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Why Anti-Hunters Are Dead Wrong About Wolves

Why Anti-Hunters Are Dead Wrong About Wolves

Why Anti-Hunters Are Dead Wrong About WolvesThings were pretty good the first year Drew Johnson and a group of friends hunted elk in Montana's Gallatin National Forest. He arrowed a 4x5 bull near the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park in 2000, but things went down hill the next season.

"Every time we tried cow calling or bugling, we called in wolves. We saw quite a few elk carcasses, and we heard wolves howling around us every night," recalls Johnson, a Farmville, Virginia, dentist. "We never saw an elk."

He and his friends moved to a different part of Montana and had a few good years before the wolves eventually caught up to them again. The elk disappeared, so last fall Johnson and his friends booked a hunt with a New Mexico outfitter, a move they plan to make permanent.

"I'm not going back to Montana," he says.

Johnson isn't alone. Hunters are abandoning some parts of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, turning their attention instead to wolf-free states. The number of non-resident elk hunters traveling to Idaho was down 23 percent in 2011, and for the first time in 30 years, Montana did not sell all of its non-resident elk licenses during the general drawing in 2012.

No wonder. As wolf populations have increased, big-game numbers spiraled downward. There is no better example than the elk herd north of the Yellowstone border, the same region Johnson used to hunt. Land that once had 19,000 animals in 1995 now holds less than 4,000.

Elk numbers in other wolf territories are experiencing similar declines, despite assurances from some pro-wolf groups that the predators would only prey on the sick and weak. Turns out, they are taking a huge toll on elk calves, too. Cow-to-calf ratios in some parts of Montana have fallen to as low as 11 calves per 100 cows, a number too low to maintain current populations. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks cut the number of elk licenses in some units as a result.

Despite populations six times above the minimum recovery goal of 300 wolves and despite their devastating impact on wildlife and hunting, some anti-hunting organizations still aren't satisfied. An attorney representing Earthjustice recently requested the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) allow the region's wolf population to grow as high as 5,000 animals. A single wolf can kill up to 35 elk per year.

The Service balked, but even after several hunting seasons with increasing quotas and bag limits, the northern Rocky Mountain wolf population has declined only slightly from a record 1,800 animals.

Wolf populations are booming in the Great Lakes, too. They were removed from the Endangered Species List in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in 2011, and all three states have held at least one hunt since then. An estimated 3,700 wolves live in the northern Great Lakes region.

That's not good enough, either. The Humane Society of the United States is suing the USFWS over the Great Lakes region delisting. Defenders of Wildlife declared a "national wolf emergency," calling the current USFWS proposal to delist wolves nationwide a "disaster."

Defenders continue to refer to the managed wolf hunts as "slaughters," and the Sierra Club also urged its members to "help stop the wolf slaughter" on a Web page that conveniently solicits donations.

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The "slaughter" both anti-hunting groups are referring to involves carefully managed, highly regulated, closely monitored hunts, such as the one in Wisconsin.

The 2013 season was closed when hunters and trappers reached the established quota of 251 in just a few weeks.

"Our state management plan calls for a minimum population of 350 animals. The population is somewhere between 809 and 839," says Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources large carnivore specialist Dave MacFarland.

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service set a minimum threshold of 100 wolves between Michigan and Wisconsin. There is no risk we would ever drop below that number and a very low risk we would fall below our state management objective."

He adds that the DNR sold just 2,510 wolf tags, and all successful hunters are required to report their kill within 24 hours.

"We close each unit once the quota is met for that unit," he says. "We have more information on wolves than any other animal in the state."

So does Minnesota, which has an estimated 2,200 wolves. The hunter success rate last year was just seven percent. Nearly 20,500 Montana hunters and trappers, including 247 non-residents, bought wolf tags in 2012. They killed 225 wolves, the quota set by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Wolf populations have declined slightly.

That may be good news for Western big-game hunters, but populations continue to rise in Oregon and Washington, which do not have a regulated hunting season — at least not yet. Neither state had a confirmed resident wolf as recently as 2008.

Now they have 89 wolves between them, a number that is certain to rise, even if the proposed nationwide de-listing allows both states to adopt a managed wolf hunt.

Despite continued fear-mongering from anti-hunting groups, carefully controlled hunts are gradually becoming ingrained in state wildlife management agency programs. The general public is also comfortable with regulated wolf hunts.

A Wisconsin survey found that more residents supported the state's hunt than opposed it, with a large majority of those living in wolf country supporting it. Two-thirds of Michigan residents support wolf hunting.

