Sask. farmer shoots 3 wolves

What began as an early-morning deer hunt turned into an unnerving encounter with three timber wolves, a Saskatchewan farmer says.

Late last month, Gord Cadrain ventured east from his farm near Glaslyn, 68 kilometres north of North Battleford.

Cadrain said he was lying in snow-covered brush, scanning for deer through the scope of his gun, when he spotted a yellow eye.

"'What the heck was that?'" he recalled thinking. "'Was that a coyote, or a wolf or what?'"

It was, in fact, a timber wolf and it appeared to be stalking Cadrain, he said.

He shot and wounded the animal, then followed the trail of blood down a coulee to make sure the wolf was dead.

'These wolves, there was no fear in their eyes.' —Gord Cadrain, farmer

At a point where the trail ended, he ran into his second wolf.

"I look over to the right and here comes another one. A great big white bugger, and he's coming straight for me," Cadrain said.

Cadrain shot that wolf and another soon after.

"These wolves, there was no fear in their eyes," he said. "They were in the hunting mode. They just basically [mistook] me for a deer."

With only one round left, Cadrain quickly headed home. If there were more wolves, he would have been in big trouble, he said. They were all large, healthy-looking animals.

"It would have been one heck of a fight," he said. "If you think you were going to beat them off with a stick ... you'd be looking for a pretty big stick."

He made it home without any further incident. Although wolves are by nature shy creatures, Cadrain said, he will now avoid that area.

"I have no fear of timber wolves," he said. "It was just one of those oddball things."

Although reports of wolf attacks are rare, there have been a number of sightings of the animals this year in La Ronge and other northern communities.

No one has been hurt.