The last 20 years have been bad. But there is a balance beginning to happen. Wolves were introduced into a buffet of elk here, where some of the best elk hunting in the world used to be. The wolf population swelled due to unlimited food source. It didn’t take long to eat 13,000 elk, only a few years really. When there was no food source left, the wolves starved and killed each other over territory. Today packs are smaller and more spread out here. I have not seen any wolf sign this hunting season when normally I would not be able to avoid it. There are more elk than I have seen in past years, and 6 bulls were killed in Taylor Fork opening week.
To be fair, this is what I'm seeing too. Very slowly happening though and the beginnings were devastating. Fish and Game does annual phone surveys and the past 8 years or so they always ask questions about seeing wolves while hunting. I haven't hunted up here for a few years due to a lack of game. Told the surveyor on the place I hunted I saw 85 mule deer in one afternoon. Same place following year I cut the tracks of 3 wolves, and saw exactly 3 deer...
Wish they had never been re-introduced...
and as someone else mentioned, lions take a real toll...
