• Friday-What'sUP November 2 - 11:14 pm

Whether up in the air or down on the ground, E. Neil Harri always seems to be in the right place at the right time. Does Neil's top photo here today give you the feeling that someone is watching you? If it does, you're absolutely right, there is someone (or something) keeping its eyes on Neil as he passes by with his camera. You can see the critter better in the blowup photo in the middle, especially those glowing eyes. Even though it's a bit blurred in the low light, Neil is sure it's a wolf and says that he spotted it on US 41 in the Keweenaw. That's as specific as he's going to get in the whereabouts. A fitting photo for the day after Halloween, a little mysterious and spooky too!

Neil's beady eyed photo, reminded me of another I had spotted in the Gallery, one from Karl Berg, who wondered in his album, "What made these tracks?". One commenter thought they might be wolf tracks. What do you think?

BE CAREFUL NEIL!!!! We need your photos here!

Don't want your name changed to "SNACK"!

Even if it's after Halloween, it's kind of spooky to know "they're out there!"

I lightened up the images a bit, and indeed, it is a wolf..and a fairly larege one at that.
Would put the image up here, but I don't remember how to embed the image in the box.

And to think we use to go to the dump to watch these tricky guys!! Have a great weekend everyone.

That is definitely a wolf. Great shots!!

I think it's good that they are out there. They add some balance to nature. Unfortunately they do damage to our farm and personal animals. But they help keep all other wild animals in check. They may even take down that deer that is going to jump in front of your car or get rid of some of those rabbits that are eating your garden. If you have ever seen them in the wild you get a feeling you never forget. And if my information is right, there has never been a documented unprovoked attack on humans by wolves. "You leave them alone and they will leave you alone." I have more respect for that wolf than I have for most of the "humans" running our country. Have a good day everyone and enjoy the snow back home in God's country if you get some.

Great pictures, Neil! Those are spooky pictures, just after Halloweeen. As Mary says, whether from the ground or from the air, you always take wonderful pictures! Thank you, Neil and Mary.

We saw a large grey wolf back in the early 1980's, crossing the road in front of our car, in the Porkies. That was spooky enough back then.:-) I did not have my camera out in time, though.

Wow! That is incredible. What a rare opportunity. We are lucky to have Neil share it with us. I'm not sure if Norma was talking about the dump in Copper Harbor, but several years ago, after it closed, I drove there at night with my kids. We turned right in front of the gate at the area where the dump used to be to turn around. My headlights shined the light on an animal that I was sure was a wolf. It turned and ran into the woods immediately. I was so excited, but then some people I talked to in town tried to convince me that there were no wolves in Copper Harbor. It was not a full grown wolf, but more like a "teen-aged" one. I've always believed that it was truly a wolf. I only wish I had been able to take a picture of it.

Super shot Neil...How did you even know it was there?

Wow, you would never know it without the blowup

In February of 2005 we saw a wolf on U.S 41 at the entrance to Van Riper State Park near Champion,it just loped across the road and into the trees.North of Champion is the main wolf and moose area in the state.

My parents have a place near Gratiot Lake and had a young wolf walk through the back yard a few years ago. We hear them once in a while and have seen the tracks. I am glad they are back in the woods in the north. They were here first

I grew up outside of Dollar Bay and spent many hours alone exploring the woods and the old Atlas Powder property. Every once in a wile you would get a feeling of being watched. I don't think there was any wolves in the U.P. at that time, but you have to wonder what was out there. I always had dogs with me and some times they would stop and just look into the woods too. I remember a time when my brothers and I were out fishing a small creek that crosses what now is called "Red Barn Road". We had a dog that was very protective of us and was pulling at our pant legs trying to get us out of there. Being kids we kept pushing him away and telling him to get out of here. And finally he did. He went over the hill near the creek and then we heard one heck of a fight. Soon after that he came back and was fine. To this day I wonder what he was trying to warn us about, wolf, bear, who knows. But what ever it was he sure didn't want us there so I guess he had to take things into his own hands or "paws" to keep us safe.

