This is where I'm a little lost on the wolf issue, though. This justification for hunting, in that it keeps deer etc. populations in check, is based on the fact that natural predators are lacking. Wolves' numbers are rebounding, which ought to restore that balance as nature intended. Yet, hunters are pushing to hunt wolves, citing reasons such as their killing livestock. (Surely there must be a way of protecting livestock from wolves? Guard donkeys?) Other than that, I simply don't understand why allowing a natural top predator to rebound is a bad thing. Wouldn't it eliminate the "need" for hunters to hunt so many deer, etc? If there truly is that legitimate concern for keeping natural populations in balance, then why not allow them to return to equilibrium?
couple facts on the wolf issue, before they "reintroduced" this larger northern Canadian wolf there were the prairie wolves here that were the natural part of the ecosystem.....anyone that spent any time in the back country new the wolves were there but they really never caused any issues.....the prairie wolves that were here also topped out at about 90 pounds.....they introduced a critter not native to the ecosystem, a wolf that on average is twice the size of the native prairie wolves.....
those reintroducing the wolves, introduced a wolf not native to the area, destroying the genetic pool that was here, and introduced an animal that is significantly larger in body size and runs in larger packs......be like me looking to reintroduce black bears to somewhere in the eastern US and deciding what the hell grizzlies are cooler lets turn them loose instead who cares that they were never there......
the recovery goal that was sold to us was 300 wolves for the region.....we now have 1700 of them which is 3 times what we were told 15 years ago the ecosystem could even handle.....they told us the wolves would eat an estimated 12 elk per wolf per year, they are eating closer to 22 as well as playing hell with livestock.....elk herds in the areas with wolves are crashing to the point they will not recover until wolves are drastically reduced in numbers.....the herds are loosing population three times as fast as can be replaced......
be like you working your rears off to save Sarrs in wetlands on your property, reintroducing the species that used to live there before being wiped out by over harvesting, getting them back up the healthy numbers with a population expanding to the point you can take a division now and then for yourself or to give to others and all the sudden a group steps in saying we dont care if its your land, we will control the numbers of Sarrs and then they decide what a healthy population is and take out 5 times the divisions you used to....
Montana is closing moose hunting districs and dropping the number of moose licenses at an alarming rate.....at this point it looks like i will never hunt moose in my home state though a short while ago their numbers were expanding nicely and they were getting back into habitat they had previously been absent from for the last 100 years.......
as to letting the wolves hunt and stop human hunting......human hunting of these animals is very controlled....its hunters that saved the elk and got it to expand into areas that they had been wiped out by hunters.....in 15 years the wolves are destroying what it took conservation minded hunters 60 years to achieve.....
large numbers of wolves have no place in the lower 48, their habitat is to fragmented, though Montana, Idaho and Wyoming have good sized tracks of wilderness area these areas are patchworked by humans......Alaska and Canada do not have such a problem which is why the wolf thrives up there even with unlimited hunting......there is no keeping wolf packs from livestock, guard donkeys and dogs work fine against 30 pound coyotes that work alone or in pairs, in the face of 5 adult wolves they become the main course.....