tore through at least two tents, puncturing an air mattress in one. Some campers later told authorities that the animal matched the wolf that was trapped and killed Monday.
The 16-year-old boy who was attacked was camping with his family and friends. He was lying alone outside the tents, along the lakeshore. The others were inside tents a short distance away. Between 4 and 4:30 a.m. Saturday, a large “dog-like animal” approached the boy from the rear without being detected, Provost said.
“Before he knew it, it had bitten him in the back of the head,” Provost said. The DNR wouldn’t identify the boy but said he lives in northern Minnesota.
The boy freed himself from the canine’s jaws, but it didn’t retreat.
“He had to kick it before it retreated,” Provost said.
The boy’s friends and family gave him first aid. He was taken to the Bemidji hospital, where a 4-inch laceration on his head was closed.
Officials from the U.S. Forest Service, DNR and Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe arrived on the scene and saw a wolf. They tried to surround it, but it escaped. Some time later, a DNR officer saw a wolf a quarter mile away. The wolf approached the officer, who fired once with his handgun but missed. The wolf then ran off.
Authorities theorized that all the sightings, as well as the attack, involved the same animal. Officials called in trappers under contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They set traps overnight Sunday. One wolf was found Monday morning and shot.
Authorities were planning DNA tests that could determine with certainty whether the wolf — a 75-pound male — was the animal that attacked the boy.
While the wolf appeared to be of average weight for its size, Provost said an initial examination by a veterinarian revealed a jaw defect that prevented the animal’s jaws from aligning properly, as well as a missing tooth.
“It was preliminarily thought that it could have been struggling to feed itself in a normal wolf manner,” Provost said. Perhaps the wolf was unable to take down a deer, and perhaps it knew the campground might be a source of food, Provost said, emphasizing that he was speculating.
Rabies test results on the dead wolf are expected Tuesday or Wednesday.
Until a few years ago, the number of documented wolf killings of people in the history of North America was zero, according to the most authoritative research on the topic, “A Case History of Wolf-Human Encounters in Alaska and Canada,” published in 2002 by Mark E. McNay of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
In his examination of 80 instances where wolves showed a lack of fear around people — and in some cases did attack — McKay found three cases where wolves appeared to see humans as prey. All involved small children, and two involved wolves that had been habituated to people.
Since his report was published, two adults — one in Canada and one in Alaska — have been killed by wolves.
The West Winnie Campground remained closed Monday. Traps were being set for another night to make sure there are no other wolves in the area.
The DNR offers the following tips for an encounter with an aggressive wolf:
In the rare event that you do have an encounter with an aggressive wolf:
— Don’t run. Act aggressively, stepping toward the wolf and yelling or clapping your hands if it tries to approach.
— Do not turn your back toward an aggressive wolf. Continue to stare directly at it. If you are with a companion and more than one wolf is present, place yourselves back to back and slowly move away from the wolves.
— Retreat slowly while facing the wolf and act aggressively.
— Stand your ground if a wolf attacks and fight with any means possible (use sticks, rocks, ski poles, fishing rods or whatever you can find).
— Use air horns or other noisemakers.
— Use bear spray or firearms if necessary.
— Climb a tree if necessary; wolves cannot climb trees.
Via: Pioneer Press