The following sequence of trail camera photos depicts a scenario which is, no doubt, a daily occurrence in our deer woods, however, it’s the first time I ever captured it on film.
With the recent increase in predators across eastern Ontario and western QC, our white-tailed deer surely need eyes in the back of their head just to stay one step ahead.
When I arrived at our deer camp in the Laurentians a couple of weeks back, I had my work cut out for me reviewing images on the three trail cams I had in place since Labour Day. I was like a child on Christmas morning scrolling through all the images, it was great!
One camera in particular – my ‘invisible’ Bushnell Black LED Trophy Cam – featured a virtual cornucopia of activity from the past two months, at a popular creek crossing. The images including that of a cow moose, bucks, does and fawns, one 300 pound + black bear, and this bold looking bugger below.
Hey, who says timber wolves don’t exist this far south. My camp is only 2 hours north and although I did see a common eastern coyote (brush wolf) during the deer season, I also captured some tell-tail images of this large timber wolf.
I took some measurements in the area where he passed through; and I estimated this wolf to be minimum 90 pounds and probably closer to 100 pounds. It was basically the size of a full grown German Sheppard.
Pay close attention to the ‘time stamp’ in each photograph.
(A doe puts up ‘the flag’ and hightails it down the trail)
(Her tail can still be seen bounding through the trees)
(Doe bounds out of sight on the right side of the photo – time 5:52 & 34 seconds)
(A large white/black timber wolf suddenly appears on the deer’s trail – less than 1.5 minutes later)
(Wolf tears down the same trail in hot pursuit; now 2 minutes behind)
(Wolf just before it disappeared from sight)
(Both deer and wolf disappear out of sight)
Footnote:
The same doe did reappear on camera 2 days later without so much as a hair out of place.
I suppose in this particular battle the deer came out on top, but what about next time?
Outdoorsguy
