This photo has been making the rounds on the internet.
This Swedish eklhound (also known as a “Jämthund”) was killed by wolves after it was left out all night baying a moose.
It was a champion in Swedish moose trials, and there has been a strong selection pressure for a very independent baying dog in this breed.
Of course, with wolves in the area, such independence isn’t necessarily a good thing.
The wolves are estimated to have killed the elkhound at 5 AM that morning, but the owners didn’t bother to go looking for it until after 10 AM.
This exactly the same problem we’re facing with bear hounds in wolf country. We have a hunting culture that celebrates really independent, far-ranging hunting dogs, but a dog that ranges out that far is very likely to run into wolves.
Wolves often regard dogs as interlopers on their turf and kill them on sight.
Wolves are often quite willing to eat the interlopers they kill, whether they are dogs or wild wolves.
We like to think of such behavior as predation, but it’s much more than that. It’s cannibalism.
In Russia, most of their hunting spitzes range in close. That’s because Russia has always been full of wolves, and any dog that goes off too far will wind up wolf meat.
As wolves return to much of their former range, we are going to have to see changes on what is valued in a hunting dog. Wide-rangers might be efficient, but they are also a major liability in wolf country.
Of course, the hunting fraternity will blame the wolves.
That is the game.
But the wolves weren’t doing anything unnatural.
They just came across a strange wolf that couldn’t stop yapping at a moose, so they took care of the intruder in order to protect their hunting grounds.
The killing was a tragedy, but it certainly could have been prevented if closer ranging dogs were more celebrated in that culture.
And in this breed, there is a tendency to celebrate a dog’s baying stamina– there are many apocryphal stories of these dogs baying a moose for days at a time–the owners would have made it come in when they went home.
The culture demands a dog that is always going to be at risk in wolf country.
Only when the culture changes will stories like this one become less common.
I am really sorry that this valued hunting dog met such terrible end.
But we can learn from.
If our minds are open.
Horrible way to die poor pup! Sounds to me this should be illegal!
“left out all night baying a moose.”
“left out all night”
LEFT OUT ALL NIGHT
Well. What the hell did they expect?
It’s because Europeans successfully extirpated the wolves. The Brits wiped out theirs with the last seen in Scotland in 1684 and in Ireland in 1770. Sweden almost successfully wiped out their wolf population in 1966. Norway wiped out theirs in 1973 and Finland almost got rid of theirs except along the Russian border in 1900.
Since wolves have been prosecuted heavily from 17th century onwards, if we note wolf-bounties didn’t start until mid-1600s, any recovery of the population was seen as “invasive”. In fact, acceptance of wolf-recovery programs didn’t emerge until 1950 or so. Even then, to date: Finland only has about 100-125 wolves; and Sweden and Norway shares about 200 with the contrentation of the population along the Norwegian-Swedish border.
So, why should Scandinavians breed wolf-wary moose-dogs if they almost eradiated the wolf population for almost 200-years? Especially since the moose-trial system started in the 1940s or 1950s? It’s only a recent occurrence wolves have been attacking scenthounds and moose-dogs.
I don’t think European hunters will be willing to change their ways until the wolf-population is in the thousands.
Norrbottenspitz survived wolf-attack:
http://www.dt.se/nyheter/gagnef/1.6239412-overlevde-rovdjursangrepp
Jamthund killed by wolves:
Finnish Hound attacked by wolves:
http://www.jaktojagare.se/aktuellt/finnstovare-vargbiten-i-amot
Hamilton Hound killed during training on opening days:
http://www.jaktojagare.se/aktuellt/skallande-varg-skadade-hamiltontik
Jamthund killed by wolves:
http://www.jaktojagare.se/aktuellt/jamten-nettie-dodad-av-varg
This is I expect the biggest hurdle to wolf reintroduction programs. You can compensate people for dead livestock but dogs are companion animals and its a more personal thing.
I believe this blog has discussed in the past how the modern wolfs history of extreme persecution has made it in some ways far more aggressive than the original animal. E;g numerous historical accounts of social contact between wolves and dogs in areas were wolves were not heavily hunted.
I don’t know if it would be possible to install avoidance behavior in wild wolves to domestic dogs. All the methods I know for teaching dogs not to hunt/kill the wrong prey animal involve physical contact (to some degree) with the animal.
I know some parts of the states were coyotes are hunted with sight hounds coyotes have very strong avoidance behavior to dogs. Would chasing (but not killing) wolves with dogs would have the same effect?
Coyotes and bears here don’t mess with dogs, but they are both heavily hunted with hounds.
It might work with wolves, but you’d have to have very tough dogs for the hazing.
If the experience w/ bears is any indication, it probably would. The big difference here is that the wolves are often going to be in packs so just a few dogs are not gonna do the job.
