Wolf Sighting on the N Cross Ranch
Mar 13th, 2007 by admin
On March 13, 2007, between 7:15 and 7:45 AM, I, Ryan Jameson had a threatening encounter with several Mexican Grey Wolves.
I was working on the N Cross Ranch in Cliff, New Mexico, and beginning to saddle a horse at our barn. All seven of the horses were in the stalls, when suddenly they began frantically snorting and stomping. I looked towards the south and noticed that several objects were running due west, approximately 150 to 200 yards away from the barn.
As I continued watching, I realized that the moving objects were a pack of wolves! I was filled with fury as I watched these ferocious animals sprint directly towards two of our bulls. I knew that I had to take control immediately in order to not only protect these two defenseless bulls, but also the other twenty-two three to six year old bulls in Pitt’s Pasture.
I jumped on the four-wheeler, rushed up to my grandmother’s house, and got a means of protection. Then just as quickly as I had come to the house, I raced back towards the area in which I had spotted the wolves.
My goal was to run them off of our bulls as quickly as possible. As I neared their location, I noticed that five wolves were circling the two bulls. I decided to go at them head on, which caused two of the predators to break off.
However, three of the wolves persisted and continued circling. They did not break away until I was only about twenty yards away. Two of the wolves then headed northwest towards my grandparents’ house. Luckily I was able to redirect them towards the direction of the other three wolves, after alarming them with my hollering and the four-wheeler.
Next the wolves went under a nearby fence, into Pitt’s Pasture. After dismounting from the four-wheeler, I jumped over this same fence. This maneuver made a barrier between the five wolves and the bulls. At this point I was only about ten to fifteen feet away from the dangerous pack, and I realized that they all looked full as if they had just come from a kill.
I began shouting and waving my arms, and slowly four of the wolves ran away. The fifth wolf lurked behind the others; though, and he confidently stared right at me. I stood my ground and continued creating a ruckus, which caused the animal to trot in the same direction as the others. The five wolves climbed to the top of a hill and sprawled under a tree.
I knew that I should proceed by reporting the incident to the officials; however, I did not want to loose contact with the pack. I had to be sure that they did not cause any further damage to our cattle. After riding the four-wheeler back to my grandparents’ house, I called my grandfather and mother, inquiring about which officials I should call.
They informed me that they would make all of the necessary calls, and I was instructed to watch the wolves very closely. We did not want the wild animals to attack any of our cattle. The wolves were close enough to my grandparents’ house that I was able to watch them from this location. This is exactly what I did for about twenty minutes.
During this time the wolves were sniffing around and moving amongst the trees on the hill. However, they then began to move out over the hill, which prevented me from seeing them. I immediately got back on the four-wheeler and raced to the top of the hill, in order to be sure that the predators were not harassing or harming any of the cattle in Pitt’s Pasture.
When I arrived at the top of the hill, the wolves were only about fifteen to twenty feet away and four of them were already circling three bulls. I jumped off the four-wheeler and ran towards these wolves. They eventually broke off and trotted away from the scene.
However, as I looked over my shoulder I noticed that the fifth wolf was only about six feet away and was circling me. The male wolf was in a crouching position and its hair was standing on end. After it did about three-fourths of a circle around me, I charged the wild animal. This seemed to be my only choice as I was overwhelmed with fear for my life.
As soon as I began to charge, the wolf trotted off towards the other four wolves. I ran to my four-wheeler, in hopes to catch up with the pack. I wanted to see where they were headed, but unfortunately I lost sight of them.
Two hours after this horrific incident, a plane flew over our ranch in the exact direction that the wolf pack had run off to. The plane made three to five tight circles above this area. I was for certain that the person or people in the plane were tracking the wolves, because I had seen a collar on one of the wolves. I also believe that the other four wolves wore collars as well. However, due to the emotional intensity of the events, I was not focusing on specific characteristics of the wolves or their collars. I was intent on protecting our livestock!
