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Author Topic: Wielgus says his university and lawmakers silenced and punished him  (Read 5827 times)

Offline ribka

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Re: Wielgus says his university and lawmakers silenced and punished him
« Reply #15 on: December 25, 2017, 09:32:34 AM »
Additional perspective on this from NW Sportsman: http://nwsportsmanmag.com/wolf-news/quiet-continues-with-smackout-pack-2016-profanity-removals-subject-of-story/

And once again conservation NW, your employer, should NOT be trusted.

And remember conservation NW, you and Friedman a self proclaimed eco terrorist, all an enemy of sportsmen, helped shut down wolf and cougar seasons.

if you disagree please come back on here and refute my claim :rolleyes:

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/us/washington-state-study-faults-efforts-at-wolf-management.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=7950A174483E9882A26F077A52A3796D&gwt=pay

Offline KFhunter

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Re: Wielgus says his university and lawmakers silenced and punished him
« Reply #16 on: December 25, 2017, 09:53:40 AM »
YOU CAN THANK WIELGUS FOR OUR RIDICULOUS COUGAR QUOTAS TOO!

What ever do you mean?

This biased farce of a "study" has led to our current cougar plan, and was under the direct supervision of a proven liar who should have been fired.  Anything Weilgus has touched needs to be torched because it does not pass any scientific scrutiny.

https://news.wsu.edu/2012/09/25/wsu-research-results-in-new-management-plan/

Quote
WSU research results in new management plan

PULLMAN, Wash. – Overharvest of cougars can increase negative encounters between the predator and humans, livestock and game, according to a 13-year Washington State University research project. Based on this, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is implementing a new cougar management plan.
 
Starting in January, Washington will employ equilibrium management – hunters will remove no more than the surplus of animals that would be generated through natural reproduction.
 
This means that each of the state’s game management units will have a quota allowing for harvest of no more than 14 percent of that area’s cougars. Once the limit is filled, cougar hunting will be suspended for the year in that unit. Hunters will be allowed to take their tags to other units that haven’t reached the limit.
 
Teens mentally ‘not all there’
 
For years, cougar management operated on the presumption that every cougar shot meant one cougar less to prey on livestock, game and pets. But the 13-year study headed by Rob Wielgus, director of WSU’s Large Carnivore Conservation Lab, has overturned that presumption.
 
After years of data collection, researchers made a surprising observation. Whether hunters killed 10 percent or 35 percent of cougars, the population remained the same. The old paradigm of wildlife management would explain this by saying the remaining population increased reproduction to make up for hunting. But this was not the case.
 
In fact, reproductive success actually decreased. Data showed that adult males, “toms,” are intolerant of adolescent males and will kill them to maintain their territory and breeding rights. Juvenile males can only survive by avoiding adult males. When hunting removes most adult males, the adolescent males survive and cause all sorts of trouble.
 
While adult cougars tend to avoid humans and livestock, juveniles are less cautious: “They’re teenagers,” explained Wielgus. “They’re sexually mature, but mentally they’re not all there.”
 
Migration, reproduction, mortality
 
This is compounded by the fact that adolescent males have larger territories than mature toms, but don’t maintain exclusive territories as do adult males. Livestock and elk herds might have one mature tom in the area, but removing that tom could bring in three or four adolescents, multiplying troubles.
 
Without adult male protection of females and their litters, infanticide becomes a problem, as the young toms kill kits to bring the mother into heat and improve their breeding chances. The females try to protect their litters by moving higher in elevation, away from dangerous adolescent males, but also away from plentiful whitetail deer and into terrain occupied by less abundant prey such as mule deer, bighorn sheep and woodland caribou. Thus marginal game populations suffer.
 
Research methods included capturing cougars with hounds and attaching collars with global positioning system receivers and radio transmitters. The collars reported the cougars’ locations six times a day, allowing researchers to generate valuable data on cougar migration, reproduction, prey and mortality.
 
