Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Wolves Slaughter 19 sheep in Oregon Bloodbath

A perfectly healthy pregnant cow elk, standing in two feet of snow during mid-March is suddenly old and weak to a pack of wolves. The young, old, and weak theory is bunk. In the right conditions even the healthy are easy prey and it does not matter one bit to the wolf.

You apparently have not understood what I said, since in your last sentence you agree with my statement, i.e., that the sick and the old are targeted because they are easier to kill, while the healthy are better able to escape or defend themselves.

the slowest is always gonna be the first ones caught

It's not a theory. It's just a fact. When a cow is giving birth, she's in a vulnerable (weakened) state. The cows, therefore, that are best able to give birth rapidly, and the calves that are best able to run with the herd quickly after being born, are the most likely to escape predation and pass that characteristic on to the next generation.

PS To a wild predator, all sheep are extremely weak, and thus very easy game.

I am thinkin a wolf wont run by an animal just to grab the next fastest... therefore the obviously eat the slowest one, THAT DAY.. just becasue he's the slowest member of the herd dont mean he is sick... kinda like gettin last place in the olympic's....

Yep.

I have a close friend who manages a 260 section ranch in Western NM, just south of Datil.

He has seen packs of the re-introduced Mexican Grey Wolf pass on sick elk and attack healthy animals. Even though the sick elk would have been easier to kill and eat.

They simply did not want to eat a sick elk. What else could be the conclusion?

Being slow, in nature, is being weak.

The healthy animals should act sick, then. Keep them safe from predation.

exactly!!..kinda!!...

The locals up in Northern Minnesota have their own way of dealing with wolf "problems." It's called, "Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up."

wolves doing what wolves do.


what a shocker.....YAWN


that sort of behavior by wolves has been fairly documented for at least about 100 years.


it's why folks decided to so strictly control their numbers.


those that fail to study history are doomed to repeat it.

I'd stand in the way of anyone wishing to wipe out the wolf, he's just too interesting of a creature to not have him around.


but when you let folks that run off emotion and growing up on Disney make decisions about things they haven't seen or don't understand, you often get a cluster*&^%

Gopher,
I have heard of that in Idaho, too.

Large predators, preying on large prey, will choose the easiest individuals to kill. Most often these are the weak, the old, the young, the sick, or those which are incapacitated or hindered on some way. They will not turn down a target of opportunity as it is possibly the easiest. Obviously, the wolves do not examine the herd and choose only those which are in the poorest health or determine their chronological age. These creatures simply, most often are the ones that present the best opportunity for the least expenditure of effort and energy and are the least likely to inflict an injury on the predator. They will scavenge before they take a live animal too (not always but most of the time).

I don't know why it is so unbelievable that a wolf would kill more animals than they require for a meal. I have no experience with wolves but I have some (too much) experience with their kissin cousins, coyotes. Anyone who has raised chickens in coyote country will tell you that they will certainly kill more than they can eat in a sitting. So will skunks and other varmints.

You can't take a generalized statement and deal with it specifically. Most of the time. Somebody wins the Lottery every day, it's just never me.

Alan

exactly..

Well, they could figure (assuming that wolves can figure) that the sick one is desert and the ones that are still running are the main course. They like to chase stuff and kill it, it's fun. That's why dogs chase cats and why wolves kill sheep.

Alan

For people that don't like to get their hands dirty, a hollow point or full metal jacket to the paunch works well too.

Amen and amen bro.

Wolves or coyotes or bears or bobcats and cougars are not furry people. They are wild animals and do what they do.

BCR

Probably the best description yet.

Alan

Yep - stupidity can be a scream at times... Sounds like our DNR too.. Dead cattle, dogs, humans, no biggie; gotta protect them WOLVES doncha know...

But, (sputter, sputter) those wolves are VICTIMS!!!!!