Later in the day, about early to mid afternoon, a USDA official, Pat Finch, came out to our ranch to investigate the wolf incident. I took him to the location of the first encounter with the wolves, which was nearby the barn. Mr. Finch examined and measured the tracks. I recall these measurements being roughly 4.5 inches long by 3.5 inches wide.
He then stated that the tracks were wolf tracks. At this point I told him the unforgettable story that I have recorded here.
My family has yet to hear any further information regarding the Mexican Grey Wolves. There has not been a single government official contact us since the day of our encounter with these threatening animals, March 13, 2007.
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My husband and I are considering buying land in Catron County. After doing some research…I am now not so sure. We have six large dogs but I wonder if they could handle a wolf pack. I will protect my horses and dogs ( no matter what the idiots that think it is okay for the wolves to kill local livestock, and track children???!!) say. Something has got to be done about the apathy and indifference of the tree huggers that encourage this lunacy. Ship those idiots back to California. How many times have I heard about coyotes attacking children and killing pets? We lived in the tree hugger state for a few years in the high desert. My husbands business took us there. A coyote took a puppy from my yard and drug it off. I rode my horse and looked for hours. I never found him. I had coyotes come to the back fence and call my dogs all of the time. I would go to the fence with a shotgun and shoot. They were so bold. They would just stand at the fence and growl at me. I just hope and pray that your children are safe.
It is unbelievable to me how 18th century you people sound!!!! I happen to be a certified vet tech and have seen first hand what bobcat, javelina, hawk, coyote and rattlesnake attacks do to dogs. In my personal 9 years of experience I can tell you that I have seen a WHOLE lot more domestic dog attacks on other dogs then ANY WILD animal attacks. Mostly small dogs and cats are taken, because they are left outside ALONE!!Take SOME responsibility for your own pets!!! If you live in an area where there are WILD animals, educate yourselves! The wild animals, coyotes and (HELLO PEOPLE) the Mexican wolves were here BEFORE us and the wolves were wiped out BY US!!! Seems to me we are a bigger danger to them then they are to us. I have lived in AZ all of my life, have hiked alot if AZ and can guarentee you my children have NEVER been in danger from a coyote. My dogs have seen coyotes and rattlesnakes and have NEVER been in danger from them. Maybe because I’m a responsible mother and pet owner???? Mountain lions, bears and sharks are all WILD animals that go where people like to go and have attacked people! Should they ALL be irradicated , because a few 18th century superstitious thinkers are TOO scared to take a hike or camp? Come on people it’s a WHOLE lot more dangerous to live in the city, where traffic accidents and shootings and pedifiles stalk children then it is to go camping!!!
Frankly Lisa, your yelling is more offensive than your opinion. So please pardon my sarcastic tone.
I would like to know what part of the post you commented on refer’s to pets. I believe the animals being chased were yearling bulls.
If other posters have concerns about their pets they are entitled to those concerns especially when Mexican wolf attacks on pets and, HELLO LISA, working dogs, are prevalent in both New Mexico and Arizona.
(work dogs- animals that are needed to ensure a living out here. Educate yourself, since you seem to be so lacking in knowledge of the regional economic sector.)
To me, you appear to be of the opinion that all doggies and kitty’s are to be indoor animals at all times and probably should not be exploited as work animals. Correct me if I am wrong.
The people out here didn’t kill the wolves off nor they didn’t sign up for a program that allows wolves into their yards to kill their dogs and entrap their children in the house.
To insinuate that any commenter’s on this blog, are somehow bad parents is again offensive. The fact that you live in Arizona does not necessarily imply you know a darned thing about Mexican wolves and their behavior patterns.
If a wolf comes into a private property, and attacks a dog or harasses people even if they are not on private property, to continue to allow that wolf to remain in the wild is not only morally reprehensible and dangerous, it is bad for the continued progress of the program. Nor does living in AZ, allow you to make moral value judgments on how people choose to raise their families who were likely here prior to the re-introduction of these hand raised, habituated wolves.