Wielgus’ graduate students on this multiyear project included: Don Katnik, Ph.D.; Catherine Lambert, M.S.; Hugh Robinson, Ph.D.; Hillary Cooley, Ph.D.; Kevin White, M.S.; Ben Maletzke, Ph.D.; Dana Morrison, M.S.; Jon Keehner, Ph.D.; and Kaylie Peebles, M.S.

The only merit this plan has is in states with hound hunting that target adult males and passes on subadults and females, that decreases the big dominant males that tend to kill sub adults.  That is not the case in Washington, here, we do not kill or specifically target through selective harvest the big dominate males, here -most cats are killed by opportunity, which is mainly sub adults and females with a rare big male here and there.  This whole study is not relevant to WA cougars.

After years of data collection, researchers made a surprising observation. Whether hunters killed 10 percent or 35 percent of cougars, the population remained the same.

Exactly!  This, combined with our very limited hunting methods in WASHINGTON makes these quota's retarded.   :bash:   Hunters in WA kill whatever cat shows itself, we have no means or methods of selective harvest here in this state.  The whole study is a farce.
« Last Edit: December 25, 2017, 10:09:00 AM by KFhunter »

Offline Ridgeratt

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Re: Wielgus says his university and lawmakers silenced and punished him
« Reply #17 on: December 25, 2017, 10:11:41 AM »
http://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/cougar/

This years season but should be the same. 2017

Any wagers on how many units will be closed in 7 days.    :chuckle:

KF one advantage you have is a short drive to get to another unit that might be closed as well.

Offline KFhunter

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Re: Wielgus says his university and lawmakers silenced and punished him
« Reply #18 on: December 25, 2017, 10:20:54 AM »
It just pisses me off to no end when I can see 4 cats in a 20 mile stretch of road in one single night (all separated by a few miles so it's not a family unit) preying on mule deer and WT in their wintering grounds, and the unit is closed

I've been watching this mule deer "herd" that now consists of 3 does and no yearlings, if it weren't for the WT surrounding the mule deer they'd be gone long ago. 


This cougar plan is destroying our deer herds and creating more cougar conflict as the deer bunch up in residential areas.  Any deer higher up are being ran down by wolves vacating cougar territory, which are then forced down into residential areas as well.  It's a freaking mess.

Offline Ridgeratt

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Re: Wielgus says his university and lawmakers silenced and punished him
« Reply #19 on: December 25, 2017, 10:34:09 AM »
Aren't all the unit's open until the 31st?

Offline KFhunter

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Re: Wielgus says his university and lawmakers silenced and punished him
« Reply #20 on: December 25, 2017, 10:44:41 AM »
Ya, but I prefer to get out after all the other big game seasons are over.   I just don't see much since in potential conflict with deer/elk hunters if I come down into their area and blast off predator calls.  So by doing that my early season for cats is pretty short, I rely on late season cougar for the bulk of my hunting.

Offline wolfbait

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Re: Wielgus says his university and lawmakers silenced and punished him
« Reply #21 on: December 25, 2017, 12:28:19 PM »
It just pisses me off to no end when I can see 4 cats in a 20 mile stretch of road in one single night (all separated by a few miles so it's not a family unit) preying on mule deer and WT in their wintering grounds, and the unit is closed

I've been watching this mule deer "herd" that now consists of 3 does and no yearlings, if it weren't for the WT surrounding the mule deer they'd be gone long ago. 


This cougar plan is destroying our deer herds and creating more cougar conflict as the deer bunch up in residential areas.  Any deer higher up are being ran down by wolves vacating cougar territory, which are then forced down into residential areas as well.  It's a freaking mess.

 :yeah:

Well put KF, you pretty much summed it all up.

Except in the Methow, where what's left of the deer have already hit the Valley floor, cougars and wolves are taking turns hitting them between water runs to the river etc..


A freaking mess indeed.

Thanks to the Frauds at WDF&wolves...

Offline Calvin Rayborn

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Re: Wielgus says his university and lawmakers silenced and punished him
« Reply #22 on: December 28, 2017, 10:13:52 PM »
"Scientists have an amazing talent of making what they want to believe true, seem true...even if this is not necessarily the case." James Randi -

 


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