Depradation

Depradation

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Elk hunters, who's taking your elk?

What with Wyoming opening up to the concept of managing there wolf population more aggressively, I had a chat with 2 hunters that I admire very much. 1st, regular contributor Randy King and secondly, primitive archer and hunter, Ted Fry. Listen in: "Not only are wolves involved but you just gave a counterargument that bears are contributing to the decimation of the elk population.( Randy) I asked the question from fish and game about what has happened and they said bears have always been a pressure on elk and wolves are an additional pressure. An additional pressure to an unexpected extent. Bears have always taken calves, and a wolf would take a calf when it smelled it as well. It's an additional pressure that is on them and they are trying to alleviate it in some areas and affect mortality through bear control. (Ted) The wolf thing is not just a joke, it really has changed things. You think when they introduced the wolf, 1996, generations and generations of deer and elk had no main preditor like that. They had mountain lions, bears, but bears predate on the fawns and calves and the mountain lions would definitely more random. Wolves are a large predator that hunts in a pack and we had generations of elk that didn't know what those were so what a great time to be a wolf. They don't just kill the sick and the wounded, they don't eat everything they kill, and sometimes they just kill.

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