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Bootpathguy
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PostThu Jul 23, 2015 10:07 pm 
2 wildlife experiences I'd like to witness in the wild. The 2 W's . Wolves & Wolverines http://www.capitalpress.com/Washington/20150721/wolves-kill-yearling-angus-in-central-washington

Experience is what'cha get, when you get what'cha don't want
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Mikey
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PostThu Jul 23, 2015 10:54 pm 
Over the past few years I have seen a noticeable decline in deer sightings and deer tracks in the Teanaway area. I saw one wolf walk across the Stafford Creek trail (uphill from west to east across the trail about 35 ft from me) a couple of years ago (attempted to get a photo but I was too slow) and 2 weeks later we saw fresh wolf tracks in fresh snow on the Stafford Creek Trail. We saw a wolverine run south to north across the west bound lanes of I-90 (where the highway has a wooded area between the east bound and west bound lanes west of Easton) about 5 years ago and about 3pm in the afternoon. The wolverine ran sort of diagonal and downhill. Wolverines have a characteristic running gait and a tail and at first we wondered what sort of a dog or bear this critter was until it got closer (it passed about 10 ft from our truck). Too bad I did not have a dashboard camera to film that wolverine.

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gb
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PostFri Jul 24, 2015 12:41 am 
yarbrolee wrote:
2 wildlife experiences I'd like to witness in the wild. The 2 W's . Wolves & Wolverines
Me, too. although I've seen wolves in Washington (twice), Canada, and near Yellowstone, never a wolverine. Here is the next best thing, a terrific video on PBS: Chasing the Phantom (Wolverines) http://video.pbs.org/video/1642358743/ Wolverines are absolutely loaded with personality, the researchers in the PBS video would die for the 30 pound creature. This could be the theme song of the wolverine:

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Dave Workman
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PostFri Jul 24, 2015 4:48 am 
Mikey wrote:
Over the past few years I have seen a noticeable decline in deer sightings and deer tracks in the Teanaway area. I saw one wolf walk across the Stafford Creek trail (uphill from west to east across the trail about 35 ft from me) a couple of years ago and 2 weeks later we saw fresh wolf tracks in fresh snow on the Stafford Creek Trail.
That's definitely B-A-D. The Teanaway used to be legendary for mule deer. It was traditionally one of the spots where one could see deer in the summer and hunt them in the fall.

"The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted." - D.H. Lawrence
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Graveler
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PostFri Jul 24, 2015 6:07 am 
not one deer in the Foggy dew area last weekend or hardly a sign that they are in the area... the one exception was the dead one on the Road up from Pateros....

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the Zachster
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PostFri Jul 24, 2015 6:21 am 
Got 'em both! Super exciting to see. Not in Washington yet, though.

"May I always be the kind of person my dog thinks I am"
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Jetlag
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PostFri Jul 24, 2015 8:16 am 
I took three trips through Teanaway snow this year and saw lots of deer prints each time, but only one old set of prints that might . . . might have been a young wolf. As for wolverines, I feel lucky to have seen one up close two years ago.

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Dante
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PostFri Jul 24, 2015 8:19 am 
I'd love to see either. The closest I've come to a Wolverine was a Pine Martin on the Wonderland Trail. We both wanted to use the same foot log across a stream. Neither of us noticed the other until we were on the log. It was probably 15' away. Cool experience. A Wolverine probably wouldn't have yielded the right of way wink.gif

