Quote:Yellowhammer, with all due respect, you need to check your facts. Not all species you mention (pronghorn?) are in "decline or in trouble". But since you mention it, let's look at one, elephants, and how they might relate to our wolf issue.
If you consider them as a species on a planetary scale, then yes their numbers are declining. But with that said, there are areas in Africa that are over-run with them, and without taking measures to control their populations in those areas they will only destroy their habitat, thus decimating their own food source which would ultimately lead to their own demise. So man hunts them, and pays dearly to do so. Much of the revenue gained this way goes back into game programs which benefit and protect the elephant. Where an animal is hunted, it has value which generates dollars which help its survival.
Much like the wolves in the Western US. What happens when their population goes unchecked? We are seeing the results now. Decimated elk and deer herds, increased livestock loss, etc. What happens when hunters quit spending to hunt these non-existent ungulates? Where there is no hunter value there are no dollars to go towards the welfare of these animals. I suppose when the elk and deer are gone, the wolves will prey strictly on livestock, and then we as taxpayers will foot the bill to the ranchers for their losses?
Further, many non-hunted species, some of which you mention, only exist today as a result of dollars generated by sportsmen. If it were left up to the types that push their fantasy agendas off on the general populace to provide dollars for these animals, they would likely be extinct today.
I never said that wolves don't have a place in the world, only that the places they have been re-introduced to in the US and the way it has been done appear to me to be suspect. Are you disagreeing with this?
I have been on a family vacation to Toas New Mexico since the 16th, so pardon my not replying to questions posed to me sooner.
There have been several large posts made in my absence, so I may not address them all in this post since I was quickly reading thru them.
First, I agree with most of the above quoatation. As to the pronghorns, they are in decline in Texas while they may not be in other states. The Texas decline which is currently being studied is thought to be in large part to an abdominal parasite which not only kills the adults, but causes anemic does to lose fawns. Additional fawn mortality by coyotes adds to the problem.
Now about the wolf. I do believe that the wolves need to be managed, just as I believe that they should exist and have a place in many areas where they no longer do.
While they are in no current danger of going extint, they have been extirpated in many states. Interestingly, while I was in New Mexico this week I went on a snowmobile ride in the Toas ski valley. On the morning ride, I saw where something had crossed the trail and left droppings. We didn't stop, but after we reached the top, I asked the guide if he thought that was elk or mule deer, and commented that they looked too small for elk. He said, "lets stop and look on the way back". We also wanted to let my 14 year old see if he could figure it out by looking at the tracks (which we could really tell anything about on the first pass on a moving snowmobile.) We went back and after getting off for a look I realized it wasn't either elk or mule deer. It was in fact Rocky Mountain bighorn. I told the guide, "I didn't realize there were any bighorn in this area." He said, "they reintroduced them 18 years ago."
My point? There have been a lot of species that have been extirpated from historical range, and are now enjoyed and hunted in many states.
Some of these species are turkey, bighorn, pronghorn, elk, black bear and many others.
We all are aware of the problems that come when species are not managed either by hunting or other methods. These can be seen in areas where mountain lions seasons have been closed, and in Yellowstone where elk populations got so large that they had to be feed by well meaning people to keep them from starving in the winter months.
Of course the wolf has to be managed. The problem is as with most things the goverment gets involved in, it gets messy.
I did see on the front page of the newspaper this week that the Minn/Wisc/Michigan wolves are now losing many of the protections that they have had, so they will be able to be managed by those states as they should be.
As mentioned above, in Africa many species where in trouble until the residents realized that sportsman would pay big money to shoot elephants and lions. Now the elephants and lions are more valuable to the locals than the cattle and crops they were trying to protect from the elephants and lions.
It is possible that what saved them will also work to the wolves advantage.
