UPDATE, 5/29/2014: After checking with several wildlife experts, the consensus seems to be that the would-be wolf was actually a relatively rare Cascade Fox.
If you frequent the Mazot at Mt. Hood Meadows, you probably know Dan Kneip and Sean Jacks. These two season pass holders are Mount Hood regulars, with over 120 days on snow between them in 2013-14. Sean has thousands of photos documenting their mountain adventures, including a couple of shots snagged on May 11 showing a bushy-tailed canine climbing up into the rocks above Cascade Chair. Could this be the elusive lone Mount Hood wolf we’ve been hearing about?
Speculation has been rampant since wildlife biologists spotted wolf tracks in the snow near White River on Mount Hood in December of 2013. It was the first sign of wolves on Mount Hood since 1947, and further evidence of the gradual return of a predator once hunted ruthlessly in Oregon and throughout the American West.
It was also an opportunity to rekindle a debate about human co-existence with wolves that has been brewing since Oregon became a state in 1849. In fact, a series of “Wolf Meetings” in the 1840s in the Oregon territory were the impetus that led directly to Oregon statehood. The subject of the first meeting of the Oregon Provisional Government on February 2, 1843 was the real and perceived problem of predators attacking pioneer livestock.
There isn’t any livestock to be eaten up on Mount Hood these days, but the re-emergence of wolves anywhere people congregate is bound to bring out strong opinions. Willamette Week’s 316-word article on the lone wolf of Mount Hood, published on February 26, has generated 42,000 Facebook likes and 352 reader comments, including this hilarious response from MojaveMoon:
“Wolves kill more mountain climbers than any other cause of death. You hear about rockfall and avalanche – those are actually wolves jumping off ledges to kill climbers or whole packs rolling huge snowballs to make avalanches. They also chew through rappel ropes sending climbers to their plummeting and shrieking deaths. Wolves don’t do this to eat people, they are simply thrill killers. You can hear them laugh at night after they’ve killed a mountain climber. We know why he’s on Mt. Hood.”
Obviously MojaveMoon was joking, but plenty of naive readers took his bait, and the weirder the debate got, the further it spread.
For a while, the lone wolf story almost seemed like a Mountain Myth. There weren’t any additional reports of wolf tracks or sightings this past winter on Mount Hood after the flurry of stories in February, at least nothing published. But then on Sunday, May 11 Dan Kneip and Sean Jacks were riding the Cascade Chair at Meadows, when Dan noticed a group patrollers near the top of the chair pointing out an animal scurrying up the slope. Dan alerted Sean, who quickly grabbed his camera and snapped off a couple of photos. At first they thought it was a fox, but Dan later came to believe it was a wolf. (Although after hearing from the head of patrol he later changed his mind – see the comments section below).
Plenty of Mount Hood enthusiasts have anecdotal evidence of seeing both wolves and foxes on the mountain.
What do you think?
Wolf or fox?
And is there a lone wolf living up on Mount Hood?
If so, how is he surviving? Where does he find shelter? What is he eating?
And do you think he will be joined by other wolves on Mount Hood?
UPDATE, 5/29/14: Turns out most of those questions are probably irrelevant. The experts are weighing in that the canine pictured above is a Cascade Fox. Here is an e-mail from Rob Klavins of Oregon Wild:
I hate to say anything definitive from a photo, but I’m pretty confident it’s a fox. Looking at it again, I’m even more confident in that assessment.
The nose is pretty pointy and though it’s a bit leggy, the tail just screams out fox. A little size context would be helpful, but wolves are tall and unless those boulders are huge, it’s almost certainly a fox. Some foxes have a rare “silver phase” that looks something like this (here’s a picture I got after a quick google image search: http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/387264/view). I’ve also since heard from a wildlife expert who shared my opinion that this phase is more common in the Cascades.
Dark coyotes do also exist but are – I believe – extremely rare. I think this is a relatively rare sighting of a Cascade fox, but I am pretty confident it’s not a wolf.
Best,
Rob
Last modified: May 16, 2014
