Send some over I’d like to catch one.

Well he lied to you. EVERYONE knows wolves only eat sick and wounded deer, the wolves actually help the young and healthy deer get safely across field and dale! Disney says so!
Now get your mind right Double Trap7 or were going to have to send you away for re education.

Osky

Easy for you to say, your allowed to dispatch them.
The big ones can be a handful otherwise.

Osky

They would not last long here about every tractor/truck has a rifle in it sounds like if you trap one your good no protections on them.

None around me. Cougars drive them off.

I was being factitious about what DNR was telling people. As 7 says just the pop numbers don't ring true over time because if their numbers are true that wolf numbers have dropped(without a harvest to account for the loss) it would have to be because of disease, over population, emigration or birth control. None of which shows healthy wolves. IMO. Any of the numbers are above the ESA's recovered goals of 1,700 wolves.

quite a few or our wolves travel 500 miles or so looking for food sources

Large predator populations do fluctuate considerably with or without havest mortality. Natual mortality can be very high when populations reach carrying capacity. That's why it is total nonsense that we cannot harvest some portion of the available annual surplus of a renewable resource. But as our Governor has said multiple times over the last several months, "We are using the best available science". Pathetic!

Heck, we've got a few now on the Mn/ND border on the red River.
I know of several packs about 15 miles of Nd..
Wait, just kidding, they are just really big coyotes

Boy, there sure is a lot lost in translation in this internet communication, lol. Sarcasm, nuance and wit go right out the window most of the time. Haven't done it let but maybe that ZOOMing thing improves things if make sure you get face in the camera proper. The only time I seem my wife zoom for her company looked like a funhouse freak show.

Mn or at least the ne portion of the state has the highest density of wolves in north america I'd bet. Great habitat and 50yrs of mostly protected. The wolves in the western us seem to disperse further, more routinely from what I've seen at least. Maybe most of the dispersing mn wolves go north to Canada where the habitat extends and get killed by hunters and trappers up there and I just don't hear about it being a common occurrence. Not that they aren't capable of traveling great distances I just don't hear where they commonly end up.

Almost hit one just south of Mora on 65 a couple years ago and see several every year around the Mora, pine city, Hinckley area just driving the roads

Way to many the habitat is full and no place for the young to go but south, east or west because the northern habitat is full

I will be checking traps tomorrow in northern chisago co. I can guarantee I will come across wolf tracks and scat.
4 weeks ago I found where a few wolves found a road kill deer, there were tracks and scat scattered for about a block.
I have also seen tracks on the north pool of Carlos Avery twice in the past 6 years. They are following the St Croix river south.

There is some wolves killed every year by gov trappers. Generally the number is around 200.

It wouldn't surprise me that a small resident pack was in the Cedar Creek/Carlos Avery area. Plenty of semi-isolated habitat and food for them. I would think another area might be wildlife areas along the MN river bottoms(if they can avoid humans enough and remove the directly competing coyotes). A wolf pack is said to need 50-70 sq miles but higher food availability, minimal pack size, expansion pressure and adaptation to humans(with lack of terminal human interaction) could in all probability shrink that need. It has all happened with Canadian geese, Coyotes Bald eagles, Red Tail hawks and many other now urbanized species. Doubt there is any worry they would ever invade the SW MN AG snirt belt anymore than most nothing else has, though coyotes seem to have.

All true

You can always tell when wolves move in and get comfortable around urban areas by looking for sign...signs on poles seeking lost pets.
Grand Rapids is a perfect example.
I came down East on 169 towards Bovey a couple years ago and at the top of the hill where the speed shutters down there was a really big grey wolf sitting up on the hill on the north side staring down at the town. We slowed over and he never moved, just looked a time or two but kept staring at town. 11 or so in the morning. I’m thinking he was dreaming of all the poodle cutlets down there and how soon darkness would come.

Osky

The wolves have on occasion made it SOUTH of the Wis-Il border. There is a known wolf pack near Beloit, Wis. A hunter in NE Illinois several years ago shot one while coyote hunting. The state fined him $2500 if I remember correctly.

Wolves know no boundaries.

Seen three sets of fresh wolf tracks this morning along the river bottom while scouting for coyotes. Not that I'm trapping anymore this season but good reference for next year.

About 20 years ago, I sold 120 acres I owned north of Floodwood, MN. The wolves were showing up in greater numbers at that time. A sheep rancher down the road from us had to quit raising sheep due to wolf predation. He was paid by for the loss of his sheep two years in a row. After that he was told to quit raising sheep by the DNR. He did.

There had always been wolves in the area, but you seldom saw them. Pretty soon, they started showing up in people's yards and killing their pet dogs, cats, chickens, etc. At one of the DNR meetings I went to, a lady was there telling how her little dog had gone under her car trying to get away from 2 wolves that had the dog pinned under her car. She had let the dog out to do his business. A neighbor happened by, saw what was happening, and pulled into her driveway honking his horn. The wolves reluctantly left.

I have an idea how about a handgun only hunting season on wolves year round that way any wolf that respects people will never be in handgun range , any wolf that doesn't eats lead and it isn't an issue any more.