Bear hunters say they're being forced out of the woods after wolves attack.

Rick Nelson is prepping his pups for this year's bear hunt. But, the long-time hunter is short one hound dog -- a five year old named Maggie.

"She got behind and we couldn't find her,” Nelson says. “We used the tracking box and found her skinned and eaten by wolves."

The DNR says Nelson's hound is one of four killed by wolves since the start of the month. They've injured five others.

"From July through September, we tend to see the most dogs killed by wolves," says DNR Regional Wildlife Supervisor Kris Belling.

Belling says there are two reasons for the high number of attacks: One, wolves are extremely territorial this time of year because they leave their pups at rendezvous sites to go hunting. Two, right now is the training period for bear hounds putting more them in the forests.

"At the rendezvous sites there will be lots of tracks—big and small, scat, and maybe animal bones. If you start seeing a lot of wolf signs it's a good idea to move your training at least a few miles out of there to avoid the packs," Belling says.

"Ain't had no problem here before,” Nelson says. “It kind of startled everybody about having them here."

Nelson says the attack happened just about 250 yards a forest road and on a trail. He's hunted the same area for 22 years and says he’s never seen the wolves in the spring or the fall—just in the winter when they’re hunting. He's now going to take his dogs and hunt elsewhere.

"It takes a lot of time and effort to make a good dog. It's a lot of time you're not spending with your family and your kids. To have them killed by wolves just seems like a waste," he says.

Nelson says all the bear hunters he knows are also abandoning the county forests for now. He says they're just not safe.

"I had my two boys along. Just 20 minutes before we found the dog, they were playing on the trails and just being boys,” he says. “My youngest is two years old. He weighs 26 pounds. If a 100 pound wolf took him by the head and took off running, how would you catch him to help to save him?”

Wolves are a federally protected animal in Wisconsin meaning you can't kill one and the DNR has no control over the population. Belling says the DNR wishes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would de-list them so they could better manage the growing population.

"We see it as a good thing to have wolves as a wildlife species in the state. They were here historically and they made a comeback. But, we also recognize that you can have too much of a good thing and at some point have enough wolves," she says.

Belling recommends all bear hunters and trainers check the DNR's map on where wolves are known to roam and where they've attacked.