We also saw 1055 and her associate actually kill a deer, on February 6, 1969, but we did not realize what was going on and it happened so fast that we only saw a wolf rushing and biting at the front end of the downed animal. The chase had to have lasted only a few seconds.
In addition to the above direct observations, we also were able to piece together from tracks in the snow the chase and successful encounter between a single wolf and a deer in two instances. In the first case, on January 25, 1967 (11:50 a.m.), we arrived at the scene (near Grub Lake, just N. of Snowbank Lake) within an hour of the encounter, and the wolf was still feeding on the deer, which had been a 2½-year-old female. Mech examined the area from the ground and made the following observations:
"The deer had come S.W. down the middle of the lake at a fast walk, turned around, backtracked a few yards and headed to the N.W. shore of the lake. Meanwhile a wolf had come at a trot along the deer's track, but it had cut to the N.W. shore about 50 yards N.E. of where the deer had. When still on the ice about 15 feet from shore, the wolf began running as evidenced by his long bounds. He continued running inland about 50 feet from shore toward the deer. The deer had walked inland from the shore and may have stood there about 25 feet from shore. Suddenly it had bounded away. The bounding wolf track was in the same trail as the deer's for about 25 yards but then it paralleled the deer's about 5 feet away on the inland side. After about 125 yards from where the deer flushed, the deer was pulled down. It was not on its side but rather had sunk into the snow in more-or-less of an upright position.
"Apparently the deer had just about reached the shore when the wolf noticed it, and it detected the wolf. At this time the wolf must have been up the shore about 50 yards where his tracks first showed he began bounding. There was no sign that the wolf had spotted the deer on the lake and had tried to cut it off from shore by running inland along the shore and then waiting for the deer to come inland. Once the wolf had begun bounding, he continued until he pulled the deer down.... Sign showed that the deer dropped within about 20 feet of where she had begun bleeding."
The second case involved a 5½-year-old buck, No. M-28, which had arthritis of his right hind foot and probably had defective gait (see Mech and Frenzel [p. 35]). The attack took place on Basswood Lake on February 2, 1967, and excerpts from field notes by Mech follow:
"A single wolf had killed this deer after chasing, following, or tracking the deer about 3.75 miles. The deer's last 350 yards was a fast walk—the tracks were one in front of the other and about 2 feet apart, and there was no leaping or bounding. Same with the wolf—a fast trot.
"Where the tracks came together, the deer apparently had fallen, but there was no blood. From there, the deer dragged its feet or the wolf for about 25 feet and then went down again. The wolf circled the deer, and for the next 150 feet, the 2 animals had fought or scuffled and then the deer had gone down where we found it.
"The 4-mile persistence of this wolf—whether tracking, following, or chasing the deer—is remarkable [compared with most chases] and makes me believe the wolf had good reason to believe it could kill the deer."
Our observations of wounds on fresh kills confirm the following description by Stenlund (1955, p. 31) of the location and manner of attack of wolves on deer: "No evidence of hamstringing of deer was found on freshly killed carcasses, although the possibility does exist. Usually deer are run down from behind, the wolf or wolves biting at the hind flanks and abdomen, or at the hind flanks and head region simultaneously."
On each kill, all the flesh and much of the skin and bones were eaten, at least during the winters of 1966-67 and 1967-68. This was also true during December 1968 and much of January 1969. However, during February and March 1969 when an unusual accumulation of snow had built up, most of the kills were only partly eaten (see Mech et al., [page 51]). In previous years deer freshly killed by single wolves were sometimes found with only a few pounds of flesh or viscera missing. However, in each case the carcasses were almost completely cleaned up within a few days, often by packs to which the single wolves may have belonged (Mech 1970).