Thepup wolf population has really grown this year. In the past week I have seen multiple pups in different areas along the Gunflint Trail. I got tired of writing about the wolves that were basically living with us this past winter and here I am doing it again.
I did a little research and found that pups are born both blind and deaf but they have a very good sense of smell. In about two weeks they open up their eyes and are walking by the next week. It takes four to five weeks for them to want to venture away from their mother and start exploring the world.
I guess the pups we have been seeing are close to that age. It isn’t until 12 weeks that the pups are allowed to travel with the hunting pack. Theyare seven to eight months old before they can join the hunt. At this point the wolf pups start to resemble full grown adults.
The most interesting thing I read was that wolf packs are very social. Thehunters bring meat to the mothers so they do not have to hunt. They also sometimes have been known to bury their dead especially the pups which have a 30 – 60 percent mortality rate. They are very organized and sophisticated.
The games the adult wolves play with their pups mimic real life hunting. It would be hard to have to kill your meals every day.
Wolf mating season starts in January and can last up to a month. That way the females have their pups in the spring after a 63-day gestation period. In the spring, the temperatures are milder, hunting is easier for the pack and the females can concentrate on raising their young.
It seems like every year that you live in the woods up here, you see something that nobody else has seen before. Remember the army worms? Theyrappelled on their long webs and ate all of the vegetation. Campers complained of not being able to sleep because the crunching noises were so loud. How about the “friendly flies”? What a nuisance these dirty scoundrels were. The guides were all washing down their boats with Skin-So-Soft every morning because it would keep them out of the boat, for a little while at least.
The Asian beetles that looked a lot like ladybugs with attitude took over the Trail back in 2001. They liked being in the shade and would cover any board that was not exposed to sun.
Needless to say, the blowdown storm of ’99 was something new and no matter how many forest fires we see up here, the Ham Lake Fire of 2007 was by far the most damaging to our community.
When I was fishing out of my boats during ice season this spring, a number of people told me they could not remember that ever happening before. This is a land that is truly unorganized territory. Mother Nature lives here and we are constantly reminded who really owns the woods.
Cory Christianson, a 2000 graduate of the University of Iowa, has worked as a fishing guide on the Gunflint Trail for ten years. If you have any fishing reports or stories to share, send an email to: christiansoncory@hotmail.com or call 218-388-0315
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