I am a kill them all type of guy when it comes to wolves.
They breed like rabbits and kill anything with in reach. Ask the average Washinguon State deer, elk, moose hunter or the cattle farmers in the Eestern part of the state.
When it comes to wolves, NONE IS BETTER.
Of course the "average" deer hunter is going to want less competition, because they are only "average". Easier to get rid of the competition than it is to increase their hunters skills, even tho the latter is probably going to give them the better success percentage. There were only about 135,000 deer tags(including non-resident) sold in Washington state in 2018, while it had a overall population of 7.5 million. This tells me their voice is small compared to the overall population. Success rate was about 26%. Average. The philosophy of the WDFW is toward "the recovery of a self-sustaining wolf population." as per this......
https://wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/02062/2018 wolf annual report.pdf
I would love to see wolves back in the wild here in middle Tennessee. Predators make the environment and populations more robust. I'm OK with a little competition.
They would never be "back", because Grey/Timber wolves never were native there. That would be a introduction or a self introduction of a non-native species and probably would face resistance, unless Wild pig and deer populations got out of hand and needed to be managed. As we all know, the reason wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone is because of that reason. Since hunting is not allowed and game management is left to nature there, large predators needed to be brought back. It has worked and worked well. Elk populations are at levels they were before the introduction and at goals set by biologists. Bison populations are up. Wolf numbers have dropped as easy prey has disappeared, and not from hunting. Beaver populations have soared to previous numbers and fragile ecosystems have started to come back.
The evidence clearly shows that wolves, as participants in a suitable natural system, rarely if ever “destroy” the populations of deer, elk, moose, or other prey animals. Anecdotes of some type of event or another are merely, at best, small bits of data about a large and complex system. Systematized data collection, at an adequate scale, by objective observers, covering a wide range of carefully selected variables, is a scientific, not story-around-the-campfire, sort of approach. To pooh-pooh science because it doesn’t produce the conclusion you want is, well, it just ain’t smart.
Now let me be clear—I haven’t proposed turning wolves loose in Central Park, downtown Minneapolis, etc. Nor have I proposed a ban on wolf hunting. I’ve not offered an opinion about the de-listing of wolves from the ESA. Management of predator populations in the context of ranching and farming must be undertaken for the good of all concerned—rationally, responsibly, and with a view to the long-term health of ecosystems and the planet. But the notion that wolves are some sort of evil-incarnate creature is just plain silly.
A great synopsis, very well said. There's evidence backed up by data and then there's anecdotal/emotional evidence.
Funny how so many folks so dead set against wolves, don't have them near them, and don't ranch/farm, yet they are the experts. Folks from states without wolves and never will have wolves want to tell other states how to manage their wildlife. Funny how hunters think they are the only one's with rights when it comes to nature, even tho in most all of the lower 48 sates, they are the minority. Even when it comes to outdoor activities and money produced from it. Lots of folks out there that enjoy all of nature without a gun in their hand and enjoy nature as it is intended, not influenced to artificially inflate numbers, just so they can shoot them. Many areas in the country with wolves, wolves are making money for the locals, not be being killed, but by being there period. Folks get excited hearing them howl and even more excited if they see one. These folks are not stupid, nor are they just liberals. They are folks with interests and money to spend, just like hunters. They, like the wolves, are not going away.
As for the risks to deer/elk herds, domestic animals and humans(especially all those little kids gettin' ate). Most states with wolves have liberal reimbursement policies when it comes to wolves and depredation on domestic animals. Sometimes the risk to domestic animals pets can be eliminated just by owner's common sense and precautions. As for risk to humans in the U.S. the last documented wolf attack in the U.S. was a few miles from me. It was never proven, nor dis-proven as to whether it was a legitimate attack. Hunter shot a wolf and claimed he was attacked, altho he had no marks or injuries. Last child killed in the U.S. by a wild wolf, was an Inuit child bitten by a rabid wolf and they succumbed to rabies in 1943. Not eaten at all. As a matter of fact, I couldn't find any documented cases of folks being eaten in the U.S. in the last century or so. I did find a young girl was killed in the U.S. by a captive wolf, but that came because the wolf knocked her down. She was not eaten either. But, what I did find, was that the odds of being killed by a whitetail deer in the U.S. is 666 times more likely than being killed by a wild wolf. Maybe we need to kill off all those evil and wicked deer that those Disney folks want to protect so dearly. I wonder how folks will feel about wolves and their depredation on deer when CWD crosses over to humans from animals, like Covid-19 did. It's certainly possible it will. As for damage suffered by ranchers and farmers and the general public, I doubt the amount produced by wolves is even a minute fraction of that produced by deer and elk in this country. Yet it's the "Disney Image" that makes folks love them so..........
