Perry Backus
Peering out from under a camouflaged hood, Dave Thomas is telling a small group of prospective wolf hunters about the challenges they’ll face in trying to lure this apex predator in close enough to shoot.
“Wolves are smart, and they learn fast,” Thomas tells the group.
Five people interested in gleaning knowledge from a man with more than 30 years of experience hunting wolves and coyotes, gathered recently inside a small room at The Carriage House in Hamilton.
Over the course of two hours, Thomas offered them information on how to find wolves in the wild and then entice them in closer with a variety of calls.
To successfully hunt wolves, you have to find them first.
The best way to accomplish that is by howling, Thomas said, as he put the reed-end of a call shaped from a cow’s horn to his lips. With one finger in his ear, the gray-bearded ex-government trapper filled the building with the eerie sounds of a howling wolf.
“Howling is their main call,” he said while reaching for a second call made from the long-necked horn of an antique automobile. “These are kind of hard to come by any more.”
The room filled again with another long-winded call.
“People don’t realize that wolves will travel miles just to check out a howl,” he said. “They are very territorial. They don’t like other canines in their territory.”
But just like a bull elk that’s bombarded in the fall by bugling hunters, wolves learn quickly that it’s not only their brethren that can produce such a sound.
“In some places, the wolf packs have been studied by so many different people that they have become leery,” he said. “There are some little tricks that can make a difference in cases like those.”
Montana hunters learned last year that wolves aren’t easy prey.
The state set a quota of 220 animals for the season. Hunters killed 166, or about 75 percent of the quota.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks would like to see the state’s gray wolf population managed at around the 450-animal mark. The estimate in January put the number closer to 650 and that doesn’t take into account the pups that were born this year.
This year, the FWP Commission lifted the quotas and expanded the length of the season. In addition, wolf trapping will be allowed.
FWP officials will also ask the Montana Legislature to approve the use of electronic calls.
Thomas isn’t surprised that hunters struggled to meet last year’s quota.
He’s been tracking, trapping and shooting wild canines since 1975, when he spent his first winter out of high school in a wall tent in the wilds of Colorado.
“The next year, we upgraded to a sheep wagon,” he said.
Local ranchers helped him get his first job as government trapper after they saw his natural ability to outsmart the coyotes that were considered a nuisance back then.
Over the next 30-plus years, he put those skills to work in the Rocky Mountain West and Alaska.
When wolves made their entrance into the vast wildernesses of Idaho, Nez Perce tribal officials turned to Thomas to verify wolf livestock kills and locate new packs.
He caught and collared a male from an unknown pack that he was allowed to name.
“I called it the Chesimia Pack,” Thomas aid. “It’s an Indian name that means Little Brother. A lot of people called me that back then.”
Thomas remembers that first wolf he captured and collared.
“I was sitting there for quite a while as I waited for it to wake up from the tranquilizer,” he said. “I was drinking water from bottle and gave it a sip as it started to come awake. It’s not everyone who has traded drinks with a wolf.”
Last year, Thomas watched the documentary about Buck Brannaman’s life as a famed horse whisperer.
“It started me to thinking about what I had to offer,” Thomas said. “He shared his knowledge about horses with people. I thought I could do the same thing with what I’ve learned about hunting wolves.”
Thomas now lives in Lewistown. Over the past few months, he’s taken his coyote- and wolf-calling seminar to communities all around Montana.
“People have been pretty receptive about what I have to say,” he said.
He teaches them how to set up two-person ambushes and how to choose the best sites for making a stand.
“Location is the No. 1 thing for both wolves and coyotes,” he said. “The wind has to be just right. You need to be able to spot them before they see you.”
There are different calls to use to bring the wolves in close too.
Thomas recommends a call sequence that begins with two or three long howls, then two short bursts followed by another long burst. In between each call, he tells his students to wait between five and 10 minutes.
If that brings them in close, he said, a series of yips and barks should be enough to lure them inside rifle range.
All of it takes practice and above all, patience.
“You don’t want to move at all when they are coming in,” Thomas said. “They are smart and keenly aware of their surroundings.”