About wolves

[John Scifres]

I've been debating wolves on the internet for years and the one thing I have learned is that you will not get informed by doing so.  Do the research yourself because the only thing wolf threads turn into is a bunch of people trying to outshout eachother.  That's why they get pulled.  They are usually pointless and almost always contentious.

[David Yukon]

I will talk regarding Canada, and up here there is no human being killed or harmed by wolves in a long time and there is a lot mere wolves up here than any where in the lower 48. I pass more than 40 days a year in the bush with wolves, black bears and grizzly bears and never had a miss adventure. they were here/there before us and deserve some respect just like any other wild life we have in our forests.
If we are contoling them, other than for live stock, it is just to give us hunters more game to hunt. And I think that that reason to control or exterminate a predator is not a good one!

Sorry if you don't agree with me, but that is my opinion on the subject.

P.s. maybe we should start shooting at each other since we are competition to each other when we hunt in the same area!!

[Bonebuster]

Question...In areas where wolves are hunted, are they becoming less and less afraid of contact with humans, as they are in places like Michigan and Wisconsin?

[maxwell]

Canada is vast in it's wilderness, a lot of the areas  talking about wolves just are not as big.  Plus the courts keep preventing the states from management. Awhile back I read where a Montana farmer said shoot ,shovel, and shutup.  AMEN to that.

[nutmeg]

I don't have a problem with wolves or bears, cougars etc. in the wild places we have left here in the lower 48. It keeps them wild. But, to prevent folks from defending their property or themselves is all kinds of wrong just as not letting the states manage them is. They must be managed. The damn courts keep interfering and it's just wrong. (nut)

[Bowshot]

Like Calgary Chef and David Yukon state, we have a lot of wolves up here. I have been able to shoot a couple with my bow while out hunting. That was before somebody told me it was difficult. I have called them in while elk hunting, walked into them while they are hunting, tried to ambush them etc. It adds a lot of excitement to your day when you run into them. I have not been stalked as a human as far as I know, when you call them in and they recognize that the menu selection isn't what it sounded like, they leave. The time it takes for them to realize that is pretty exciting to say the least. I have no fear of being eaten by a wolf. Cougar in the same circumstance is a different story.
We have a big problem here in Alberta that started with the National Parks and the RMEF relocating elk out of the park. It was a good plan and helped the populations outside the park. They forgot to take the wolves with them at the same time. Mr wolf had his cafeteria menu changed or closed. 12 identified wolf packs feeding on 2700+ park elk. The elk herd was reduced to about 500 head and has shrunk since due to predation. Those wolves are now outside the park looking for food and they are not sticking only to Alberta and British Columbia. The biologist's stated that the wolves used to be fairly localized but have now become really mobile moving into the 2 Provinces as well as Idaho, Montana and carrying on from there.
 Pretty interesting development that they never considered at the time. The elk herds near the parks that used to be good have shrunk. The habitat has shrunk some at the same time with the forest overtaking the grass slopes at a rate of approx 30% over the last 40 years. Lots of variables working together, with no easy answers.

Terry

[Bowshot]

Talking to the Predator Biologist with the Provincial Govt, controlling them is tough. We have 170,000 licensed hunters that can shoot them on sight for 10 months of the year and the wolf numbers don't get reduced. A few get shot is about all that happens. The wolf can reproduce at a pretty good rate, doubling in size in 6 months if the food is available so removing 1 or 2 doesn't touch them. Politically, the govt will not introduce a wolf cull, they know they will get unbelievable grief from the wolf lovers and the politicians will not do that.
If people are having problems and remove a wolf, the problem is obviously keeping quiet about it.
How else do they end up in front of the court?
Terry

[Gottabow]

Say what cha want good or bad but here in Wisconsin they have done a number on the Deer heard in the North and took our Elk heard to almost half of what it was last winter.  Compound that with a nasty winter and things get sparse.  I do think they should be managed like any other game animal.

[Cory Mattson]

Most hunters will never spend their own hunting time where wolves live and hunt. Wolves destroy game stocks then move on. If you are hunting and wolves show up your hunt is ruined. Sometimes I hear that "hearing" wolves adds to the hunt experience. NO it does NOT. I have seen enough of them to know I don't want them. A small benefit of wolves is that they do quickly kill coyotes - canines have no tolerance for other canines. There are plenty of wolves - too many most places they live - to introduce wolves anywhere is complete stupidity - and then to protect them to the point that wolves have more "rights" than people is even more stupidity.
Elk, Moose and Deer have a natural predator - Human Hunters!
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[Ray_G]

Amen, Cory!

[PaddyMac]

I don't mind the idea of wolves, but the reality of them is pretty hard to live with. But here's another reality: those arguing for eradication don't and won't have a seat at the table.

The masses (of asses) want wolves and they don't care one whit whether we have elk to hunt or not. But they do respond to the fact that it is insane to try to manage elk and orchards and deer and alfalfa and bears and salmon and timber and not manage wolves at all.

Wolves need to be managed in the same way elk are and one of the most cost effective components of that management is sport hunting against a population objective.

As sportsmen we should all at least agree on the fact that wolves need to be managed rather than not managed. Those are our two choices. We shouldn't fight amongst ourselves over an option that doesn't exist in reality.

[mountain trapper]

I just spent a week here in the Idaho back country around Elk City looking for bears, didn't see a one, granted its a late spring this year but most of the snow was off the ground at the lower elevations and the grass was green, no bears.  I talked to a couple of forest rangers and they said that they thought the wolves were killing the bears!  I do know that I only saw a couple of sets of elk tracks and both of them had wolf tracks to go with them.  Its driven a lot of the outfitters out of business.  I ran into a couple of turkey hunters on the same trip just west of Elk City and that morning they inadvertanly called in a wolf pack while turkey hunting and had quite a hairy few minutes!