Yellowstone

[KGAINES]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/yellow...pintoextinction

 

Well the yellowstone whitetail jackrabbit is now extinct, but they made sure to say that wolves did not cause the extinction, or at least they could't confirm their impact. It seems to me that if you stop allowing predators to be controlled prey species will suffer, and the rabbit was probably low on the food chain, what animal is next. We know that it won't be the wolf, they will protect it to the bitter end. I'll bet the rabbits wish they could have gotten some protection, where was peta protesting wolves to save the rabbit.

[jackshoe]

Hi all-I'm new to this forum but have enjoyed reading in the past before I joined. You make a very valid point about the whitetailed jack rabbit in the Yellowstone-especially when you factor in that the wolves in Yellowstone aren't even native species-they are canadian wolves that were introduced to the Yellowstone.

[KGAINES]

Welcome to CouesWhitetail.com

[TAM]

At least Yellowstone got real wolves! All we got in Arizona and New Mexico is a bunch of wolf/dog hybrids because the pure Mexican wolf blood line is extinct.

 

Perhaps they could find some hybrid whitetail rabbits and release them and give them endangered species status.

[KGAINES]

I was thinking the same thing.

We might want to watch what we say though there will be someone out there with some of our jackrabbits and some bleach .

[firstcoueswas80]

When at NAU, I did several studies on the Wolves of Yellowstone. I was amazed to see the immediate effect that wolves had on the population of elk and moose... something like 12% decline of elk, and 8% decline of moose... The second year wolves were in there!!! They were a natvie species to Yellowstone, re-introduced in the late 1990's. In all the studies that I did, I NEVER came across any studies that they clearly stated that wolves were the cause of the decline. They always blamed it on weather, drought, and a bad recruitment season. But, we all know that the wolves are causing the decline, none of the researchers want to admit it!

[IHunt2live]

Anyone know how many wolves are around there?

[NRS]

I remember a study about the Yellowstone wolves that said that they did reduce the number of coyotes and foxes in the ecosystem and that led to an INCREASE in the small mammal populations because it reduces the predators that ate things like rabbits and ground squirrels, so I don't think they can blame this one on the wolves. Must be Global Warming from all of the hot air that the politicians are spouting.

[jackshoe]

I did a horseback pack trip with an outfitter into the Teton - Bridger wilderness area in 2004. This is adjacent to the Park. We fished the head waters of the Yellowstone River and the Throughfare River. The outfitter is a third generation guy in this area, and he takes Elk hunts into the wilderness area. We camped on the Yellowstone river and rode all over the Yellowstone meadow and surrounding area for a week. Yellowstone meadow is really more swamp than meadow, and an ideal place for moose to summer. We saw one moose in the week that we were there. The outfitter said before the wolves that it would have been typical to see maybe 20 moose in the area we covered. He also said the impact on the elk numbers is very noticeable. Don't know about the Buffalo herd.

Wolves require lots of country to live in-they have spred outside the Park already and it will be interesting to see where they eventually show up at. I have a rancher friend who lives in Evanston, Wyoming( southwest corner of Wyoming, about 70 miles from salt lake city, Utah) There have been confirmed livestock kills by wolves around Evanston since wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone Park.

[DesertBull]

Isn't Wyoming getting ready to allow wolf and Grizzly hunts? I'd be all over a lower 48 grizz hunt.

[Rembrant]

A buddy of mine was hunting whitetails in Alberta. His outfitter made the statement, "Now let me get this straight, You Arizona folks wanna put wolves back In Arizona?!!!"

 

Mike