Unfortunately for us, it is proximity to wolves that has been the problem, for you proximity doesn’t appear to be a problem so your opinion is all you have. Experience is what these people have and you have no right to denegrate their experiences.
We rural dwellers chose to live in an area without traffic accidents and shootings and pedophiles, we didn’t choose to have wolves in my kids yard, that was done for us or should I say to us.
A little respect from folks like you would go a long way towards making this program bearable and we have earned it in so many ways that you are likley unaware of.
In my personal 35+ years of living in rural areas - including almost 15 years of living in what has become the wolf project area - I trust I have more to say from the experience level than Lisa does. As it happens, I’m also a certified vet tech, although I’m not a practicing one. I can tell you that nothing I was taught in order to become a vet tech, nor any of my experience working with veterinarians has any direct bearing on the human experience of the Mexican wolf project situation, so let’s dispense with that nonsense.
Most of my neighbors in the wolf project area are extrememly educated about wildlife. It is extraordinarily presumptious and condescending of Lisa to assume otherwise, and of course reflects on the validity of the balance of her argument.
Lisa also comments that wolves were here first, which of course is an empty statement. The current, habituated wolf population never existed in the wild anywhere on this planet until created and subsequently introduced into the project area by the wolf program. Humans have been in the wolf project area for thousands of years (literally hundreds of archeological sites exist in the wolf project area). Additionally, the wildlife in the ecosystem into which the current habituated wolves were dumped into consisted of generations of prey animals which had developed behaviors adequate for species survival and health given the existing predator population - and humans had too. Dumping habituated wolves into that population (which includes humans) would be the equivalent of dumping anthrax into random mail: It’s not natural, no natural defenses exist and to say that anthrax was always there, in that circumstance, is an empty and useless argument.
I do agree with one of Lisa’s comments though: It is more dangerous living in the city than here in the wolf project area. Cities are where people who dream up projects like the introduction of habituated wolves into rural areas come from, and to those of us who live in rural areas, city people represent an even bigger threat than do wolves.
So what you are saying is that you were within 6 feet of a ferocious predator and it DID NOT harm you. The pack was willing and able to take down two defenseless bulls, but did not attack you?
Note, most attacks by predatory animals fail. We like to think of predators as 100% successful killers but we are not. On a recent hunting trip I was on, I realized how poor we can be as humans as predators. The kill is not 100% certain and is never guaranteed.
I just read a statistic saying that 2% of Americans are bitten by domestic or stray dogs each year. I unfortunately could not find how many domestic dog attacks there are in Catron County, but if 2% holds, then of the 3,409 people in Catron County, 60 are bitten by your PETS every year.
I also saw another interesting set of statistics at
http://www.accountablegovernment.org/cdwi2005/ctydata02.htm
10 people were killed by DWI between 2001-2005. 10 more people were killed by humans than by wolves. County Crash injuries were around 203. Since July 1984, 50% are repeat offenders. 1.18% of your drivers were arrested in 2005 alone for DWI.
The most surprising statistic was the $597,000 spent on alcohol-related crashes. It seems your intoxicated folks and dogs are causing some major problems in Catron County.
Read the letter S. the person involved was backed up by a roaring 4 wheeler and firing a weopon to haze the animals still they were agressive. He also says they were full of meat. This is a lot different scenario than say if those 6 wolves encountered a hiker, alone on the trail who is humming “you are my sunshine” to himself.
A single wolf is hardly ever a problem but get two and up together and things take a very different turn.
So are you saying that just because you can find any old statistic on any old subject it is OK to let government wolves do whatever they wish with humans? I am not sure what your point is, since every other county in the whole USA has dog bites and drunk drivers not every county has been forced to coexist with habituated wolves. Your statistics do not validate non management of these animals.