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Originally posted by eezridr:
Guys,

We have a pig explosion in our neck of the woods that is about as menacing.

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Did you know that, on the average, each wolf kills appx. 30 deer and elk annually for food? And between six Northern Rockies and Upper Midwest states we now have between 7,000 and 8,000 wolves? That's 200,000+ deer and elk lost annually to feed a still growing national wolf pack.

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Originally posted by jsl3170:
Here is a question from which I admit having no basis to know: for folks that live in areas such as where this woman lived, is it not the personally responsible thing to do to be armed when in the bush?

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Originally posted by rcamuglia:

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Originally posted by eezridr:
Guys,

We have a pig explosion in our neck of the woods that is about as menacing.

Let me respond to the issue about pigs. They do kill other animals, they are an omnivor just like a bear. They will eat anything. They destroy quail nests; they will kill a young fawn and eat it. They multiply faster than rabbits.

I do not argue your position on how destructive wolves can be only why the population explosion when they seem in check in Minnesota and Canada.
I do find it interesting that about 25 years ago while in Alaska hunting there was an article in the paper where Wolves were going to be shot from planes in a area where moose calf predation seemed very high. Later research found out that 80% of the predation was being done by Grizzlies. Nothing was done to keep the Grizzlies in check. Why? Grizzlies are worth more to the community than the moose from a cash perspective; but the moose are worth more than the wolves.
I wanted it known, my position is not to protect the wolf. If there were 3000 grizzlies in the Yellowstone eco system and they were ravaging the elk. I doubt there would be an outcry. Folks would be wanting a Grizzly tag.
Actually, I believe a wolf is a GREAT trophy! Maybe the most intelligent and cunning wild animal in North America. To take one on foot without snow machines or baits would appear to me to be a great hunting achievement.


Wolves destroy the population of game animals astronomically:

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Did you know that, on the average, each wolf kills appx. 30 deer and elk annually for food? And between six Northern Rockies and Upper Midwest states we now have between 7,000 and 8,000 wolves? That's 200,000+ deer and elk lost annually to feed a still growing national wolf pack.

Pigs don't. I know they do massive damage to land. You can hunt them all the time, as much as you want, and from helicopters. When they allow this with wolves, it'll be too late.

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In 1995-1996, when the first wolves were reintroduced back into the Yellowstone ecosystem, the park's elk herd was at an all-time high, at 19,000. From the original 31 wolves released during that two-year period, the guesstimated number of wolves there now is between 450 to 500. Since the release of those wolves, elk number have dropped to around 6,000.
Prior to the release and expanded range of the wolf in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, the survival rate of calf elk was typically around 30 to 40 percent, which is needed to sustain a healthy, and huntable, elk herd. Due to severe wolf depredation, in most areas the percentage of calves surviving the first year of life has now dropped to less than 15 percent - not enough to sustain an elk herd, whether it is hunted or not.



Before wolves were released back into the Northern Rockies, healthy elk herds averaged four years of age...now, due to the severe loss of calf recruitment, herds throughout much of a fast expanding wolf range average eight years of age. And our elk herds are now headed for precipitous crash. As bad as the elk loss has been already, these geriatric herds are about to hit the wall.



Due largely to the negative impact wolves have had on big game populations, in much of western Montana and northern Idaho, last year both elk and deer harvests were close to 50% below the past five year average - and hunting opportunities are now (2010) being severely curtailed by state game departments. Wolves are already replacing the hunter's role in wildlife management.



No one within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service...Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks...or the Idaho Department of Fish and Game possess the knowledge, nor has access to the technology to accurately assess the number of wolves in these two states. These three agencies claim that there are now just 1,700 wolves in the Northern Rockies. The tremendous loss of elk, deer, moose, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats indicate a much higher number. And several leading wolf researchers have claimed that the number is most likely twice that claimed - and it is now taking in the neighborhood of 100,000 big game animals (in these two states alone) to keep that many wolves fed. The wolves in the Upper Midwest are also consuming a like number of deer and other big game. Likewise, it is now known that wolves kill about as much game just for the pleasure of killing, meaning that in all, we are now losing somewhere in the neighborhood of 400,000 big game animals in this country every year - TO WOLVES! And wolf numbers are increasing by 20 plus percent annually.



The wildlife agencies in Idaho and Montana have put a great deal of emphasis on programs supporting "non consumptive" outdoor sports in recent years, more and more ignoring the needs of the hunter and fisherman. Still, these agencies are using monies provided by these "consumptive" sportsmen to fund expanded opportunities for bird watchers...hikers...and campers - who purchase no permits at all.