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gb
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PostFri Jul 24, 2015 9:43 am 
Horsepucky: A bit of horsepucky on this thread by the wolf haters (hunters who don’t know the facts):
Quote:
WDFW 2014: More obvious causes of prey (read deer, elk, moose) decline are: Hunting Severe winters Fire Disease/Parasites Less obvious causes are: Drought Changes in habitat Changes in vulnerability Predation effects: Where wolves are most common in Washington Number of deer killed by hunters in 2014 where wolves exist (GMU’s 101-121): 4300+-, up from 4150+- in 2013, up from 3850+- in 2012, up from 3050+- in 2011 (“severe winter” with snow well into spring), 2010 4250 +-, 2009 4150+- The first wolfpack was first documented in the area in 2009 and there were 12 in 2014”. “Buck harvest declined significantly after two hard winters in 2007 & 2008” By comparison-(my words) WDFW: “Cause of death of radio - marked adult female deer: Cougar 5, Domestic dog 4, Undetermined 3, Capture related 2, Auto collision 2” WDFW: :Wolves do not appear to impacting Bull Elk harvest trends.” WDFW: Wolves do not appear to impacting Moose harvest trends.” Teanaway WDFW: 2011-2014 was the “Period of established wolfpacks” WDFW” Buck harvest in GMU’s 249, 251, 328 & 335: 2008 320+-, 2009 510+-, 2010 +- 330+-, 2011 350+- (no apparent decrease from winter of 2011 until 2012) 2012 315 +-, 2013 >315+-, 2014 305+-”
Hunters and wolf haters seem to be pretty perceptive to notice the diappearance of what looks to be 10 (that’s right ten deer in the Teanaway) compared to a total harvest of 315+- annually since 2010. Bottom line: WDFW:
Quote:
As of today WDFW does not have any measureable indication that wolves are having an impact on ungulate populations.
Now that is cool (and factual) Wolves are having no real (not imagined or propagandized) impact.

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Mikey
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PostFri Jul 24, 2015 11:23 am 
Nice writeup gb. Wisconsin DNR estimates that each wolf kills about 20 deer per year. Assuming there are 10 wolves in the Teanaway pack, the estimated wolf deer kill could be around 200 deer per year in the Teanaway area. A Wash State WDFW report of Dec 2014 lists the Teanaway Wolf Pack has a minimum of 5 wolves.

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Slugman
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PostFri Jul 24, 2015 11:30 am 
So, Dave reads one comment from one person, and suddenly having a healthy predator prey relationship is "b a d"? Typical wolf hater propaganda.

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John Mac
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PostFri Jul 24, 2015 7:26 pm 
Back to the original topic.... My wolverine sighting was about 8-9 years ago on the Merritt Lake trail, (Stevens Pass), early in the morning, solo hiking, just before the creek crossing at the first draw as you come out of the pines. It appeared to be hunting something in the talus below. Way cool. Let the biologist at the ranger station know. They were stoked.

How miserable are the idle hours of the ignorant man. Ariosto
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coho
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PostFri Jul 24, 2015 9:54 pm 
yarbrolee wrote:
Surprised this isn't a topic
It is now.

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gb
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PostSat Jul 25, 2015 4:09 am 
The smart move with Endangered animals is not to give specific locations on sightings of these animals. There are a lot of crazies like the idiot and criminal who shot the female wolf in the Teanaway. It is not only conceivable but quite likely that these crazies and criminals would frequent a site like this for information. For information that is years old, this is probably harmless. Still, better to say something like "I was hiking east of Stevens Pass" or even better "east of the Cascades and saw a wolf" if you feel you need to tell the story. This is true in Trip Reports as well. Equally important is to pass on the sighting in a detailed manner to folks studying these populations such as The Wolverine Foundation http://wolverinefoundation.org and for Grizzly Bears and now Wolves Western Wildlife Outreach http://westernwildlife.org . These groups will not only monitor populations but will work with government agencies to make sure that proper protections are in place to the extent that is politically possible. I have shared Cascade Grizzly evidence with the latter organization and passed on contact information with the former for folks who have sighted these rare creatures. This idea is not without precedent. I am very interested in botany and share information on rare plants with "Washington Rare Plants" and the "Burke Museum Herbarium". The Burke does not show, in it's "WTU Image Collection" and in the "Burke Herbarium" specimen collections the precise location that these plants were found because these plants are rare and could be valuable. This is standard practice with other organizations like EfloraBC and other herbariums. The exact location of these rare plants is hidden. Speaking with a consultant of the Burke and USFS and probably the expert on the Lomatium genus recently, he said that when he names plants (there are currently 8 new species in the genus) he prefers that the scientific or common name is somewhat descriptive of the plant so that it can be identified when seen. His comment was that many of these very rare plants (not all the new ones are rare) are "going extinct like crazy" so it is advantageous to know where viable populations are. For instance, one of the rarest plants in the Olympics is Astragalus australis. There are 9 known populations with a total of 4000 plants. The plant is under threat from Goats and public agencies are doing what they can to monitor these populations.

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John Mac
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PostSat Jul 25, 2015 7:00 am 
"yarbrolee"]What time of the year? On my way to Alpine Lookout, so must have been June or July

How miserable are the idle hours of the ignorant man. Ariosto
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