Live Hunt: How to Trap a Wolf in Alaska

I’ve been trapping hard in Alaska for the last several years, focusing mostly on marten. I’ve done very well on marten each year, but not much else. This year, my goal is to take a wolf.

I’ve always had wolves come through occasionally, but this year the 40-mile caribou herd is a lot closer, and I have a pack of wolves running my trail every few weeks. They’ve marked my trail as part of their territory and second to finding a moose that they’ve killed, this is one of the best ways to catch them.

This is where I’ll take my stand.

I trap in an area that burned a few years back, and I have had to chainsaw every inch of my 12 miles of trail. It’s only a matter of time before the whole pack comes through again to re-mark its territory, and since there is so much downed timber from the fire, they are almost exclusively using my trail.

If I plan things right, I could catch several or all of them. My first step is to make a urine post set (with fox urine) where they peed to mark their territory. They’ll be infuriated to smell that a fox has moved in on their ground and won’t hesitate to re-mark the post.

This should get me the first one, but I’m counting on their pack behavior to get me more. If I hang up the Alpha male or female, the rest of the pack will spend awhile milling around. So, I set several blind sets in my trail, and also in side trails I packed down in a circle around the area.

For now it’s a waiting game … I will keep you posted!