It might be helpful to understand, that game herds and most wildlife species have increased in the Continental USA since the 1800's.
Wildlife benefited from the new conservation promoted by Teddy Roosevelt, modern day sportsman, and groups like the RMEF. Secondly, game laws and seasons are a fairly recent development. Finally, the wolves found in the west were smaller than the Canadian wolves that adopted northern Montana as a home, and then were reintroduced in other areas of Montana, WY, ID, WA, and OR.
Early settlers hunted year around and game numbers were far below present day levels. Wolves were held in check by the limited food supply and from being hunted. Over hunting was a problem as herds of buffalo, elk and deer were killed in large numbers.
Fast forward to today. The deer and Elk in these area, had never seen a Canadian wolf until the reintroduction, because the Timberwolf was killed off in the 40's, and the only predators they knew were mountain lions and bears. The deer and elk had an extremely difficult time learning to adapt to this new predator. The wolf was a different predator, it hunted in packs and could run down its prey.
Mountain lions and bears do not hunt in packs, and they do not pursue their prey until it drops from exhaustion. Canadian Wolves were larger, faster and skilled predators. They had little problem killing their prey.
Game animals in Canada, NW Territories, Yukon and Alaska have lived for centuries with wolves, they have learned to adapt, but control hunts are still needed to reduce the population of wolves, that lack natural enemies.
It has been documented that deer and elk under extreme pressure from the larger wolves moved into open terrain, towns and residential areas to escape the pressure from the wolves. It has also been reported that wolves have followed.
I would compare the current situation, to lessons learned, but forgotten. The story occurred a number of years ago; a Fish & Game Dept., in a state, decided to introduce muskie into a lake where there was a good population of large lake trout. The problem they thought was the trout were getting smaller and there were too many for the lake to support. They reasoned, the muskie would eat some lake trout and reduce the number of trout. The plant and insect life would flourish and the trout would get bigger. The F&G fellas had not planned for the growth and increase in population of muskie. The muskie was a different kind of predator.
Unfortunately, in a few short years they discover the trout are all gone. Oh well, the fisherman now have muskie. This is not meant to demean muskie, they are great fighting fish, I've been told.
Topic: Wolf reintroduction (Read 1488 times)
