Wolf reintroduction in Colorado

[theGinsue]

I have a friend who lives in a 4th floor apartment in LODO and he said he hasn't experienced any problems with wolves at all. Now I don't know what to believe!

That is very strange. I would think he would have had several sightings by now.

Plenty of pumas and cougars in LODO, just no wolves yet.

Honestly I'm not sure why wolves are thought of to be so much worse for deer, elk, humans etc than mountain lions already are. I wouldn't want to run into a big cat in the woods either, so when I'm in the woods I act differently than when I'm in the burbs. Can someone help me understand?


Agreed! Actually, news of wolves being reintroduced to CO might cause some of those damn Californians to stop moving here!

For the record, I'm not afraid of bears here in CO, but mountain lions scare me because they are smart stealthy hunters - as are wolves. The big difference between wolves and mountain lions is that mountain lions tend to maintain an average of 1 lion/100 square miles (10 mile x 10 mile) domain; they don't like other mt. lions intruding into their territory. Wolves on the other hand are social creatures; they live and hunt in packs. They use the pack to feed their courage. A single mt. lion can be scared off fairly easily (just keep watching your back), but packs of wolves are nearly impossible to scare off. Using the pack, one or two wolves will work to distract their prey while others come in for the attack. I'd much rather face a single mt. lion than a pack of wolves.

ETA (iPad battery was going to die so I had to save what I'd written or risk losing it):
Mountain lions will eat what they want/can of their prey then bury the rest under sticks, leaves and soil until they're ready to come back for more. They'll eat the entire kill. Wolves are different. First off, one mt. lion can't eat as much as a pack of wolves. Wolves are voracious eaters. They'll take their prey, eat what they want (not necessarily eating all of it) and go on the prowl looking for more. They're wasteful eaters and can/do lay devastation on other animals they come across - wiping out entire herds of big game animals. Mt. lions have a markedly less impact on animal populations in their domain.

[ColoradoTJ]

Plenty of pumas and cougars in LODO, just no wolves yet.



For the record, I'm not afraid of bears here in CO, but mountain lions scare me because they are smart stealthy hunters - as are wolves. The big difference between wolves and mountain lions is that mountain lions tend to maintain an average of 1 lion/100 square miles (10 mile x 10 mile) domain; they don't like other mt. lions intruding into their territory. Wolves on the other hand are social creatures; they live and hunt in packs. They use the pack to feed their courage. A single mt. lion can be scared off fairly easily (just keep watching your back), but packs of wolves are nearly impossible to scare off. Using the pack, one or two wolves will work to distract their prey while others come in for the attack. I'd much rather face a single mt. lion than a pack of wolves.

ETA (iPad battery was going to die so I had to save what I'd written or risk losing it):
Mountain lions will eat what they want/can of their prey then bury the rest under sticks, leaves and soil until they're ready to come back for more. They'll eat the entire kill. Wolves are different. First off, one mt. lion can't eat as much as a pack of wolves. Wolves are voracious eaters. They'll take their prey, eat what they want (not necessarily eating all of it) and go on the prowl looking for more. They're wasteful eaters and can/do lay devastation on other animals they come across - wiping out entire herds of big game animals. Mt. lions have a markedly less impact on animal populations in their domain.

Back in 2008, I went up hunting in Section 17 by Walden for Elk. The beetle kill was bad and the logging was in full effect. We had to walk in everywhere. The snow was up to my knees (so about 4"..lol, JK) and after the morning hunt, we backtracked. I had the weird feeling where your hair stands up on your neck on the way up that morning (3:30AM) We seen some marks in the snow like a snake was following us. We looked closer and seen some nice paw prints in our footsteps. Yep, one of those little kitty cats was following us and that was their tail in the snow.

I know that there has been plenty of cats that have seen me out in the hills, but this one made me look over my shoulder a lot more...LOL!