On Aug. 2, 2026, USDA-Wildlife Services verified that wolves killed a miniature horse and injured another horse in the town of Cloverland, Douglas County. Audio deterrents have been deployed as a non-lethal abatement measure.

On Aug. 3, 2026, USDA-Wildlife Services verified that wolves killed a calf in the town of Cloverland, Douglas County. Audio deterrents have been deployed as a non-lethal abatement measure.

These are becoming a frequent notice from the Wi DNR. Enough is enough! If these were my livestock I know what kind of deterrent I would be using.

about 15 years ago I rode with the tech up north central WI by Ashland and the Bad River Res had a wolf study going on

Part of his job was identifying hounds that had been killed by the wolves and livestock as well. I guess the area was frequented often by out of state bear hunters as the area had a good population of bears as well and the houndsmen could train up there - wolves learned to get behind the hounds and kill them......

I would not enjoy having my hounds or livestock killed and not being able to resolve the issue myself legally - I would have to fear for human health and safety often........

Bang is an audio deterrent.

I cannot speak to audio deterrents for wolves but expect they would be minimally effective and over use would lead to habituation just like in birds and polar bears.

My last job before retiring was managing a security and first responder group on one of the north slope oil fields. We had an audio deterrent device for use on polar bears and found it to be marginally to not effective. The propane cannons we used to discourage waterfowl from nesting near the runway were initially effective but within a week became worthless as birds habituated to them.

Our policy with the polar bears was to make everyone go to a safe haven when a polar bear was within 300 yards of the facility. Often they would swim in and lay down for a nap a 100-200 yards off pad, forcing the lock down of the facility. Due to our agreement with USFW regarding the hazing of polar bears we were somewhat limited in what we could use and do. Audio harassment with truck horns and sirens as well as the acoustic device were options. We also could use screamers and bangers fired from a 12 gauge, but only under certain highly constrained protocols.

A few polar bears responded immediately to almost any noise from the acoustic device or to truck horns and sirens. The acoustic device had numerous sounds from adult male polar bear roars to sirens and train horns and machine guns. One young male bear laid down 150 yards from my office door and failed to respond to any sound we threw at him. Bangers and screamers had no effect at that range and the truck horns and sirens didn't phase him. I tried multiple sounds from the acoustic device and it wasn't until I used the train horn that he decided to take off. Like a scalded cat. And there wasn't a train track within 400 miles of that location.

Another one ignored everything until the wind picked up and started making the flags, US and Alaska, start popping. He keyed in on those and apparently didn't like that noise and took off in a hurry.

We had the occasional bear come through with a paint marking from having been darted and samples taken. All of them seemed unphased by any audio deterrence. So I expect those bears had been in numerous encounters with other fields and deterrence attempts.

So does this have any bearing on audio deterrence for wolves. I suspect not other than each pack is different just as each wolf is different. I would expect similar habituation of those individuals or packs that are exposed to it frequently.

We all hate predation, but another issue is the state fund to pay for wolf predation is severely low on funds; as the fees the DNR was suppose to collect have been halted by the Ninth Circuit court when the wolf was removed from state management and returned to federal control. Those impacted by wolf predation will now experience longer waits and/or reduced payments for reimbursement.

Very informative. Thanks.

Very true, as with goose hunting, after so many years , about two, they no longer use certain ponds or lakes for rest stops.
Not because of the shooting noise, but because they realize kin folk were killed/missing.
Same as motion activated lights, they only work so long.
Start harvesting the flock, and they change their pattern.
Same as humans, fear of dying keeps the sane people out of certain areas.

Wolves will start hunting and eating people again, if they aren't genetically selected by culling those who come close.

Keith

As I tell my clients, hazing/repellants of any type works best when new and scary and only effective as long as it stays new so that means almost daily change up to keep it new. Eventually, it's no longer new or scary. Then what?

I have an obligation to protect the animals under my care, its not a option for me, its an obligation.

Need to be carful with Xylitol if you have Dogs, its an artificial sweetener that will kill them but not harm anything other than Canines.

.30 -.06 should work well on the outskirts of town, be a darn shame if you should hit it though.

Hunting and trapping seasons with generous bag limits would go a long ways towards conditioning wolves to stay away from people.

Maybe they need that "audio device" that was deployed on the Venezuelans

I am no biologist but I like to think I can read sign. Look at lions in CA where there is no hunting. CO had very little lion attacks when bag limits were very generous. Same thing with bears. When bait and hounds were legal it wasn't nearly as common. Our ancestors had hard lives. Not much play time. They used that precious time to kill wolves. Again I'm no biologist but this is one of those things IMO you don't need to be.