The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Alaska State Troopers are warning residents to be alert and take precautions again the pack of wolves that are currently roaming around the area.
Residents of 14-30 Mile Chena Hot Springs Road have reported several sightings including some very close encounters. Two dogs have reportedly been killed by very aggressive wolves. A third dog was almost killed but was saved by its owner by chasing the wolves in his vehicle. Other reports put the wolf pack around the Chena Lakes Recreation Area of North Pole.
We're very close to Chena Lakes and although I haven't seen anything I did find an interesting trail running across our front lawn last night. The glow from the Christmas trees lit up a fresh trail in the snow, running from our side yard (state land) across the front of our lawn.
One Chena Hot Springs Road resident encountered the pack when she and her husband were leaving for work; several scattered when they went to get into their car but two, apparently very large wolves, stood their ground in the driveway.
Fish and Game biologists suspect the pack consists of up to 7 wolves; 2 adults and for our five yearlings. If you have pets, please make sure to keep a watchful eye on them when they are outside. Although they haven't shown any aggression toward humans, I would advise you to take extreme caution. No one wants to be the exception to the rule.
If you have any questions or want to report a sighting, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game can be reached at (907) 459-7231. Stay alert and be safe!
Here in the home of the North Carolina State University Wolfpack, we have re-introduced the red wolf into the coastal plain nature reserves.
But we don't have the gray wolves. Beautiful! And I am sure they are intimidating.
It's all I can do to keep the neighbors' cat away from the birds in our yard...
Mike, I chuckled at your cat/birds comment. We feed the birds on our deck and on rare and horrific occasion one of our cats has caught a bird. They don't know what to do with them usually and most have been able to fly away.
A truly tragic thing happened a few years ago when a wily peacock got away from the 4H kids down the road and began hanging around to eat seed from our feeders. They are very difficult to capture - the bird sanctuary told me to get a peahen.... I lowered the front entrance feeder to peacock height and we loved seeing him arrive to eat. (My oldest daughter named him Fabio.) We were horrified to discover him dead in the yard one day. The grandfather of the 4H kids said the kill was consistent with a bird of prey. We buried him under the weeping willow tree in the back corner of our yard.