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En granne till Valerius Geist på Vancover Island sköt en varg häromdagen. Calle Seleborg.
Vid en promenad med sina hundar anfölls en av hundarna av en flock på fem vargar. Anita sökte skydd i en grävmaskin som råkade vara just i närheten medan John konfronterade vargarna med en kraftig trädgren. Genom sitt resoluta uppträdande lyckades han rädda sin hund och de kunde återvända. Vargarna var som närmast 5-10 meter bort och uppträdde mycket hotfullt. På kvällen samma dag lossades ett skott mot vargarna på långt håll En varg föll men reste sig och sprang därifrån. Nästa morgon stötte de återpå vargarna. En varg sköts, en hanne på drygt 32 kg. Vid granskning av vargen visade det sig att den hade en färsk skottskada där en kula snuddat käken. En varg som hade blivit påskjuten så den hade gått ikull dagen före uppträdde nästa dag återigen aggressivt. Så mycket för att vargen är lättskrämd.
Calle Seleborg
Här är länken till lokaltidningen för de som vill testa sin engelska
http://www.canada.com/vancouverisland/albernivalleytimes/story.html?id=c5b5a3c2-add5-491e-8f0c-e2917ddcf992
Som ytterligare läsövning bifogar jag här vad Valerius Geist skrev om händelsen.
March 26th 2007 (significantly updated!)
Confrontation between John and Anita Oosterom, their two old dogs Niki and Tia, and 5 wolves, at about 8:30 AM, about 500 yds from our house, where Renate and I had been attacked by the large black bear male. (Anita and John are our next neighbors, living about 300 yds away).
Anita and John went out with their dogs for a morning-hike through the forest and meadows on their land, as they often do. The two old dogs ran about 40 yds ahead. They had just entered the forest and were hiking briskly, when they heard the dog vocalizing and aggressive snarling. John said right away ”Wolves!” He ran ahead and, rounding a corner into a roadway, he saw right in front of him 5 wolves attacking Kia. Old Kia was by then on the ground. John grabbed hold of a cedar branch and advanced on the wolves, while Anita took shelter in the cab of an excavator who happened to be standing close by. The wolves paid primarily attention to the dog, which was able to get behind John. However, one wolf advance twice towards John with teeth bare and snarling. He remained standing staring at John as John withdrew. This wolf then remained on the spot till John was out of sight. The other four had backed off. John had to quickly raise the branch and stepped forward – repeatedly, which held the aggressive wolf back. That is, only one wolf advanced on John, the other four retreated. With the dog behind him, John went backwards towards the excavator and four of the five the wolves went – reluctantly - the other way.
Tia was lightly wounded and bleeding from the right front leg. John had been within 6-10 feet of the wolves. He quipped: ”They were so close I could see their fillings”
Anita commented right away on the large teeth of the wolves (as the most aggressive wolf snarled at John, its teeth bare).
Anita came at once to us and asked for help while John went to get this rifle. I was in my morning attire as we had finished breakfast and I expected to do some work on the computer, but got dressed and got a rifle, and went out again with Anita and John and the two dogs looking for wolves. We did not see them again. The dogs stuck closely to us all the time. Both, Anita and John were quite jovial and displayed gallows humor.
All five wolves were light gray. Since we have heard of a black wolf, there may be more than five in the pack or there are two packs close by! None of these wolves had the rich yellow/black markings the previous pack had, nor the furs I saw in Mike Stini’s taxidermy shop.
I went out looking for the wolves in the evening of the 26th , but saw nothing.
John with son and two friends also went out, just as I left. Where I last sat, observing the upper end of the meadows, at dusk 5 wolves emerged. John fired a long shot at a wolf. The wolf stumbled, fell, but ran off. These wolves had been encountered minutes earlier by two teenagers on quads on the log-train trail. The wolves moved down into the forest, leaving the kids very excited.
March 27th 2007
In the early morning of the 27th John went out again with Anita and the two dogs for a morning walk, but this time he carried a rifle (243 Savage, Mod. 99). Just beyond where they were confronted the morning before by the wolves, they noticed that the dogs suddenly became very active sniffing and investigating, but stuck to them. About 100 yds beyond that point the road leads out of the forest into the meadows. And there, in light morning fog, he saw the pack of 5 wolves. They drifted towards the timber about 200 paces away when the old dog Tia barked. At once the wolves reversed and advanced. John shot the boldest wolf at exactly 100 yds – going by the survey marker in the meadow. The wolf was killed instantly by a neck-shot. The others ran off.
The wolf downed was a male weighing 71 lbs (32.3 kg). He was colored like a wolf from the continent, missing the black streak down the front legs common to Vancouver Island wolves. This wolf had somewhat atypical pads as they were concave. Renate and I took pictures of the wolf, which John brought to the farm on a quad. Later, when Katharine (Kasha) Thompson examined the wolf, she found a fresh injury just breaking the skin on his lower jaw. That’s where John’s bullet of the night before had gone! Consequently, though shot at and hit, the wolf the next morning advanced boldly towards John and Anita attracted by the dog (Kia). That wolf had learned nothing from being shot, wounded and shouted at the day before! I notified Mike Stern the conservation officer who came out, but he was beaten to it by Julia Carnanci of the Port Alberni Times, who took photos and interviewed John. I sent her by e-mail my article “Some information for out-door people in areas where wolves have become common”. Very clearly, having been shot (creased) in the evening of the 26th, even when wounded lightly (and stunned for a second), did not preclude the wolves from advancing with some determination once again on John and Anita (with Kia) on the morning of the 27th. The wolf was shot almost exactly 700 yds from our house. 28th March The Alberni Valley Times, Wednesday 28, 2007 carried a good story about this event. It made the front page (Julia Carnanci, Beware of Wolves, Beaver Creek Man Confronted by Pack Kills One). A camera crew arrived led by camera man Garry Fang, a lady reporter, and John went over the matter including a hike in the back country. Earlier on John and Kasha sat down with me and recorded by voice their earlier adventures with wolves. This tape thus augments all the e-mails written by myself about wolves here in earlier years.
Valerius Geist
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