I saw this wolf walking down the side of the road before it went into the brush. I know they usually stop and look at you so I had my camera ready. It was really low light in early morning so this was the best I could do under the circumstances.
That looks like a wolf track in the bottom picture. The size and tightness of pads are correct.
There was a person killed in Canada in November,2005 and two experts disagree on whether a wolf or bear kiled him. There were wolves who frequented the local dump along with bears. Statistics show bears to be a lot more dangerous to humans than wolves. It is a good idea not to habituate any of these wild animals.
I have worked on flying wolf research for over 10 years now and I see more upside to them being back in their historical range. Once the deer learned they are not just coyotes, they are not quite as vulnerable as when they first came back. Deer are behaving like deer again. You can see the herd is cycling back up to higher numbers. The wolf numbers seem to be leveling off at what will be the correct predetor, prey ratio.
There are always a few problem wolves. The DNR has techs to handle these animals. They now have the ability to control a certain number of them by lethal means if necessary. That was not the case when they were on the endangered species list. I have tracked packs whose territory was next to a dairy farm. I followed some for a year or more, and never had them cause a problem to people or livestock. A couple rogue animals cause all the problems.

They're just like people hei?

Here is a "tweak" of the original photo. This guy sure had his ears out ...

Grandma! What bright eyes you have!

Mrbill, how do you do that?

Ooooh, that "watching eyes" shot would have been perfect for Halloween, or the day before! Ah well, better late than never! Great work, as usual, Neil!

Anyone for a little early morning stroll through the woods to grandmother's house, Hmmm?

The young man in Canada was never thought to have been killed by a bear when it first happened. He was discovered within an hour of the attack, they had the wolf tracks in the snow and even that the wolves pulled him down twice before he was killed. Three were killed the following day and confirmed to have been part of the attack. The problem with these wolves was they fed on garbage in the town dump and in effect were around humans so often they lost their fear of man.

Paul,

Microsoft Office Picture Manager software. It's sooo user friendly. Crop, remove red-eye, brighten / darken, etc, etc.

Love that picture! I have always been fascinated by wolves. Saw one cross on US2 a few years back...prob 30-45 miles west of the bridge. It was very light colored and BIG!

I had one cross in front of my car last spring. As I pulled up along where it was in the ditch, I could see the collar around it's neck. Too bad I didn't have my camera, it would've made a great picture! It was only about 15 feet away from me and not scared one bit. It just looked at me for a bit and them wandered into the bush. I have some neighbors that have them come right up on their (ground-level) deck. Way too close for my comfort!!

Mr. Bill you sure did a good job letting us get an idea of what that wolf looked like. Might have to examine that program. In Windows Vista????

Tom,

In Windows XP.

ArcSoft Camera Suite is a good program for processing pictures.

or Photoshop, maybe Paint Shop Pro.
For a cheap version of Photoshop, the flagship image program, try Adobe Elements...it does more than anyone would ever need other than a pro who thinks he needs to have the big one just because he's a pro.

btw...how do you embed the image? I asked that up above..or mentioned I couldn't remember how

David Soumis (Davesou):
"how do you embed the image?"

Click ® Pasty Cam formatting

We spotted a wolf on our way into Copper Harbor this past August.He crossed the road and vanished into the woods. They're neat animals.

When I saw the first picture, I thought someone was going to say it was a Bigfoot. By the way, did those researchers ever find any in Marquette County a few months ago? (Hehehe....)(Bigfeet, I mean. Is that the plural of Bigfoot?)

LOL, Mooselover! Ironically, that was my first thought, too, before I looked at the pictures closer & read what Mary had to say. But that footprint is definitely more like a dog/canine, which a wolf is. :-)

Thanks again, Neil and Mary for posting today's great pictures!

In July on our way to Copper Hopper, like Erica, we had a wolf cross in front of our van. It was exciting to see. Earlier in the week in the Newberry area a bear crossed in front of us. The only thing more exciting was the beautiful country we were traveling in.

Spooky... Man, that is some spooky stare. And just to clearify... I did not give the kids Beer and chicken wings on Halloween (heehee), those were for me.

I love the picture.

Here's the top one. You can see him in there, too.

On the right side of the picture I can almost imagine a smaller animal....do you see what looks like eyes?

What a treat! Getting to see a wolf in the wild! Even more of a treat to get a photo, even if it's not "National Geographic" quality. I got some wonderful photos of a bobcat in Wilderness State Park near the bridge last spring. "They" say that for every wild animal you see in the woods, about 500 have seen you.