Wolf hunting as great excitement in winter

Wolf is one of the cleverest and the most dangerous predators. However, hunters respect it for its wisdom and firmness. At the same time, the hunting for wolf with flags is quite labor-intensive activity. Sometimes hunters have to walk up to 20 kilometers to find the right place for hunting. For these they need to be able to walk with hunting skis. In fact, hunters should know how to choose skis. For walking hunting in forest, they usually choose skis about 12 centimeters large and equal to the height of the hunter. In case the skis are 10 centimeters large, it is worth choosing the length about 10-15 centimeters higher the hunter. For steppe areas, it is better to choose long and narrow skis. Sometimes hunters divide into several groups to search for the wolves tracks. That is why, it is important to have communication facilities in order not to get lost in a forest.

Wolf hunting has been encouraged in Kazakhstan since the times of USSR, as population of wolves in the country is considered as one of the largest in the world. Wolves significantly damage wild and farm animals. Quite often, farmers have to rescue their herds from wolves' attacks. Mountain travelers often happen to meet wolves, however, there were not registered any cases of wolves attacking people in the country.

Wolf is a big predator, weighting from 30 to 70 kilos. Its length reaches 160 centimeters and height can reach 90 centimeters. Usually wolves walk in troops, that is why wolf hunting is one of the most exciting hunting types. Although wolf hunting is open all the year round, the most effective way of hunting activity is hunting with flags in wintertime. Hunters follow in the tracks of wolves and find the places they tend to stay during the day. After that, several hunters surround this place with a tape with flags. This way wolves are entrapped as they cannot cross the tape with flags. As known, wolves are afraid of red color and the tape with red flags hypnotizes the wolves. Very seldom wolves get through the tape. To create one more barrier, quite often the hunters soak the tape with smells not characterized for the forest. In fact, over the last period of time the hunters stopped using for this purpose petrol or diesel fuel as they stopped frightening wolves off, as they are already used to this smell often brought by hunters to the forests and steppes. Depending on the area and weather, the circle surrounded with flags often reaches 3.5 kilometers. Experienced hunters usually feel how close they can approach the wolves in order not to frighten them off. In case the wolves are very scared they can forget about their fear of red flags and cross them. In fact, wolves never jump over the tape, they try to get through under it diving into the snow.

Like many other animals wolves tend to walk by their roots and paths. Experienced hunters arrive to these places early in the morning to see if the wolves have recently passed these places. This way, the hunters are able to find out from where the wolves arrived and where they followed. During the hunting process, the most experienced hunter during area surrounding with flags defines the places of shooters location. The shooters must stay at these places without any movement watching the radius of shooting only with his eyes. A number of hunters say, that despite the hardness and labor-intensiveness of this type of hunting it brings great excitement in the result.

According to the estimations of the Institute of zoology of Kazakhstan, wolf population in Kazakhstan reaches about 90 000. The most favorable time for hunting is the period between January 10 till March 10.

Scientists believe that wolves take their roots at Arabia peninsula, Near East and Asia about 2 million years ago. Scientists still do not know how they managed to settle in different territories. However, it is clear, that their high intellect and great physical abilities helped them do that.