MuleyMadness Hunting Forums

The wolves need to be shot when ever they are near livestock plus we need lots of tags for knocking their population way down. The wolves have already changed the way elk act during the rut and the cows are less vocal year round, at least here in eastern Idaho

gilbert, welcome to the site

i agree with brett. great job rancher. haha!

I was 13 when they "reintroduced" them and I was wondering that how can you reintroduce CANADIAN grey wolves. I thought that the wolves that were native were slightly bigger then a coyote?

Sneaky wrote:In the 50's and 60's there wasn't an extreme overpopulation of deer or elk when wolves weren't being shipped in. Deer and elk have enough predators (i.e. bears, lions, coyotes) without having to make things worse with wolves. Throw in loss of habitat and it is a wonder that the herds are doing as well as they are.

Actually in Idaho (according to my dad) they used to have so many deer that they had a 2 per person season and my family used to come home from the deer hunt with a utility trailer stacked with deer for the freezer. Sounds like they were doing pretty well without those mutant beasts around!

We don't have to like the wolves, but they're here to stay. The best thing we can do is encourage the feds to de-list them so we can begin controlling their numbers. We have wolves up the ying yang here in Idaho and its time we get to start hunting them. Heck they just confirmed another new pack by Arrowrock Res. just 20 miles as the crow flies from downtown Boise.

I agree wolves are here to stay in Idaho. The best thing we can do is manage there populations. As far as affecting the elk rut I don't know about that. I hunt eastern Idaho and I started to notice the difference in the rut not long after they changed to the zone system. I think it has more to do with hunting pressure than wolves.

Wow, such hatefull feelings toward wolves in here. We need to remember that they were here before we were and WE are the reason they left in the first place. It's too bad we got so used to living without them because we are now so spoiled that we think they have no place being here. Yeah they kill livestock and I have no problem with those problem animals being taken care of, but to say all wolves are bad and we are better off not having them at all is, for lack of a better word, selfish. We get in this mindset that if something doesn't directly benefit us then it has to be something bad. Why cant we just live with them and deal with the problem animals when that time comes? It's not the end of the world.

79Ford,

I agree to an extent. However, when you introduce a keystone species such as the wolf in an area that has never had to deal with it/has not dealt with it in many many years, it's inevitably going to cause a cascade of negative effects throughout the food web within that ecosystem. In other words, deer and elk populations will be negatively impacted.
Whether or not the re-introduced wolves are Canadian Grey Wolves, North Rocky Mountain Grey Wolves, or Mexican Grey Wolves is irrelevent in my opinion (Not all introduction efforts involve the Canadian Grey). Again, in my opinion, the issue is that the deer and elk have not had to deal with a predator that possesses the smarts that the wolf possesses nor tried to avoid a predator that hunts in packs as well as the wolf.
Without writing a whole paper on this subject and/or my opinions regarding same, please see the attached link. It's a great study on the re-introduction of wolves. Yes, this particular study was written by folks that were concerned with the impact of the reintroduction on hunting and is geared toward such. You can find hundreds of papers written by animal and anti-hunting groups that put a different spin on it. However, there are very few written in this context. For what it's worth, I'm an avid reader and study this sort of stuff all the time and I tend to agree with the attached...regardless of the fact that I am also a hunter.

http://www.aws.vcn.com/fact.html

79Ford, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. Stick to your guns my friend. But please, read the study I posted and ask yourself if the re-introduction is worth the efforts.

To keep it balanced I have attached a link to an interview with Mr. Ed Bangs about his efforts in wolf re-introduction in North America. Again, you can find many, many stories, studies, etc on the web. I would encourage everyone to read as much as they can about this subject and then make up thier OWN minds on whether or not they support these efforts.
http://www.biohabitats.com/ndg_newsite/ ... #interview

Great post Hawk!!!