Even with growing public support, or more likely, a growing indifference, anti-hunters continue their campaign against state management of wolves. Keep Michigan Wolves Protected has gathered enough signatures to place the issue on the state ballot. More troubling, Earth First!, a militant environmental group, recently distributed a booklet describing methods of sabotaging wolf hunts and trapping efforts.

"We're completely against the harming of living things," said Earth First! spokesman Grayson Flory in an interview with the Missoulian.

Apparently, no one told him about the impact of wolves on elk or elk hunters like Johnson.

Why We Should Kill Wolves

As Bob Robb wrote back in November 2011, there are a lot of good reasons hunters ought to kill wolves. Despite the fact they're magnificent animals, they're still vicious predators that must be carefully managed.

Therein lies the problem. When wolves are left unchecked, they can, and do, decimate ungulate populations to the point where few animals are left. All those folks who say they only kill the sick and weak have never watched a pack of wolves eat a healthy, mature bull caribou alive as I have. They have never seen the trail of death a pack of wolves leaves behind as it kills to teach its pups how to hunt, or just for fun, eating little of the animals whose lives they have just ended.

"I've seen where wolves have killed Dall sheep rams at the top of the mountain in the deep snow of spring, watched them chase mountain goats along the tree line of a Southeast Alaska forest in August, and shred a cow elk in the Yellowstone basin," Robb said. Read the full story at Petersen's Hunting.

Wolf Hunting Debate in Minnesota

As Minnesota prepared for opening day of wolf season in November 2012, the controversy surrounding the once-endangered species erupted.

In 2012, the Minnesota Supreme Court rejected an effort by the Center for Biological Diversity and Howling for Wolves to stop the hunt from taking place. Despite their claims that Department of Natural Resources officials didn't adequately consider public opinion in the matter, Chief Justice Lorie Gildea thought otherwise. Read the full story at Petersen's Hunting.

Minnesota Wolf Hunter Gets Death Threats

With a highly disputed wolf season underway in Wisconsin in 2012, the tension between hunters and their opposition is clearly on the rise.

Dennis Nitz, a Wisconsin native and one of five people to kill a wolf in 2012 during the state's first annual season, said he received death threats within minutes of posting his photos of the wolf to Facebook. Nitz was one of over 1,000 people to receive a permit, while over 20,000 people applied for the right to hunt wolves this year. Read the full story at Petersen's Hunting.

Wisconsin Hunting Dog Killed by Wolves

For a lot of folks on both sides of the wolf debate, it's something they deal with from a safe distance. But for hunters like Ron Hill, it's a war being waged in his own backyard.

In October 2012, Hill and his hunting group were tracking a bear in Wisconsin — in an area familiar to them — with the use of their hound dogs, when one of the dogs got separated from the group and was brutally killed by a pack of wolves. The dog was a 1 1/2 year old female Treeing Walker and was killed in Douglas County. Read the full story at Petersen's Hunting.

Idaho Man Takes on Pack of Wolves

Apparently nobody told Rick Pearce that Liam Neeson already laid claim to the title as bloody knuckled wolf brawler in his movie The Grey.

It seems that Pearce, from Idaho, just doesn't care. On an archery elk hunt this past weekend near Clayton, Idaho, Pearce spent almost an hour calling in elk, only to find himself surrounded by a pack of wolves. As at least five wolves circled him, one made it within 40 yards. That's when Pearce decided to turn the tables on the pack. Read the full story at Petersen's Hunting.

Canus Lupus Dingo: The Australian Wolf

Interestingly enough, the dingo is actually classified as Canus lupus dingo — a subspecies of the gray wolf — so it makes sense that the situation in Australia has many similarities to the one in the U.S.

If anything, the alarming dingo problem is a foreshadow of things to come in the U.S. if wolf and coyote numbers aren't effectively managed. As is the case stateside, Australian animal rights activists paint the dingo in an almost exclusively rosy light, even blaming the death of children in dingo attacks on the parents' lack of situational awareness. Read the full story at Petersen's Hunting.

Teen Attacked by Wolf in Minnesota

It's often said by anti-hunters that wolves don't pose a threat to humans. The only problem with that theory, it seems, is that it stands contrary to the facts.

Noah Graham, 16, found that out personally when a wolf attacked him in Minnesota while he was camping with his girlfriend. Real the full story at Petersen's Hunting.

176 Sheep Killed by Wolves in Idaho

Think reintroduced wolves aren't causing a big problem for ranchers and farmers? Think again.

Siddoway Ranch in southeastern Idaho was shocked in August 2013 after 176 sheep were killed by two wolves, according to KTVB in Boise, Idaho. Check out the full story at Petersen's Hunting.




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