Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 'surplus kill' of elk by wolves

Haven't seen much coverage of this yet -


A pack of wolves killed 19 elk in western Wyoming, according to state wildlife officials describing the slaughter as an extremely rare “surplus kill.”

John Lund of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department said it is not unusual for wolves to kill one or two elk a night in that part of the state but to have 19 killed in one night is rare.

“It’s rare at this magnitude,” Lund told FoxNews.com. “We’ve documented it before but have not documented it to that extreme.”

A surplus killing is when an animal kills more of its prey than it can eat and abandons what's left, KGW-TV reported.


More here -

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/03/25/wolf-pack-kills-19-wyoming-elk-in-one-night.html

The sooner we elevate wolves to the level of terrorists, we can then deal with the problem.

I've talked to the local Wolf Specialist a fair bit about this phenomenon in the past. While unusual, it's not unknown. He speculated it's often done by juvenile males that get into a sort of blood-lust and start dropping animals. Think teenage boys with teenage brains.

Wolves aren't terrorists, they're magnificent animals doing what they were made to do. My only issue with wolves is we should have had a season on them roughly 8 or 10 years before we did... but that's the political aspect of the whole wolf issue, which has nothing to do with actual wolves, but with agenda-driven humans.

I was just to the north of where the killing of the elk happened last week, and on the same day snapped this shot of a female that had apparently just come off a kill... note the blood around her muzzle:

It's already been done. We give them asylum, free medical care, welfare, and ignore their transgressions.

I agree with most/all of these posts. While an incident of this magnitude may be rare,the wanton killing for sport by wolves is well documented. I'd much rather see lions and bears in our forests. Wolves breed like rodents and kill for sport. Lions and bears reproduce at a much lower rate, meaning easier control. Also,lions and bears generally use their kills until mostly consumed! memtb

Incidents of this magnitude may be rare, or not. I remember more than a couple incidents like this around Pinedale, thinking 2007 or 2008. It was in the newspapers, and alot of first hand witnesses. Blood lust in wolves was described back then. We don't know how often this happens, as the National Forest is vast and hard to traverse when there's snow. And the pine forests obscure viewing from aircraft, until spring, and bone remmnants are found. Collared elk that are killed, give a clue. But how many collared elk in the different herds killed en mass? Probably not many. I think blood lust kills are more common than F&G lets on. Easier to write off en mass deaths as winter kill, not wolves. I wish I could trust F&G, but I don't.

Think of all the money spent to create habitat, and preserve populations of ungulates, wild sheep and goats, just pissed away because of wolves. The price of resident hunting licenses keeps going up, ultimately to feed wolves.
I have a new concern for Bighorn sheep, as spring arrives, and pregnant ewes get ready to drop newborns. As the elk and deer populations numbers decrease, and wolf populations increase, expect to see other animals more heavily targeted by wolves. Cattle and sheep ranchers are gonna have big headaches.

If you look at the F&G Hunter Harvest surveys, There's no one area that gets more than 30% success of the registered hunters. Hunters are not decimating elk. Wolves are.

Thanks Smokepole.
There are a few good informative posts on that thread (mixed in with all of the ones that are namecalling, jumping to conclusions, or purely emotional)
Seems to stay a little more on-topic over here.

I suspect that most of us here experienced or heard of a dog getting into a poultry pen and leaving the ground littered with dead fowl.
It's different for sure, but maybe not so different as to not have the same motivation driving the behavior - whatever that actually is.

Wyoming hasn't had a license fee increase of any type in eight (8) years!

Brad,



I agree with this statement and would expand on it. The season should be all year long and twenty-four hours per day using with spotlights allowed.

Hmmm, sorry, I misspoke. Must be that I'm getting older and the money for it has been harder to come by. I don't qualify for a Pioneer license.

Haven't seen any name calling. But if a little jumping to conclusions or emotion, as you call it, bothers you, I suggest you go over to the "more informative" thread. Be less stressful for you. Probably best to stay out of the feed stores and ranchers Supply Stores too, since offensive language may be heard there as well.
Anecdotals and emotion are inevitable when topic is wolves.

3 years ago I was in the Teton Forest and my friend and I ran into a lone Fish and Game guy with a backpack. I don't know if he was federal or state. He told us he was stationed out of Cody and it was his job to go into the forest and "count the wolf population" He said that the numbers he had were MUCH higher than what the government was reporting and told us not to believe the government numbers that they like to post about the "wolf population". I suspect that he was of the opinion that they are eating everything.

http://beefmagazine.com/cowcalfweekly/0910-western-ranchers-fight-wolves

Evidence that wolves also kill multiple animals when they are teaching their young to hunt.

What offensive language?
Wyogal, you've made the stupidest post here in quite some time.
If you haven't seen the namecalling on the linked thread you may want to find someone to read it to you. Perhaps they could help you with some reading comprehension also - like understanding which thread I was referencing.
I don't need to tell you where you can shove your concerns about my stress or where I buy my feed.

I thought you didn't want emotion in this thread....

It's like salt. It needs something of substance under it.

LOL, nicely said.

Canadian grey wolves are indeed magnificent animals, where they came from....in Canada. They don't belong in Wyoming. Our Elk Deer and Moose populations are being decimated by them. Kill them all IMO.