wolves attacking elk in wintering grounds

Okhotnik

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This guy is all excited to see wolves attacking a wintering and stressed elk herd
 

GotDraw?

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Of course the wolves are attacking wintering elk... all the other valleys they used to live in and disperse into during the winter are full of houses now. And cattle have grazed much what's left in lower valleys into stubble on BLM and Forest Service leases, pretty disgraceful.

So this is the greatest fallacy of the "reintroduce the wolf" programs. Vocal folks that live in those valleys in houses that have wiped out former elk wintering grounds want wolves. The elk are pushed into ever more concentrated wintering areas and each year have fewer and fewer wintering options to disperse into, hide and still be able to eat/survive during the winter.

It's shooting fish in the barrel for wolves.

JL
 
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Feb 15, 2021
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Wolves have really hit the Elk hard where I’m from in Alberta. The majority of people think wolves are no different then their beloved golden doodle and should be treated as such.
 

J Curlee

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Sep 2, 2018
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northern Minnesota
Too many bunny huggers out west that think wolves are good.
The only thing they are good for is reducing your game populations, although they do look good hangin on a wall.
Just ask any of the guy's that hunt deer in northern Minnesota.
Jim
 

NoWiser

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Too many bunny huggers out west that think wolves are good.
The only thing they are good for is reducing your game populations, although they do look good hangin on a wall.
Just ask any of the guy's that hunt deer in northern Minnesota.
Jim
I hunt deer in northern Minnesota where wolf populations are extremely dense. I love wolves and hunting around them.
 

Ucsdryder

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It’s weird how the animal rights wackos like predators more than prey. They’ll take a dead elk all day long, but they’ll name wolves and try to humanize them.
 

NoWiser

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Of course if you want a really big rack you can increase your chances by going somewhere else. That could be said about almost anyplace in Minnesota. The experience that NE MN offers is much more rare and valuable, in my opinion. I can understand why many don't like wolves, but it should be known that not every hunter hates them and wants them dead. That all said, I have legally hunted wolves and shot one. They need to be managed by the states.
 

NoWiser

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and how many elk do you have?
;-)
Hardly any. The lawmakers passed a bill years ago that put our elk under the control of the Department of Agriculture instead of the Department of Natural Resources. This effectively killed any chance of restoring elk to areas of Minnesota where they do not already occur, and turned the few animals we do have into a nuisance population that is aggressively killed because state law says the population can not increase. There's a slight chance that we get the go-ahead to start restoration efforts in NE Minnesota where there is very little agriculture. Wolves are a miniscule threat to restoring elk in Minnesota compared to our politicians and the farm lobby.
 

87TT

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If you start trying to re introduce elk where there are a lot of wolves, you will fail. All that will happen is a supplemental feeding program for the wolves. Ask the woodland caribou in ID. Oh wait you can't because they are extinct now.
 
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woodland caribou where taken out by a couple of cougars before the wolf was reintroduced, but hey pesky facts get in the way of hate the wolf. Habitat change was the big one for the caribou, yes the wolf was the icing on the cake, but not the reason for the caribou decline. Flat out predation by cougar, forest fires, logging and highway deaths on canadian highway 3.

the caribou in north idaho have been a fasicnation of mine for decades.
 

87TT

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My point is, that when you start to re introduce things, they are very vulnerable and their numbers are low. Much like the woodland caribou. Throw in a bunch of hungry wolves with an at risk population like that and it is a recipe for failure.
 
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