Gray wolves in Wisconsin killed six hunting dogs and injured two more in a series of recent attacks that occurred just one day apart in Langlade County. Federal wildlife agents confirmed the two depredation events, which took place Friday and Saturday, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
This brings the annual tally of hunting dogs killed or injured by Wisconsin wolves roughly in line with the past two years. Still, eight dogs attacked by wolves in the same county in just two days’ time is noteworthy. There are also a few months left to go in 2025, and with hunting and trapping of gray wolves still outlawed in Wisconsin, the total number of hunting dog depredations there could increase.
The first depredation event, on Sept. 26, was actually a series of two separate attacks that took place in close proximity near the town of Ackley, according to the DNR. It involved seven hunting dogs that were pursuing two bears, and five of those dogs were killed. Six of the dogs — including the two that survived — were Plott hounds. The seventh was a Leopard curr. Agents with USDA Wildlife Services confirmed that wolves were responsible after an investigation that showed puncture wounds and tracks consistent with gray wolves.
“Likely these events happened simultaneously as it was all on county forest near Ackley Wildlife Area, which is a typical bear hunting area,” DNR assistant wolf specialist Danielle Deming told WJFW News Tuesday. “The group of dogs split up and encountered a wolf pack in pursuit of the bears. The dog owners had noticed their dogs’ GPS collars had stopped moving on the receiver, so they followed the dogs’ trails into the woods only to discover three of the dogs had been killed and two were injured at one site.”
Deming said the owners found their two other dogs killed at a nearby site about 900 yards away. Based on that short distance, she said she suspected that the same wolf pack was involved in both attacks.
The next depredation took place Saturday about 15 miles to the north, closer to Elcho. It also involved a bear hunting dog (a 7-year-old Plott hound) that was killed by wolves while pursuing a black bear. The hunter was able to get to their dog within about five minutes, Deming said, but by that point it had already been killed.
Deming explained that the most common scenario in these kinds of incidents is where a dog or group of dogs runs through a wolf pack’s rendezvous site, which is where they keep their pups after they’ve outgrown their den. These concentrations of wolves are typical in the late summer and early fall, Deming said, and the pack will usually disperse into its normal territory by winter.
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This also lines up with the DNR’s data, which shows that most wolf depredations on hunting dogs take place during the hound training season in July and August, as well as during hunting season in the fall. Speaking with OL about two hunting dogs that were killed by wolves in July 2024, DNR wildlife damage specialist Brad Koele said “it’s pretty normal for us to see these” every year.
Because gray wolves are still federally protected by Wisconsin, every depredation event requires an investigation by USDA Wildlife Services. If federal agents confirm that wolves were responsible, the dog’s owner is then eligible for compensation through the state.
How These Numbers Compare with Previous Years
With an estimated wolf population around 1,226 as of the DNR’s latest count, depredations on livestock and hunting dogs are bound to occur in Wisconsin. The DNR maintains separate records for both, since hunting dogs (along with pet dogs) are classified as non-livestock. Those records show that confirmed wolf depredations on livestock increased for the second consecutive year in 2024.
Looking specifically at hunting dogs, 2025 is on track to have roughly the same number of wolf depredations as were recorded in the two previous years.
- 2025 hunting dog attacks: 33 (19 killed, 14 injured)
- 2024 hunting dog attacks: 36 (9 killed, 27 injured)
- 2023 hunting dog attacks: 35 (28 killed, 7 injured)
Hunters looking to run their dogs in Wisconsin wolf country can check out the DNR’s interactive map to see where depredations have taken place. The agency also creates and tracks “wolf caution areas” across the state to advise hunters of where specific packs have attacked dogs.
“It is the department’s experience that once a pack has attacked a dog in a hunting or training situation, there is a high probability that another attack will occur again during the same year or within the following year,” the DNR says on its website. “These attacks will generally be on trailing hounds used to hunt bears, bobcats and coyotes, but such attacks rarely occur on dogs in bird-hunting situations.”
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