I have lived most of my life in areas with wolves but it has only been in the last fifteen years or so that they have become responsible for all of the decline in ungulate populations. One area which had a lot of moose and a pretty good wolf population, saw a hefty decline in moose which coincided with a more liberal moose season and increased access; yet it was the wolves which were entirely responsible. Another area was, essentially, devoid of big game but I saw one wolf and tracks of one other. The one I saw was hunting mice. I wasn't sure if the lack of game was due to these two wolves or the fact that I was within snowmobile range of an Indian reserve. GD
That's a solid observation. When the snow hits above the chest line of most Cervids they tend to yard up. Survival becomes a game of calories burned until it melts. Predation also becomes much easier. Leonard Larue did some pretty cool data calculating on the inherent risk to calorie reserves and snow mobiles.