As wolf numbers continue to increase in the northern tier of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, deer numbers are now beginning to nose dive. So is hunter success. The past couple of seasons, the percentage of successful hunters has dropped 40 to 60 percent in what "used to be" some of the best northernmost deer hunting counties. Across northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and northern Michigan, there are now more than 5,000 wolves - without any management hunts whatsoever. Likewise, moose numbers are dropping quickly...and elk herds that took millions of sportsman provided dollars to reintroduce are waning quickly, again mostly due to the lack of adequate calf recruitment (thanks to wolf depredation).



The goal of the USFWS "Wolf Recovery Project" is to reintroduce the gray wolf back into all of its historic home range - which means that USFWS will need a ready supply of wolves to put them back into wildlife rich areas such as Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Tennessee, Maine, Missouri, Virginia ...and just about every other state. This agency, flying under the cover of adhering to the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, is ready and willing to sacrifice the wildlife in the states now being severely impacted by wolf depredation in order to have the wolves needed for those transplants across the U.S.



Our Department of the Interior and Department of Justice now cater far more to the whims of the anti-hunting organizations and groups (i.e. Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Humane Society of the United States) than to those who have footed the bill for the vast majority of true wildlife conservation in this country - The American Sportsmen.


It's time for a serious WAKE UP CALL for the shooting and hunting industry. Without a strong unified stand against federal government wildlife agencies, and a U.S. District Court system, which now support the agenda of environmental fanatics who are dead set to eliminate hunting - this industry is doomed. Without the game, there's no hunting. Without any need for hunters to manage wildlife populations, these same enemies will push even stronger to take away our right to bear arms. There's a hell of a lot more at stake here than reintroducing wolves. - Toby Bridges

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According to Don Peay, founder of the conservation group known as Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, "For the last twenty years, SFW along with our Division of Wildlife Resources partners have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into habitat and wildlife transplant restoration efforts...along with aggressive predator management. Utah, in the absence of wolves, has seen populations of deer increase by 50%...elk by 500%...moose 500%...bighorn sheep and mountain goats and bison by 500% as well. Most people now recognize Utah as a western states big game paradise."



Peay compares this to how things are going in a very contrasting opposite direction in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, where wolves are now destroying elk and deer herds. He says if not managed aggressively, within five more years, wolves will destroy the once wildlife rich Northern Rockies. And that sportsmen need to heed the S.O.S. that's now going out - and to demand Congress change the Endangered Species Act, which has been hijacked from its original intent by self serving environmental and animal rights groups.



"As a kid, we used to go to Yellowstone to see different wildlife. Today, because of this ecological disaster, you can find more wildlife in the Salt Lake Valley, that has over 1-million people, than you can find in Yellowstone. And that is a very sad commentary," adds Don Peay.

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Since the release of those first 14 Canadian gray wolves in Yellowstone in January 1995, the elk herd in the park and surrounding area has been in steady decline. From 19,000 in 1995-96...to 11,969 in 2002...to just 6,800 in the spring of 2009. Likewise, due to what is now near "0" calf recruitment, the average age of those elk has gone from about 4 years of age (2001-2002) to 8 years of age (2009).



From the original 31 wolves "reintroduced" (more like dumped) into the "Yellowstone Ecosystem" in '95-'96, their population grew to 273 by 2002, and in the summer/early fall of 2008 there were an estimated 450+ wolves inhabiting an area about three times the size of our smallest state - Rhode Island. And inside this country's "Great Natural Wonder", elk, deer and other wildlife are now becoming ever scarcer. Everything is being sacrificed to satisfy the whims of those who have a total misunderstanding of the wolf's role in nature - a predator that feeds upon every other living thing.

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Originally posted by jsl3170:
And she still ran unarmed and alone. That is kina asking for it in my view.

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Originally posted by jsl3170:
Here is a question from which I admit having no basis to know: for folks that live in areas such as where this woman lived, is it not the personally responsible thing to do to be armed when in the bush? perhaps had she been armed and trained in the use of the weapon she may have had a decent chance of surviving the attack.

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Originally posted by eezridr:
Guys,

I have a question about the wolf explosion around the Yellowstone area.
First of all wolves have been in Minnesota and Wisconsin for as long as I can remember. I do not hear a lot about a population explosion in those regions? I know they have moose and deer to prey on. I seldom hear a lot about any problems in Canada. Perhaps they exist and are not publicized. I do not live in these locals so I have no feeling one way or the other.
I certainly sympathesize with those that do.

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The same goes for the Wolf/deer "problem". Let the Wolves do their jobs and there would be less deer and MORE graze for the stock.

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Originally posted by wetdog2084:
Did you ever notice that the only people that defend the wolves are people who don't live around them and never see the effect and consequences of having them around.
The wolf does have a limited place in nature. The problem is that the wolf was stuffed down our throats against the will of the vast majority of the residents of the people of MT, WY, and ID. We have always had a few wolves in MT the problem didn't start until the feds started transplanting and protecting them.