Wolf woman

K

kirby

New member
Went to school with a gal, she always had wild critters about. Coon, Coyote, Wolves & Wolf Hybrids. She lives 12 miles West of me, in the country on an acreage.

Drove by her place many times, but never stopped. Stopped many moons ago, @ a previous [farm acreage] they lived on, with her Bro-inlaw. My ole fishing/trapping bud. At that time, she had two very large Canadian Grey Wolves. Biggest I've ever seen. Specifically the male. Male, was 39" @ the shoulder. What a brute!

Anyway, I called her two days ago, wanting to stop over to take some wolf pics. She quit raising breeding wolves & wolf hybrids, some time ago. She did say in a couple of wks. I could stop over & she'd let me pick through all of her old pics. To make me some copies.

Interesting, she said another wolf breeder [wife/husband]. She knew, that lived around 13-15 miles away in the country. While they would visit on the phone with each other in the late pm.

Her coyote's would sound off, then her wolves would join in. Her friends wolves, would answer them back, shortly afterwards /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif.

She said, it depended on how windy it was @ the time. But generally they all would hear each other over that vast distance. Thought that was pretty cool.

When I get some pics, I'll post them.

We chatted for some time, talking of wolves & coyotes.
 
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The terrain must be similar to Bonneville, sans trees, hills, buildings, etc. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Rich,

Thats what she told me the other day. You might check a map of Marshall County, Iowa.

Wolf lady[Denise & husband], lives a couple miles East of [State Center, Iowa].

Her friend, lived[they moved away]. A couple miles, West of [Rhodes, Iowa] back then.

Terrain; Is moderate hilly cropland.

I wanted to barrage her with many questions, about wolf & wolf hybrid, behavior. But my time was limited. I told her, no doubt, you should write a book or atleast some memoirs[sp] to pass-on. On what you know! she just chuckled. She is very intelligent on wild animals. They've been her passion, since as a little girl.

If any of you have any specific question. I'll take them with me. See if she answers.

When I do get over her way, for those pics. I'm going to drag out some info. What an oppertunity.
 
Funny, in grade school. I was always drawing pics of hounds, Red's, Coyote & Wolves.

She said, "you remember that?" I said, "yup"

She said, "you made me & the other girls...SOOoooo mad, because "You" always shot them with arrows & bullits.
I said, uh...don't remember doing that, sorry" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Women, NEVER forget! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
 
Ask her about that distance. Thirteen miles really wouldn't surprise me in terrain that NASA described. The longest distance response that I have read of to date was 6 or 7 miles. Very cool.
 
Yeah, that milage is estimated. I'll get a state map & graph it out, as the crow flies. I'm going to make a list of questions for her, about behaviors.

One question; I didn't ask, she never said. Whether her coyotes shut-up when her wolves sounded off.

Circa: 1971 Winter snowfly. Our trail hounds running a coyote track. Kicked up a very large Grey wolf in her friend's area[hilly Timbered meadows]. Don't know whether that was during the same time period or not.

Also told her a farmer had hit/killed a nomad Grey wolf. around 15yrs ago. Just 4 miles north of her place. I asked if she ever had one escape, she said, "no". Thats 3 wolves, I've seen[2], or heard of in Marshall county Iowa, over the last 35yrs.

This large wild canine, I call him[Rusty]. I've seen once, each over the last two Winter's. Don't know what he/she is. Won't hold still long enough to get a good I.D. I estimated [Rusty] to be in the 70's. Could be bigger. Could be a coyoteX, who knows.

Perhaps, this coming Winter.
 
Distance; Between acreage's, looks to be between 11-12 miles.

Hills, vary. Some perhaps around 100ft above the horizontal plane. Heavy timber, around Rhodes, Iowa [Western edge].
 
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Ok, Not knowing "exactly" where this other wolf woman lived, ie;[A couple miles West of Rhodes, Iowa]. From the lady I know.

I used Google Earth [map measurer] Cool! feature. I came up with 8.4 miles[as the crow flies]. More accurate than my map reading, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif LOL!

cataract laden-2dogs /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Looking forward to the end of the month /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
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I don't know about howling, but I've called in coyotes (not hunting) and then turned on a wolf howl just to see what their reaction would be.

They get out of Dodge instantly, even in areas where it's not likely they have ever heard a real wolf.
 
Two falls ago, a Bud & I were in a 2-square mile hilly timbered section, in Tama County, Iowa. Right before it got to dark to shoot. We sounded off together with some howls, on our open reed calls.

Moments later, we paused for any response. A couple coyotes, a couple farm dogs. Then one lone deep howl, answered back. That lone deep howl. That deep lone howl, made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Then nothing....We waited 5 minutes or so. Then we howled again.

Same thing happened again. The last howl, came from the deep howl. I said, to my Bud "That sounded just like a wolf".

Earlier, while getting permission on that section. One of the farmers, said "I seen a wolf, earlier this yr. It crossed the road, right in front of me, early am. I said, you mean a large coyote? He said, no...a wolf"
 
Well, ya know.... there are not very many fences keeping the wolves "in" some states and not others.....
Why Couldn't there be one or more Anywhere in the continental US?
 
10-4 on that, Marlin

I spoke with the DNR awhile back about cougars in Iowa. Specifically, one thats been sighted now[unofficially], for two yrs straight, just aways from me. Also informed them, there is no doubt, the occasional nomad wolf. Pass's through as well.

No wolves, in Iowa.... Really! you need to get out more often.

BTW, I did believe that farmer. Their pretty straight forward. But not all of them, see a coyote that often.

Farmer shown me how tall "it" was @ the shoulder. I told him, most likely either a nomad wolf or a coyoteX.

That deep howler, was towards the middle of the section. Coyotes were on the other end.
 
Well, I just got off the phone with wolf woman[Denise]. She still hasn't dug up her box of old canine photo's in the basement. I made out a list of questions prior to calling her.

She has raised wolves & wolf hybrids for over 35yrs. Coyotes a little less longer.

Her largest wolf breed[she had 3, besides hybrids], was a male British Columbia. She said he was 36" @ the shoulder. Not 39"[what I previously said]. My memory is short /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif.

1. Question; Which wolf [pack ranking] would howl first in the pack? Answer; Either the male apha, but mostly the female alpha[she was much more vocal]. Then the others would join in.

2. Question; How often would they howl & duration?
Answer; "Depends on what triggers them". Sometimes, 5 minutes, longest to an hour. They would howl when they heard an emergency siren. They would howl, when there was a roadkill deer, laying on the highway[up to a mile away]. She said they could smell it.
They would howl, when a coyote would howl. They would howl "more" towards early am, or right @ dusk. They would howl " very frequently" when "pups" were born.
They would howl "very frequently", when a female was in heat.
They "always" howled when they heard, her vehicle coming down the road[She said, "they were just greeting her"].

3. Question; Which would howl first, the coyotes or wolves?
Also, if the wolves howled first, would the coyotes stay quite?
a; It generally wouldn't matter. The others[specie not howling] always joined in. During the howling of the wolves & coyotes. Sometimes a wild Red Fox, out in the field would start yapping & join in.

4. Question; How old did your oldest wolf live? Answer; Around 15yrs.

5. Question; What season would the wolves howl most?
Answer; Fall & Winter.

She said, she will give me some pics. Also told me, she had some other info wrote down. She said, "You won't find this in books"
 
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