Episodes

My comment was based on all of the information I’ve learned thus far in my research and is in reply to all of the comments stating that wolves either “kill all of our elk/deer” or “they kill all the livestock”.

Wolves only killed about 0.01% of cattle available and 0.03% of sheep in 1986 when the wolf population was at about 1300-1400 in Minnesota (way more than the amount of wolves in Idaho at present which is at around 570). Also, in Idaho we have The Wolf Depredation Compensation Program (Idaho Wolf Depredation Compensation Program – 2011
http://species.idaho.gov/pdf/2011_Idaho_Wolf_Depredation_Compensation_Program.pdf). I understand that losing livestock costs you money, but you also have to understand the wolves that eat livestock are generally one or two individuals who are outcasts of a pack, fending for themselves which is not something they’re used to. Of course, there are exceptions to this like anything else. But condemning an entire group of animals based on political or personal opinion (which is quite obviously the way they do things in Idaho) is ridiculous and uncalled for. Also, I have no sympathy for hunters who hunt for sport and are angry with wolves because they’re “taking all our elk”. That is false; first of all, the biggest dent in elk and deer populations is from humans and it doesn’t make sense that wolves would eat all of the deer or elk because they need them to survive themselves– unlike us who have places like Wal-Mart and CostCo to shop for food (again, there are exceptions to that– there are people who hunt for sustenance). It is human interference in this relationship that causes the crashes of prey populations.
So give them a break, they’re trying to survive in areas where they’re habitat is being taken over by humans and they also have to compete with humans who have increasingly more powerful ways of killing their prey.