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

Me scratchee head too!

Of course, our grandads weren't too keen aobut restoring those grass eating deer and elk that compete with livestock graze either...............




Casey

Wolves kill what's available--and when it's older, sicker, dumber, or slower......it's more available than the others.

Most large predators, but especially wolves, can sense/see/understand what prey may be weaker than others, even when it's not so obvious to us.




Casey

True enough!That's why the ranchers put up a stone wall every time that elk reintroduction is proposed for BCs Cariboo district.The elk eat a lot of the grasses that their cattle graze for free on Crown land.They'd be better off though,maybe the evergrowing wolf polulation would eat the elk,instead of their range cattle! Monashee

Sooooo, if the North American elk became extinct because of wolves, where did we git the new elk? Russia?--can't be, they got wolves too. Mongolia?--nope, wolves there too. Canada!!!--oh wait....last I heard, our wolves are some strange Canadian breed of canine........



Casey

Most of these debates about how wolves select their prey seem to concentrate on elk and caribou - herd animals.
I've never seen a pack of wolves look at a moose and decide that moose was too healthy, they need to go find another one.

As a kid growing up in the 60's and 70's, and even till the mid 80's, ranchers screamed bloody murder about deer and elk eating all the forage.


Then prices of agriculture commodities dropped big, and many of these same ranchers saw their way through lean times by leasing out hunting as outfitting for elk really took off.

Some years, elk made more money for the rancher than cows or sheep.

It will take a generation or so, but I wouldn't be surprised if outfitted wolf hunting won't become a way to make a bit of money on the side for ranchers in the Northern Rockies........



Casey

Major problem in your logic casey is those folks hunt wolves and manage them we're not allowed to.

When I was working on a cougar study on the Western Slope, a cougar killed 21 sheep in one night near Rifle, Colorado......in the case of cougars, most likely it was a female, with juvenile/sub-adult cubs. The younger cougars are often big enough to kill fairly easy prey like sheep, and don't know when to stop, it seems it's like a game to them......

The study unit we were on had 350,000 hed of sheep grazing on it all or part of the year. Cougars killed on average 45 head of sheep each year. But sheep were like Lay's Potato Chips--cougars couldn't kill just one.

Most of the 45 head of domestic sheep killed each year came in bunches--3, 4, or 10 head in one attack.

So all it took was say, less than a dozen cougar attacks each year to account for 45 head of sheep killed each year in the study unit. That's out of 350,000 head of sheep, and 100-150 adult cougars in the unit.

That's roughly one cougar killed sheep out of every 1000 head of sheep--heck more sheep than that fell in ditches and broke their neck each year........

But the local newpapers would feature front page stories every time there were mulitple sheep killed. And it would give the impression sheep were dying like flies across Western Colorado..........

Same with bears. And it will be the same with wolves.

Those ranchers who take care of their livestock tend to have very few losses from predators. Those who don't get out of their pickups very often though..........



Casey

Or Dick Cheney with a shotgun......did anybody check for empty quail load hulls?.........



Casey

No problem with my logic. We need to hunt and manage wolves here too......and the quicker we start managing them like a another game animal the better.....


But I don't see your connection between my response and the poster's statement.




Casey

Coyotes keep the kitty cat and poodle populations under control.......



Casey

Not directed to you, Casey, necessarily, but

Why does it matter if a predator kills for sport (blood lust)? It's a wild animal doing what wild animals sometimes do.

BTW the reason wolves didn't wipe out every animal is that the limiting factor on wolves is other wolves - in primeval settings without human impact, anyway.

Nah--it's the sheep loving media!!!.....

Oh wait--the media loves wolves too.

So... the wolves love to eat sheep, the media loves sheep and wolves, and so then we would have a.....oh, never mind...



Casey

Maybe.

But whether you like it or not, predators are going to take the easy prey.....



Casey

See?!--the smart ones get away!!!

You're way ahead of me Hawk--wish Id've thought of that!!!!



Casey

...if opportunity defines easy.

Predators rarely kill more than they can eat--usually they do't kill enough to eat--or barely enough.

Which is why it's notable when predators kill more than they can obviously eat--it's an exception--and it will make the headlines.


Man bites dog kinda' thing......



Casey

It means they ain't good enough to survive.

Survival of the fittest works both ways, you know.....




Casey

Happy to take the heat off of ya', W4B.

So this means you owe me, right?,,,,,,



Casey