JANUARY WOLF KILL

The snow has settled down to a depth of four or five inches so walking in the woods today is easier than it was a few weeks ago.  At 28 degrees this afternoon, it feels like a heat wave.  I've picked this spot on the bank of Tom's Creek to sit and write in my journal today, as just a few yards to my right, lying on the ice in the middle of the creek bed, are bones that tell a story.

One week ago today as I walked to the creek crossing, covering my cheeks with my mittens every few seconds to stop the sting from the midday sub-zero temperatures, I noticed something out of place just a few yards downstream, tucked up along the bank.  A young doe, dead and stiff, laid there with it's hind legs parted, chewed open from the neck on down to the hind quarters.

Crow tracks peppered the snow everywhere around the area for many yards distant, and as I looked closer I noticed fox tracks.   I quickly snapped some photos to show my hubby and headed back down the trail, mittening back up my frozen fingers.  On the same path that I had already walked on to get to the creek, I spotted a large wolf track that I had overlooked on the way there.

The next day I came back to the kill site and the deer carcass was gone.  All that remained near the spot where I found it was the stomach, but wolf tracks were everywhere up and down the frozen creek bed on the light skiff of snow.  The creek banks were dotted at random with sprayed areas of yellow snow in both directions, wolves marking their territory.  It was clear that a pack of wolves had returned the night after the kill to finish eating their prey together.

Today I don't see any new wolf tracks in this area, only fresh deer tracks instead.  If I hadn't noticed the dead deer last Sunday, I might not have seen the few remnants left behind today. There's a light wind blowing and gray clouds cover the sky.

The woods is silent other than a few blue jays singing far to the south as I sit here and ponder about wolves and the love/hate relationship people have for them today.  I, myself, feel neither love nor hate for wolves.  I just know they are here and will probably be around for some time to come.  It's a different time here in central Wisconsin than forty years ago when I was young.  Life and nature keep changing and in many ways, to me, that makes the world we live in more interesting!

Wolf tracks on Tom's Creek, now a frozen highway for wildlife, as creek beds often are this time of year