Dogs with hunting instincts that are allowed freedom to range often live short lives. The dental hygenist (sp?) who cleans my teeth is an avid deer hunter. Here in Florida, it is legal to use dogs to run deer. She told me she just got a new hound puppy, “just in case”, because their hunting dogs tend to meet untimely ends. Cars are just as bad for dogs as are wolves, though the end is less poetic. When I lived in Australia, snake bite was the big killer . . . a Jack Russel or other earthdog type is almost guaranteed to die from snakebite if it is allowed to roam in the wrong places.
In coastal Virginia and much of North Carolina, deer hunting with dogs is a tradition, though there are moves to ban it.
In West Virginia, it is so illegal that if your dog is seen chasing deer, people are encouraged to shoot it.
Depends on the hunting dogs.
Squirrel-dogs and bird-dogs don’t get hit by cars as frequently as deer-hounds or bear-hounds.
Jen, did you hear a lot about dogs also dying from tick paralysis and poisoned baits? What were the next big problems after snakebite in your area?
Then there are those anti-wolf idiots in and near the northern Rockies of the USA who do two things to project wolves in the bad:
1. They leave afterbirth on the open grazing grounds on purpose that attracts wolves who then accidentally prey upon an available sheep or two.
2. They tie up their dogs outside their homes and conveniently ‘forget’ to untie and take them inside when wolves are present in the area.
Needless to mention, the half-eaten bodies of dogs are then uploaded on popular sites and used to develop anti-wolf sentiment.
Do you really think people will tie up dogs they have owned for two to twelve years for anti-wolf propaganda? Keeping a dog is a tremendous investment of money, time and energy.
No. Don’t think people are that clever or manipulative. What is occurring here is cultural memory. These people are the offspring of two or three generations of living without wolves. Their grandfathers no longer remember what it is like to live with wolves. To them, living with wolves is ancient history and the mountain-men have civilized the frontier. In that context, the wolves are the invaders.
So the ranchers don’t see any reason why they should change their lifestyle because they were there before the reintroduction projects began. To them,, the reintroduced wolf wasn’t native to the area.
Until wolfaboos understand this mentality, the anti-wolf propgandists and wolf-supporters will never get along with each others.
I was reading this news item from northwestern Wyoming, where wolf pack killed couple of dogs that were left tied to a post outside. According to the news post, the ranchers knew that wolf packs are present, yet they forgot. The rancher may have not left the dog outside on purpose, but used its death for propaganda against wolves.
I have a 29″ tall at his withers,100 pound Kuvasz as a pet and a hiking companion. If I knew wolves are in my area, I would never let him be alone off leash out of home and out of site. I would especially be very careful at night.
In such situation, it doesn’t behoove to be a besserwisser. One can cry someone is stupid for not behaving in a manner which seems to be common-sense.
“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by the age of eighteen.”
Dave makes some very good points.
The truth is wild animals will always lose out to human convenience and especially companion animals, like that case of the man shooting a bobcat (turned out to be a leopard) to protect his pet cats. Or the badger cull in the UK at present.
My interest is animal behavior and therefore I tend to accept that a genetic installed behavior can be changed given the right approach.
Certainly my experience with dogs is that if they have a long history of chasing/killing a certain prey and then the rules change and that prey is suddenly unpleasant to hunt (either cause we do something to make it so or the prey fights back very aggressively) they will learn to avoid that prey item.
From the genetic point of view would it be possible to breed back social wolves? E;g wolves that were like those of the plains Indians era or the Newfoundland wolves. Able to be around dogs without attacking them. I expect its possible but would be a long drawn out process.
Re hazing. Yeah I guess you’d need a big pack of big dogs. You’d also need good control so they can be stopped before they kill the wolves.
Or maybe you could work hunting dogs with flock guardian dogs!
Adam
The number of hunting dogs killed in Sweden has decreased over the last couple of years as a result of general decline in use och hare hounds both inside and outside of wolf territories.
Also there have been a change in using elk hounds in wolf areas where more and more hunters track with the dog in leash.
Still one should not make wolves a big issue for hunting with free running dogs.
Statistically in wolf areas the risk of a dog being killed by a wolf is app. the same as getting the dog killed by a car, and that according to a survey the did in wolf areas with a very low traffic intensity, and another survey showed that the risk getting the dog killed by wolves was 1 in 5000 hunting days.
Official statistic and research about wolves/dog
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=sv&sl=sv&tl=en&prev=_dd&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.viltskadecenter.se%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D100%26Itemid%3D825
Resent attacks on dogs in Sweden and Norway
http://www.vargreviret.com/vargdodade_hundar_2013.htm
The number of wolves this winter in Sweden was about 350-410 so the total number with a growth rate of 15% annual we have app 450 wolves at this time of year.
