Webb Lake couple face-to-face with snarling hybrid
BY BILL THORNLEY
Spooner Advocate
A recent case in Danbury has once again brought focus to the issue of wolf hybrid dogs.
In Danbury, Jamie Willard, who had raised wolf hybrids for a quarter-century, died at her home. Authorities later responded to the home to find the hybrids in poor condition. (It should be noted that before her death, Willard took very good care of her animals.) Twenty of the animals were transported to a humane society shelter in Minnesota, and later most found homes at a shelter for wolf hybrids in Colorado.
Willards hybrids looked like wolves but were treated like dogs. One appeared in the motion picture Dances With Wolves, and others were featured in National Geographic.
But the debate remains is combining a wolf and a dog really a good idea? Can the animals ever be trusted?
Daryl and Jean Streif of Spooner have a unique insight into the subject of wolf hybrids. Former residents of Webb Lake, they came face-to-face with three of the creatures about six years ago.
We lived on Lower Webb Lake about two miles from Hwy. 77, on a dead-end road called Bloom Road. Wed built a place there, began Daryl.
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Lower Webb Lake was mostly cabins, weekenders, said Jean. There was nobody there full time but us at that time. It was fall, and there were not many people around at all.
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Autumn in Northwestern Wisconsin, a time when the morning breeze is cool and the colors on the trees are bright. It is a time when the locals can relax a little bit following the busy summer. But for Daryl and Jean Streif, things were about to get interesting.
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I think it was a Wednesday morning, recalled Daryl. My wife gets up early and walks each morning. As she went out she thought she saw two dogs laying in the neighbors yard. She talked to them as she went by. I went out later, glanced up, and a wolf was walking on the deck!
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Jean came back from her walk later, and this time there were three animals that looked very much like wolves a male, female and yearling pup.
The male was very protective of the young one, said Daryl. I think that had something to do with his bad attitude.
The Streifs left for the day, going back to their home about 3 p.m. The animals were still there. They watched one of the wolves walk by the house again. The male had established a routine, walking around the house almost as if marking a territory.
We kind of ignored them, said Jean. But the second day they were still around. We called Floyd Jarvis, a neighbor, who came by and took some pictures.
The behavior of the animals was very unlike a wild wolf, which would normally be more secretive. The Webb Lake animals, however, especially the big male, seemed to get more and more aggressive.
The male would come by the house, said Daryl. If I yelled at him hed stand his ground and snarl.
The Streifs called the Department of Natural Resources in Minong. The DNR sent out a somewhat skeptical trapper to look over the situation.
He was from up around Brule, recalled Jean.
He came down to take a look, said Daryl. I dont think he really believed us. He said, OK, wheres your wolves? Id just seen the male go behind the garage. I said, Just wait. Hell be back in a minute, because he was doing his routine. Then he came out, and the trapper he saw them and said, They really are wolves! Then he believed us.
For some reason, the animals seemed to be developing a dislike for Daryl. As he and the trapper watched them, he found out how much they disliked him.
We walked over about 75 yards from the wolves, said Daryl. Suddenly, just like a shot, the male came after me. He was running wide open, the female right at his side. They got to within about 10 feet and snarled. A friend named O.J. ran up and waved a stick at them. The trapper had some experience with wolves, and they charged him too.
Daryl got the gun out, said Jean. He said Thats enough of that!
The trapper left, said the Streifs, making plans to bring in some live traps for the animals.
By that point the elderly couple were getting a bit worried.
They didnt bother me as much as they seemed to bother him [Daryl], said Jean. They didnt like him at all. Still, I was a little nervous about walking.
And we were afraid for our dog, Max. I took him out once and they went after him, said Daryl. We started to get a little worried. We had some neighbors to the north who had three young kids. We wondered what would happen if they were to arrive.
The wolves remained for two more days.
One time I tried to scare them away, recalled Daryl. I shot a gun in the air and the female and male took off. The pup stayed and went back on a little hill and cried. Eventually, the other two came back.
I was talking to an old trapper up in Webb Creek one time about wolves. He said it was common if he was checking his traps to see a wolf. He said sometimes theyd follow him. What intrigued me the most about they animals was when the male came after me, he was just so fast. Just like a shot of lightning.
Traps were eventually set. Road killed venison was used as bait. But the trio would have no part of it, and avoided the traps.
That night the wolves departed. We didnt see them again, said Daryl. The rest of the story is kind of hearsay. South of us is Rosenthals Resort, and there is a farmhouse nearby. The wolves went there. Those people called the DNR from Webster.
When the warden came to check things out the animals once again displayed aggressiveness and charged him. That apparently proved to be their undoing.
When they came after the warden he shot one of them, recalled Daryl. It ran away. He went after it and ended up shooting the second one too. The third wolf was shot by an area resident.
But where they wolves? Real wolves simply dont act that way. They may have looked like Northwestern Wisconsin timber wolves, but their behavior screamed hybrid.
The bodies were sent in to see if they were wolves, hybrids or whatever, said Daryl. My impression was that the female was a hybrid. The male looked like all wolf to me.
They thought they may have been raised, said Jean. Some people in Danbury raised hybrids. We dont know where they came from. But the report came back, they were both hybrids.
That was good news for the wild wolf population, which didnt need any black eyes. But where did the Webb Lake animals come from? To this day it remains a mystery.
DNR Conservation Warden Paul Martin of Webster was the warden who responded to the Streifs call that day, and the man who ended up shooting the hybrids. He remembers the event.
These folks called with concerns about animals they said were wolves, recalled Martin. They looked very wolf-life, but they did not behave like wolves. Just looking at they I could tell they were not wolves. The pup was the one that made it for me that they werent, just looking at it. The male looked a lot like a wolf, the female was a little off.
Martin made a decision to take out the animals, which he remembers as being a tough call.
It was odd, he said. That was early on in this whole wolf reintroduction thing and there werent the guidelines we have today. I made the decision to shoot them, and all three were shot. I guess even if they had been wolves Id have had to do it the way they were acting. The bodies were collected and put in the freezer here in Webster. Somebody from Wildlife came in and collected them, and it was determined they were hybrids.
Since that time, added Martin, there have been no more hybrid encounters in the area that he is aware of.
When we first moved up here we could hear wolves howling all the time, said Daryl. Then a fire went through and we didnt hear them anymore. We assumed theyd moved out of the territory.
And apparently something else moved in. Vicious and without any fear of humans, they moved with the speed and power of wolves. Not a good situation, and one that it is hoped will not be repeated.