Yeah, I can tell you that number is COMPLETE horseshit. We see them constantly, tracks everywhere. Even in the south-central parts of the state, they are now present. Honestly, it’s probably more like 5,000, but I wouldn’t say 10,000 is an unreasonable estimate. Just look at how fast the hunters blew the quota during the last legal wolf hunt, it was like less than 3 days for 216 wolves. No way hunters eliminated a quarter of the entire population in 3 days, that’s just garbage.
The return of wolves has completely decimated public land deer hunting in northern WI from what it uses to be. The big bucks are gone. Which isn’t surprising because those 3-4+YO bucks tend to inhabit the same remote places that the wolf packs gravitate to. After the rut, those bucks are wore out and become easy prey. By WI DNR’s own admission, a wolf eats 20 deer a year. So a pack of 12 eats 240 deer a year. That’s a huge impact on local chunks of National Forest!!
I never bowhunt without a gun now, way too much risk. Cattle and hunting dogs getting killed constantly. It’s only a matter of time before it’s a kid, seriously. That is absolutely coming. These fucking moron judges in Madison and other liberal cities that protect them are lucky that 19yo had his head screwed on straight, cause there could easily have been blood on their hands with the younger ones in the blind. Trap the wolves and turn them loose in fucking Madison and see what happens then.