Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Yellowstone Elk Numbers Suffer 20% Population Drop to 4,635 Head

Wow, I thought we were told the population was stable?
http://billingsgazette.com/news/sta...978f543-8d30-5d22-9dcc-1fd389e99212.html

The Madison Valley kill was far too large according to FWP... yet the ranchers have pressed the late season predation hunt which will happen.

Is it because all the winter range is limited small tracts of private land?


ddj

Nope... land in the Madison Valley is essentially as it was ten years ago when the herd was far larger.

Thanks.

Which is why we dont want or need wolves in the Bighorns. We are getting them anyway. Anyone listening?

LP; shoot, shovel and SHUT-UP! Don't even 'brag' (or inform) to your closest most trusted buddy! (Just keep thinking S-cubed! - 'S' to the third power IOW).

Like the Algore-types are having gore-basms about cramming ethanol into our fuel tanks (driving up the cost of corn, and then food in general - not to mention wearing-out our vehicles (engines) faster than designed), the anti-hunting types have severely damaged BG hunting in one of the most rugged wilderness areas of the West, but they haven't lost sight of other states and regions too (sorry to "preach"). Fight 'em wherever "WE" can!

Most definitely the plan Mr. Duck.

We do not plan to let a failed federal wildlife management project foul up the great deer and elk hunting right in our own back yards. Whatever can be done WILL be done to deal with the problem at hand. We may fail, but not from lack of trying.

The most difficult but most effective angle of approach to the entire deer/elk/wolf issue is through the American Bison. Eliminate cattle ranching, return the bison population into the hndreds of thousands (or millions if successful) and watch these problems go away.

Now, it would develop a whole new level of issues with farming, ranching and water rights, but heck, we would have our wildlife back.

Ok, crazy alert on!

Eliminate ranching?

Hmmm.. So how are you going to do that?

Easy, everybody just moves out of Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming and South Dakota!

It's really quite a simple plan.....(grin)

Ted Turner wouldn't have to move, would he?

StubbleDuck has it nailed......I have hunted out west for a number of years, not as many as some, more than others. Everywhere I went the "three S" creed was alive and well!

So eliminate hunting. How to do that? Increase predation by increasing the numbers of and variety of predators. Stop or slow the hunting of bears and cougars as with the elimination of dogs and bait or stop the hunts out right. And the wolf first take an animal that is disliked because it is a blood thirsty killer and convince the public that it is a lovable cute and cuddly pet. At that point you could turn them loose in almost anywhere.

Thirty years ago one would have been laughed at for that statement. Now? Ranchers beware!



8mmwapiti

I think that it is a good thing that the elk numbers are down in YNP. Maybe all the wacko hippies will realize that the wolves really are a problem that needs to be dealt with. Nobody seems to care when the elk are killed by wolves outside the park.

LP; shoot, shovel and SHUT-UP! Don't even 'brag' (or inform) to your closest most trusted buddy! (Just keep thinking S-cubed! - 'S' to the third power IOW).



As long as the wolf is listed as endangered under the "Endangered Spices Act" the three s solution carries some penalties that you might want to think about before you end up with plenty of time to think about it. It's not just a wildlife/game law violation.


8mmwapiti

The Buffalo Commons west of the Missouri was actually, at least partly, his idea.

MtHtr: I wish the "Yellowstone Elk herd" had only "suffered a 20% population drop"!
That Yellowstone Elk herd was over 20,000 animals the year they introduced the transplanted Canadian Wolves (1995)!
Its been downhill for the Elk, Moose and Deer every year since then in that area!
The herd is so ravaged by Wolves that it can NO longer sustain itself!
Not enough calves/young surviving to maintain LET ALONE replenish itself!
"We" were told/promised a lot of things MtHtr, if you will recall - including that the states would be allowed to regulate the Wolf population once AT and then to maintain it at 325 Wolves!
We now have over 2,000 Wolves and still no effective state regulation!
And this new tidbit - Wolves near Great Falls killed 27 domestic sheep in one onslaught just a couple days ago - way more Sheep than they could ever have consumed!
Makes you wonder what they do to the remote Bighorn and Elk herds doesn't it?
And this happened in an area where Wolves had not been seen in about a century!
They ARE spreading.
Yeah, I wish that northern Yellowstone Elk herd had only suffered a 20% population drop as a result of the Canadian Wolf transplantation to Wyoming, Montana and Idaho - instead that herd has been absolutely decimated!!!
From over 20,000 Elk in 1995 and then down to 4,635 Elk in 2,010 is NOT a 20% "reduction" - its a "slaughter" and a tragic waste.
Colorado - unfortunately, YOU ARE NEXT!
Thanks for nothing rmWf!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I didn't say "get caught!" LOL

On the other hand, my relatives who lived in Wyoming (including my pops) knew two or three fellows who worked many years as gubmnt hunters, however long ago that was. I suppose their methods and tactics could be studied, and where necessary used - strictly to control coyotes of course.

A huge problem about "wolf-supporters" is that many of them condone abortion because (partly) they believe humans are a "parasite" on the planet! I don't subscribe to such foolishness and "blasphemy." Many westerners, hunters, landowners and decendants from pioneers believe human beings are superior to any frikkin animal, and will act accordingly! Esp when protecting their livelihoods, or Fido or their small children playing in the front yards or acreage of the family homestead. This last part might not seem coherent to some, but the wolf- reintro isn't simply about putting a few wuffs "back." Entire towns, industries and economies, and FAMILIES have suffered INCREDIBLY because of the bullchitt with the wolf. Some westerners have been forced to act out of self-defense and self-preservation, not just because dumbazz eastern "intellectual-psychoFants" or greenie-wackoes think westerners are "evening politiking" or pontificating about the latest [casual] issue!