Wolves

[BikerRN]

Howdy all.

 

Late night and the two pebbles in my head are spinning around and bumping in to each other in that vast void known as my brain. That led to me thinking about wolves.

 

As a mythical creature they are great for stories, but I'm not so sure they are so great in real life. Arizona, along with other western states has gone to the exspense and trouble of reintroducing wolves to the wild. Since wolves have no predator, other than man, I can see the potential for the wolf packs to grow out of control, while decimating game herds and livestock.

 

Given that a big part of founding the west was based on livestock production in the early years, the wolf was hunted to almost extinction. Was this a good thing? I tend to think so, as the livestock herds grew so did the other game animals like deer and elk. Coyote management was often done by trapping, which is now almost illegal. I hardly see a Mule Deer now, when back in the 1980's, after multiple poisonings of coyote packs, the coyote's prey rebounded and were abundant, like rabbits. Today I'm seeing more coyotes and less rabbits and deer in many of the areas I frequent.

 

This leads me to think that better and more effective predator control needs to be accomplished. Of course even mentioning such a thing tends to send the tree hugging bunny loving granola eaters in to a tizzy. Since game animals will self correct in a natural environment, with some becoming extinct, the unbalance in the equation is us, man. We are now a consideration in the equation. Animals no longer have the vast expanse of territory they once had as the human population exspands. Thus it falls to us to become that regulating feature that Mother Nature once had.

 

I submit that predator control needs to be increased, and wolves hunted in most western states no matter the sensitivities of the tree hugging granola eating crowd. I am curious as to everyone's opinion on the matter. I have found that good livestock management, and healthy cattle, tends to also benefit the deer and elk population as well. What say you all?

 

Biker

[.270]

i think if you knew how to properly mispell words and use ccntractions in the wrong place, folks would think it was me who writ what you just wrote. that's zakly how i feel about it, only writ in a way that makes sense. everything has to be managed. there is no such thing as true wilderness in the lower 48. the country is criss crossed with roads, towns, highways, fences, canals, powerlines, citys, etc. the only wild country is the little places between these barriers. each little area should be managed for the area it is. you can't shotgun things. we've done fine without wolves for about 60 years. wolves are a tool to pry outdoorsmen and folks who make a living from the land, off of the land. the wolf has no importance to the treehuggers oustide of being the prybar. Lark.

[azslim]

they make nice coats.......

[BikerRN]

I find the delisting of wolves to be interesting. I fear what shenanigans the tree huggers will use next to keep wolves from being hunted in the northern states. Outdoor Life, or maybe Field and Stream, had some discussion about this verytopic on their blog.

 

Biker

[200"mulie]

all i know is the wolves left....coyotes multiplied like rabbits... coyotes now taking more wildlife and even cattle.

 

also how did wolves and prey co-op before man got involved and wolves disappeared?

[AntlerObsession]

all i know is the wolves left....coyotes multiplied like rabbits... coyotes now taking more wildlife and even cattle.

 

also how did wolves and prey co-op before man got involved and wolves disappeared?

Wolves manage coyotes the same way ranchers managed wolves... annihilation. And both for the same reason... survival. You can't advocate one and not the other without sounding hypocritical.

 

The issue with delisting wolves isn't who's killing what's killing what's. It's whether we want involved, engaged people determining the management of wolves, or politicians whose only concern is who is throwing the most money at them.

[.270]

you need a little history lesson. ranchers didn't kill off all the wolves. the federal gov't did. intentionally with plans and programs and everything. not just here either. gov't trappers and even forest rangers were put to work to kill "ALL" predators. coyotes, foxes, lions, bears, grizzlys, jags, bobcats, wolves, etc, were all marked for extinction by the federal gov't. it worked on the wolves and the grizzlys. the other critters wised up and survived. the last yellowstone wolves were a female and her pups. they shot the female and took the pups back to the ranger station and let some kids play with em for awhile and then they took em down to the creek and drowned em. there are photos and everthing of the kids with the pups. granted, most ranchers killed every wolf they could, but it was a gov't program that did em in. the same outfit that is trying to bring em back from extinction now. Lark.