Wolf visits Newport dairy farm
By Kay James, Dells Events
A wolf visits the LaVern Davis dairy farm in Newport, and the farm family is not happy.
The wolf has been seen about five times on the farm. Neighbors to the Davis family have also reported seeing the wolf, and son Chris took a number of pictures of the visitor.
“I wouldn’t mind it around if I didn’t have cattle,” said LaVern. The family has 250 head of purebred Holsteins. The wolf walks by the hutches that house calves and by the heifer barn. That makes LaVern nervous since as he comments, wolves are color blind and a calf might not look that different from a deer.
Around the farm, the family has found a number of deer remains with only a few tufts of hair left. The wolf eats the deer including bones and hair. That’s a trait more typical of wolves than coyotes.
The wolf even came into the yard by the farmhouse and occasionally plays with the family’s dogs. LaVern said recently his father drove his pickup near the wolf. As he left, the wolf followed it while playing with the dogs.
The family called Department of Natural Resources Warden Mike Green to see what could be done. LaVern said he was told if the wolf became a nuisance defined as killing an animal on the farm, the DNR would trap it and move it.
The DNR would pay if a calf were killed. “What would they pay for a registered Holstein calf? They are very expensive,” LaVern said considering the bloodlines and genetics that go into breeding.
Killing the wolf is not an option because it’s illegal and could lead to a $10,000 fine and prison. Chris noted that doing so would prohibit him taking cattle to a show in Canada each year.
The male wolf may be a hybrid. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it could be a 1 percent cross. As a rule wolves kill dogs.” LaVern said and one day they came so close they could hear it whimper and whine. “That’s not natural” for a wolf, he said.
The family hasn’t heard any reports of a crossbred wolf escaping.
Adrian P. Wydeven, a mammalian ecologist and conservation biologist, with the DNR, said after seeing pictures of the wolf, “It looks very wolf-like from what I see on these photos. I will consult with some other biologists.”
Experts seeing pictures usually can determine if the picture shows a full-bred wolf or a hybrid, he said. Some hybrids will live in the wild and will join a wolf pack.A hybrid could be killed, he said, “Unless it’s someone’s pet.”
Local DNR Warden Mike Green also said for a hybrid, the Columbia County Humane Society Shelter could take the animal, although he doubted the shelter would want to do that. Most shelters don’t want such hybrids because they can be very unpredictable.
Wydeven said wolf hybrids have killed about a dozen of children when families tried to make pets of them. He didn’t advise making pets of hybrids.
The wolf seems to be young and may be looking for a mate, LaVern said. Wolves mate this time of the year.
That won’t be with the family dogs, said Cheryl Davis. They are spayed.
Wydeven said even though the dogs are spayed, they still have a hormone level that could attract the wolf.
Reports from other places in Wisconsin also show wolves playing and being around dogs, Wydeven said. They are curious animals.
The state keeps reports of wolves killing dogs, but most such killings are of hunting dogs. A number of them have been of dogs being trained in the spring for bear hunting. That’s when wolves bring their pups out of the dens and are very protective of pups.
This is not the first wolf spotted in Columbia County. In 2005, wolves were sighted in Columbia, Marquette and Juneau counties.
Green said a man in Adams County reported seeing a wolf along County G near Jordan Lake. However, after checking the area, no tracks could be found. That sighting would be about 15 to 20 miles from the Davis farm. “I wouldn’t think someone was crazy if they called and said they saw a wolf,” Green said.
Adams County has a small pack of wolves that lives in the Colburn Wildlife Area, which is 13 miles northeast of Friendship. The Necedah Wildlife Area also has a wolf pack, Wydeven said. That is also not beyond the distance a wolf might travel.
Young wolves when they leave the pack seem to funnel themselves down through Adams and Marquette counties between Interstate 90-94 and Interstate 39. “They don’t like to cross the interstate,” Wydeven said. They either have to go north or south.
Wolves can range quite a ways. A pack normally will range over 20 to 120 square miles. Wydeven said they been known to travel great distances. For example, a wolf killed near Portage in the early 90s traveled there from Ely, Minn.
The Davis farm is near the Lewiston swamp and Wydeven said that would be a logical spot for wolves to hang out.
Wolves are unlikely to attack people, Wydeven said, but he advised not to get close to them or to feed them.
If the wolf were to kill a calf, it would have to be killed, he said. Once wolves taste beef, they will kill cattle again. Right now the DNR can’t kill wolves, but nuisance wolves can be reported to the federal government by calling 1-800-433-0688.
The DNR had a permit to kill nuisance wolves, but lost it when an environment group sued because the agency had not allowed public comments on getting the permit. It has applied for another permit and hopes to get that by April, Wydeven said.
He also noted the DNR would take over management of wolves in the state if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal to remove wolves in Wisconsin from the endangered species act is approved.