Wolves Delisted in Wyoming

[DrMike]

Well, the Federal Government has finally decided to delist the wolf in Wyoming. According to this article, they can be shot on sight outside of Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park and the Wind River Indian Reservation. Of course, there are the usual suspects taking the delisting to court. Environmentalists (?) assure us that they, alone, are able to protect the wolves. I marvel that any of them eat beef or mutton, wear wool or leather, choosing instead to live more, er, shall we say, au naturel.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012...-wolf-protections-in-wyoming/?test=latestnews

 

[.280 Remington]

This is the best news I've heard all day!

 

[Oldtrader3]

Alright!

 

[Kodiak]

Several years ago, while elk hunting with a Wy resident, I was shown several wolf tracking-collars hanging on a barb-wire fence. The locals had the wolf over-population situation well in hand back in those days.I was told that the F&G would fly-over the main-road fence-lines and direct a F&G truck to the bunches of collars deposited there.


Jim

 

[DrMike]

Fascinating, Jim. I suspect that farmers and ranchers are sufficiently well-versed in self-reliance that they can care for the situation if they must. It would be nice if the bureaucrats realized that they work for "we the people," however.

 

[mcseal2]

My friend that owns the bar in a small town in Wyoming has a bumper sticker on his wall that reads

"WOLVES, SMOKE A PACK A DAY"

Bet he will be glad to hear this.

 

[Guy Miner]

Came across this sign in Idaho a few years back:

That was before there was a season on them. Apparently the gov't was paying to trap them though!

 

[sask boy]

There is nothing wrong with a season and being able to protect your herds from wolves.
There is nothing that is a predator to them.

Blessings,
Dan

 

[wildgene]

...actually, it looks like WY is going to allow killing 52 wolves, season will be "closed", & populations re-evaluated before it's "opened" again, so we're not going to "kill all of the wolves"...

..."52" is a little higher than the average the USF&WS has been killing every year to reduce numbers due to live stock depredation, more like forty/ yr. Few years ago, rumor has it, an enterprising individual using the FIA, got the total # killed in WY by USF&WS & the total costs. Averaged out to around $23K/ wolf, w/ approx. 85% of that amount being "administrative costs"...

 

[SJB358]

Great news. Some are better than none.

 

[DrMike]

Averaged out to around $23K/ wolf, w/ approx. 85% of that amount being "administrative costs"...

That sounds a little less than most government jobs cost. :evil: Bureaucrats can destroy anything, doing it at exorbitant rates.

 

[Vince]

Good news as far as I'm concerned.
I'm not one of those that looks forward to a wolf season as I don't think they should have been re-introduced. Having had relatives that have hunted them I have heard stories of their behavior and the economic threat they pose to citizens in the quest of a livlihood. Fifty or sixty years ago we wouldn't even be having this conversation. God how I hate how times have changed.
The only good wolf is a dead wolf.

 

[wildgene]

Averaged out to around $23K/ wolf, w/ approx. 85% of that amount being "administrative costs"...

That sounds a little less than most government jobs cost. :evil: Bureaucrats can destroy anything, doing it at exorbitant rates.

...yeah, & that doesn't account for the nearly $500K the fed has payed "non-profits" like "Biodiversity" & other fringe eco-terrorist groups to sue the fed over delisting, & they don't even have to prove their case. All they need is to find a sympathetic judge that will hear the case, & they win by "default" as long no ruling is handed down...

 

[DrMike]

I spent some time talking with a rancher yesterday. He wondered if I thought the wolf population was growing. It is growing. There is no longer a valley in this immediate area that does not have a large (LARGE) wolf population. The rancher went on to point out that the alpha wolves use domestic stock to train their pups how to run game. He spoke of his cattle being harassed by wolves, with nips and gashes on their flanks and heels. They are cunning, that's for certain. What I do know for a fact is that the ungulate populations are depressed noticeably; in some areas, the populations are virtually wiped out. However, the predator populations are growing significantly. Consequently, grizzly populations are also very strong in these same areas.

 

[257 Ackley]

Minnesota is having a lottery draw for 400 tags according to the DNR website. I sent in my $4.00 along with the application for a chance. We have a few on my hunting land that need to be removed. My son and I heard several last night while we were sitting around the campfire having a cold one. The season will run during the regular deer season, so there is a better chance a few will be removed as opposed to a seperate season.
The billboards the "anti's" have posted all over the state showing mangled and bloody wolves in traps is a good reminder that they will stop at nothing for their agenda.

 

[FOTIS]

Amen brothers!

 

[Oldtrader3]

Why doesn't the Federal Government just buy the wolves each a flock of sheep and they can become Basque Wolves? Each wolf family could have a herd of 500 lambs bought for each of them each spring for less than $23,000 and never would have to work as wolves again! They could be 4th generation Welfare Wolves! Maybe we could have coliseum games of hungry Wolves versus welfare gang-bangers with knives riding on horse drawn sleighs, being chased by hungry wolves? Better than a Super Bowl Game any day!

