On June 3, 2009, Adam Felser had a close encounter with a wolf near Tomahawk, Wisconsin. The wolf attacked his German shorthair pointer, and the animal would have killed the dog had not his other dog, a golden Labrador retriever named Homer, intervened. The area around Tomahawk experiences episodes like this almost daily.

Adam Felser is a giant of a young man, having grown up in the logging business in Wisconsin. He has a gentle nature and seldom gets excited. Yet, on June 3, 2009, something happened that brought out a much different nature in this typically good-natured man.

Adam has two dogs, a Labrador named Homer and a German shorthair named Jarrett.

That evening, Adam was in his house taking a nap before heading to work later that night. His wife, Heather, was in the back yard with the dogs, doing some yard work. Homer had gone his own way, leaving Jarrett in the back yard near Heather. Suddenly, Jarrett let out a terrifying yelp. Going to his aid, Heather saw what she thought was a large dog on top of Jarrett. She hollered to Adam for help.

Dashing out the back door, Adam immediately knew it was a wolf — not another dog — on top of Jarrett! He ran straight at the terrifying scene to help Jarrett. But Homer beat him to it. The big golden Lab streaked by Adam and “t-boned” the wolf, knocking him off Jarrett. The surprised wolf jumped up and ran into the woods, with Adam hot in pursuit. A brief encounter ensued back in the woods as the wolf turned to confront Adam.

After a momentary standoff, the wolf turned and ran away. Adam returned to his yard to find that Jarrett did not have any life-threatening wounds.

AN ISOLATED EVENT?
Actually, this scene is repeated as many as four times daily in Adams County, often with completely different results. Of late, there have been so many wolf attacks on dogs in Bayfield, Burnett, Clark and Oneida counties that many bear hunters have given up on training their dogs. The Wisconsin DNR has posted a Web site to keep people informed about the growing wolf problems and how to keep their dogs from becoming wolf fodder.

I ran into Adam and his father, Carl, on a recent speaking tour in five states (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota). In preparing the 3 1/2-hour lecture I presented in 14 cities during the tour, I was well aware of potential problems with wolves and bears in these states. So, I included information on what I know about the topic for the tour. Little did I realize that it turned out to be a much greater problem than I had originally thought.

Working with the “club lands” in northern Michigan, I already was concerned about the growing numbers of black bears in that region. In fact, I arranged to get Dr. Daniel Scognamillo, my colleague at Stephen F. Austin State University, involved in a bear population study in the area. Daniel is a recognized expert on predators, having worked with jaguars and mountain lions in his native land of Argentina.

BEARS AND WOLVES AS DEER PREDATORS
Although professional biologists had repeatedly asserted that black bears were not over-abundant in the club lands, over a 30-day period Daniel and his graduate student, Amy Braig, captured and marked 48 bears on one hunting club! During the spring turkey season of 2009, there were three close encounters with bears on this club by hunters.

Since my interest focused on whitetails, I had become concerned about the bears’ impact on the herds of northern Michigan. So in this column I’ll present some of the information I have found on bears and wolves as deer predators. I think you’ll be interested.

I am a classically trained wildlife biologist. Receiving my education at Baylor and Texas A&M universities, I “grew up” academically with the dogma “Predators are a good thing.” In those days (1960s and ’70s), predators like bears and wolves were almost non-existent. For years, I faithfully taught my students that large predators were necessary in the “balance” of nature. In their absence, hunters would have to assume the role to control deer populations.