Unlike those living far from wolf packs, we who find ourselves in their territory know how a large pack can devastate ungulate populations and that wolves prey on pets as well as livestock. Your dogs are no more safe from a wolf than your cat is from a coyote.
Starvation Acres is within the territory of 3 named wolf packs. Two of those packs have been documented to have more than 10 members in recent years. That’s a super-pack!
How big is a wolf? According to this 2021 photo taken by J. Self in GMU 111, a wolf has a paw as wide as a man’s hand. Try comparing your dog’s paw to your own hand then imagine 10 or more of these wolves in your pasture. What would they be capable of?
In years gone by, a typical wolf pack was believed to average about 5 members. To eat, wolves had to travel via game trails or wander through the forest. In modern times, wolves have access to roads, power line cuts, hiking or snowmobile trails, and other man made corridors allowing greater distances to be traveled in shorter amounts of time. They expend less energy to find more food and it takes away any advantage a prey animal might have had while unnaturally increasing the size of the pack.
Wolves are not an endangered species and, for the sake of our ungulate populations, their populations need to be controlled. It’s time for a wolf hunting season in Washington State.
Photo by B. Elrod 
Photo by J.Self
Hey I am your neighbor to the south. Looked up the new owner on my mapping software. There is a potential that those tracks are my black lab. He occasionally will run off once a month for an hour or so.
Kellen Salseina
Thanks, Kellen.
The track photos were taken much closer to the Canadian border so probably not your dog. I do look forward to meeting him soon. 🙂