The wolves are kept in the central part of Sweden south of the reindeer areas where they are killed of both illegal and as a result of the laws in Sweden.
The growth in the wolf population is limited from a natural of 40-50% down to 15% here in Sweden due to a intensive illegal hunting, traffic, wolves shot when attacking livestock and 2010 and 2011, license hunting.
Maps: http://www.vargreviret.com/index.htm
blue pack of wolves
grey single pair of wolves
red reproducing pairs 2012
An additional observation.
Flock guard breeds wear heavy spiked collars. Is this just a belief thing (E;g people believe it saves the dog but is actually useless) or is it effective?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_collar
Adam
On guard dogs i guess it will give the dog at fighting chance when confronting the wolf but i think most hunting dogs, being of smaller size, will try to escape the wolf after the first confrontation.
Just yesterday a English Setter was killed and this dog was bitten several times in the back and a couple of days ago another elkhound was attacked and also bitten in the rear, did survive but is properly to me castrated due to the wounds.
The protecting gear used on dogs hunting wild boars is a far better choice than those wolf collars i think. Also i see a problem that the dog gets stuck in branches and bushes with those spikes.
At least the incurnse company’s here in Sweden promote those wild boars protecting gears on dogs hunting in wolf areas.
http://jaktkatalogen.se/hundskydd/protector-pro-2013-1/
Rolf, the problem with the boar hunting gear for a LGD is that the hunting dogs are under human supervision and wear the coats for a few hours at a time. A LGD is out in all weathers, usually unsupervised roaming in a large area with their sheep. The temperature often varies wildly and such a jacket would interfere with their ability to regulate their body heat.
It depends who you ask a lot of the time. My take on it is that most LGD breeds do not traditionally wear spiked collars. The collar’s efficacy would depend on what species they were up against, how many sheep/goats were under their care etc… As an example, how many wolves and how many LGDs there were. One Spanish mastiff or Kangal against a pack of European or American wolves is going to end up dead, spiked collar or not. If one wolf grabs a LGD and gets a mouthful of spikes, the rest of the pack will just gut the dog anyway. Tibetan wolves are usually solitary or in pairs, so a couple of Tibetan mastiffs on night patrol round a village can easily keep their humans and livestock charges safe from wolves and leopards with at best a decorative yak wool kekhor on their necks. Matching the flock guards to the predator load/species is more important than giving the dog armour.
My impression, without having any scientific proof, at least from Sweden, is that most attacks on sheeps are done by single or pair of wolves.
But against a pack of wolves i agree that no dog with any protection will survive.
Research has proven without any doubt that attacks on sheep are made by inexperienced wolves when the more experienced hunters of big game are hunted down by humans. Inexperienced wolves left behind have no knowledge of how to bring down a bigger prey and become opportunists thereby getting into a conflict with humans to their loss.
Science doesn’t “prove” anything “without a doubt”. Science only disprove assumptions and previous research.
Case in point? Take a look at predators with malformed skulls, acquired disability or old-age. Or perhaps in times of starvation– Russia’s rabbit-population collapsed two years in a two, and Russian wolves have been attacking people two years in a row.
If you are going to be for wolf-conservation, don’t come off as a wolfaboo.
“… collapsed two years in a row..”
And yes, before I forget, I am a pro-wolf conservation. I am quoting here a passage from a ranching friend in Northern Wyoming after one of her Akbash female dog was badly mauled by wolves. This somewhat reflects my position, except that I was also pro- hunting for wolf management, but no longer am.
“As I’ve said before, when large carnivores and livestock share the same range, some animals will be killed – some wild, some domestic. It happens across western rangelands routinely. It is not pleasant, but it is reality. There’s no compensation for our recent losses, or our vet bill, and our priority is always to stop the depredations. You won’t hear our family calling for eradication of any species, but you will hear us advocate that dangerous predators be killed when there are conflicts, and we do support sport hunting as a wildlife management tool. We share the range with many other species. We share.”
I was quoting research work done in a very specific area, which I believe my post clearly showed.
You provided additional information for which I am thankful, but it digresses from the specific content that I referred to in my post.
What research is this? It’s very simplistic, if maybe accurate in some locations. But not all wolf subspecies are hunters of large ungulates as they don’t coexist with them, nor have the physical size or pack size to bring down big game species. You don’t see Arabian wolves having dromedary camel as a staple food item. As a rough guide, the further north the wolf subspecies lives, the larger it’s body size and natural prey are. Many of the smaller Eurasian subspecies of wolf naturally prey on animals up to the size of wild sheep and smaller deer species as their natural prey. Wolves from any latitude have always taken domestic sheep from time immemorial, hence the need for LGD breeds to begin with.
I was referring to research work done on gray wolves near public grazing lands allotments and pastures in and around northern Rockies of the USA, which is middle east of pro and anti wolf lobbies these days.
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