Wolves Killing Whitetail Deer

Timber wolves have made a tremendous recovery in the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Wolves in Wisconsin has gone from a population of 25 wolves in 1980 to over 500 today. Wolves in Michigan and Minnesota have been equally successful with Minnesota now having nearly 3,000 wolves. [FWS] But what many deer hunters want to know today is how many deer are being killed by wolves.

The data on the subject might be a bit disappointing to whitetail hunters looking to blame low deer population numbers on wolves.

A few hunters continue to kill wolves, believing that such actions will help the deer herd. It is important to place in perspective the impact of wolves feeding on deer. Each wolf kills about 18 deer per year. Multiply this by the number of wolves found in Wisconsin in recent years (330), and approximately 5940 deer may be consumed by wolves annually. This appears as a fairly low when compared to over 40,000 deer hit by cars each year, and about 450,000 deer shot annually by hunters. [WI DNR]

So next time you are in your stand and see a wolf, try to enjoy the view and watch a predator at work.

If you wish to discuss wolf depredations on dogs or livestock, please do so here.

Recent Comments:

I really hope all the people with negative comments are vegetarians. If not, you really need to think about where the meat that YOU eat comes from. Whether it be beef, chicken, or pork, or DEER, slaug

so if you are twenty feet up and you are shooting thirty yards how high do you shoot to hit a vital my bow is set to 280fps and thirty yards i am on I have an older rangefinder by Lieca and I won't bu

I have to agree that there is such a thing as "too high up." If you are shooting from the ground, your ideal target area of the vitals is about 6-8 inches in circumference. From a higher elevation,

one last thought for all the bleeding hearts ... Go to poodwaddle.com Maybe there you can find something where you can make a difference.

THis is a forum to enhance and make the hunting experience more successful. You can hide behind your anonymous emails but you are just as fanatical and shameless you suggest we are. I don't suppose

Maureen and Sammie i dont mean to be rude or judge you for being naive but how is it do you think you were born? From your parents, who was born from their parents, who were born from their parents so

deerslayer - September 29, 2009

Wolves are killing far more deer than that each year.

watev - April 27, 2010

these things are killing way more than that & those are just estmates not the real fact!

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