Calling wolves: Longtime wolf tracker and hunter shares tips with area sportsmen

It takes patience and resolve to outfox a wolf. Peering out from under a camouflaged hood, Dave Thomas is telling a small group of prospective wolf hunters about the challenges they’ll face in trying to lure this apex predator in close enough to shoot. “Wolves are smart and they learn fast,” Thomas tells the group. Over the course of two hours, Thomas offered them information on how to find wolves in the wild and then entice them in closer with a variety of calls. To successfully hunt wolves, you have to find them first. The best way to accomplish that is by howling, Thomas said, as he put the reed-end of a call shaped from a cow’s horn to his lips. With one finger in his ear, the gray-bearded ex-government trapper filled the building with the eerie sounds of a howling wolf. “Howling is their main call,” he said while reaching for a second call made from the long-necked horn of an antique automobile. “These are kind of hard to come by any more.” The room filled again with another long-winded call. “People don’t realize that wolves will travel miles just to check out a howl,” he said. “They are very territorial. They don’t like other canines in their territory.”...more