 

[BeeTee]

I had heard a while back that wolves are depressing the Grizzly population in Yellowstone - harassing the sows and killing cubs. I read a report a year or two ago that talked about a sow that was thin and her cub(s) were significantly underweight, and hung around the people areas in the park.

I've also heard about impacts to the local mountain lion population. Again, harassment (at kill sites) and lion cub predation. And, they tend to be more likely to hang out near people.

Saw a dead cow elk yesterday on the main 4-lane highway through the valley - hit by a car. First I've seen or heard about in 33 years. The F&G installed wildlife warning signs on this stretch a couple of years ago because a herd of elk had moved into the area (rural/suburban). They're all trying to get away from the wolves by staying near people.... I hope MT/ID follows WY with a shoot on sight order.

Talked to a highschool classmate of mine who lives in Dillon MT about a special elk hunt he particiapted in a couple of years ago. A herd of elk had moved onto undeveloped land right next to Dillon, and were creating a nuisance. They were there because of wolves. When carefully instructed (about shooting safety right next to a town) hunters were allowed to begin, the elk wouldn't leave... Hunters were the lesser of two perils... BT

 

[DrMike]

Elk do, indeed, move into urban areas to escape predators. While living in Jasper, the town is heavily populated with mule deer and elk. One of the primary motivations for this migration into the town site appears to be safety from predators. Left alone, the elk would have no doubt moved into Dillon itself, BeeTee.

 

[wildgene]

"

Mountain lions are taking a toll on Liz Bradley’s collared wolves in the Bitterroot this year.

Since January, two wolves radio-collared by the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wolf biologist have been killed by mountain lions.

Last week, she found the latest dead wolf in the Warm Springs area, west of Sula.

Like all the others she’s investigated since 2009, the wolf’s skull showed a severe puncture wound – a trademark of a lion kill.

In the Sula case, the lion ate a good portion of the wolf and then covered the carcass with debris.

“It’s hard to say what happened,” Bradley said. “There was no elk or deer carcass nearby that they may have been competing over.”

There was, however, a deer carcass near the dead wolf she found in the Carlton Creek area west of Lolo in January. In that case, the wolf wasn’t consumed, but it did have the same canine tooth puncture through the skull.

“That one was probably a conflict,” she said.

Last year, Bradley found two dead wolves that were probably killed by mountain lions. One was in Davis Creek, east of Lolo, and the other was south of Conner.

In both cases, the carcasses were too far decomposed for positive identification on the cause of death. Both had clear puncture wounds through the top of their skulls.

In 2009, the first apparent lion-killed wolf was discovered in the West Fork area.

The number of wolf and lion encounters is unusual.

“I haven’t heard of it happening anywhere else,” Bradley said. “It’s pretty interesting that the Bitterroot has had so many.”

Large predators sometimes do kill each other. There have been documented cases of that happening in many places around the West.

“They compete for the same resource,” she said. “When there is overlap in areas where you have lots of prey, conflicts occur.”

Four of the five wolves that Bradley knows were probably killed by mountain lions were fitted with a radio collar.

“It’s too bad because we don’t have those now,” she said.

At the end of last year, Bradley had collars in seven packs in the Bitterroot. She’s now down to four.

“Ideally, we would have at least half of the packs collared in the Bitterroot,” she said.

Bradley estimates there are 14 packs in the Bitterroot, which includes the area around Lolo all the way down the east and west forks of the Bitterroot River.

On average, pack sizes are smaller in the Bitterroot following last year’s hunting season. The largest pack now has nine wolves. Most have four to seven adults, with several including just a male and female.

Going into the pup season, Bradley estimated that there were between 60 and 70 adult wolves in the entire Bitterroot area.

“That’s a little bit lower than what we had in 2011,” she said. “We had about 80 last year. We had some mortality.”

Bradley won’t know this year’s numbers of pups until sometime later this summer.

She is asking the public for help in locating packs for collaring this spring, especially in the Darby and Sula areas, as well as the north Bitterroot Valley.

Sightings can be reported by going to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks website under the wolf section. For recent wolf sightings of multiple animals, Bradley asks that people call her cell phone at (406) 865-0017.

“I’m especially interesting in hearing about sightings in the Sula area right now,” she said.

If anyone stumbles across a dead wolf or mountain lion, she would be interested in hearing about that too.

Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-a ... z25XulAJze


...14 wolf packs??? The Bitterroot drainage ain't really all that big. Since I only had a couple of years of "Wildlife Management" as part of my Forestry degree, I'm certainly no expert, but mt. lions killing wolves would suggest very high competition & high populations of both straining the available prey...