Wolves seen in Polson city limits
POLSON – Two wolves were sighted in the city limits of Polson last week, and authorities have acknowledged that a pair of footprints found in the area are consistent with the attributes of wolf tracks.
Around 9 a.m. last Friday morning, Joyce Norman was on the phone with a friend and gazing out the window when she noticed an alarmed herd of deer running through her residential neighborhood on Hillcrest Drive.
Seeing deer around town is not unusual, but what she saw next warranted another phone call – this time to a wildlife biologist.
The startled deer were being pursued by two wolves - one black and one gray. Norman initially thought that the black wolf was a dog, but soon the second wolf appeared and by then she could tell that these were not your average members of the Canidae family.
“I thought, ‘Oh man, that dog is in trouble.’ Then I realized it wasn’t really shaped like a dog and the movement was different,” Norman says, recounting the hunt.
Norman said that the gray wolf had a yellow radio collar around its neck. The pair of wolves chased the deer south across Hillcrest Drive and out of sight.
Norman then contacted George Barth, a wildlife biologist with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT), who responded to her home to investigate the paw prints left behind in the snow.
“Most likely they are wolf tracks,” Barth confirmed in a follow-up visit on Wednesday, noting that they are consistent with hundreds of wolf prints he’s examined in the past.
Barth said that the prints left behind by one of the specimens were among the largest he has ever seen.
Though Barth said that wolves are known to occasionally prowl the land surrounding the Polson city limits, to his knowledge “there has never been (a sighting) in town.”
Until now.
With homes clustered close together and the busy traffic of U.S. Highway 93 within plain sight, Norman’s neighborhood does not come across as prime wolf habitat. Norman says that her first thought was of the potential danger posed to kids who walk home from the nearby bus stop after school.
“I know there’s a lot of people in town who don’t want to see (the wolves) harmed… but I’m concerned for the kids,” she says.
Norman isn’t the only one who’s concerned, as her 60-pound poodle, Tara, has been on edge for much of the past week.
“My dog is nervous. She barked for two hours last night and she’s usually a non-barker,” Norman said.
Fresh tracks found on Sunday suggest that the wolves have paid subsequent visits to Norman’s yard since Friday’s chase. Besides prints, the discovery of two deer carcasses provides further evidence of their activity. Norman says the remains of a young buck were found in a cemetery near her house on Friday, and a woman walking her dog stumbled across another deer skeleton near the new Mission Valley Aquatic Center on Sunday.
According to Barth, the yellow color of the collar spotted on one of the wolves probably signifies that it came to the area from Canada. Such a long journey would not be unheard of, as Barth mentioned that radio tracking monitored the voyage of one recent lupine visitor from Lethbridge, Alb. to the St. Regis and Lookout Pass areas.
CSKT officials issued a press release on Monday cautioning that, if encountered, wolves should not be approached or fed by humans.
The document said that individuals that cross paths with wolves should stand tall, act aggressively and back away while maintaining eye contact. Do not turn your back to the wolf and attempt to run away.
On average, gray wolves are 2.5 feet tall, 5-6 feet in length, and can weigh between 70-120 pounds. The release states that their coats can range in color “from gray, black or tan to white.” Any sightings or signs of wolves should be reported to the Tribal Division of Fish, Wildlife, Recreation and Conservation as quickly as possible. Information gathered from the public will be used to aid in their management.