Killings of another Washington wolf pack sparks debate over predator management

[wolfbait]

Killings of another Washington wolf pack sparks debate over predator management

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/killings-of-another-washington-wolf-pack-sparks-debate-over-predator-management/281-2b82b19a-3215-4ecc-8be2-208138e3821a?fbclid=IwAR2FCvnr2Le2RrhXi69V60DsIP8g7jG_ufV_5nZZOoxn5oM5rYfTFIdw0Jo


"There has been no baseline assessment to understand how a wolf's prey, like deer, elk, etc. have changed as wolf numbers have grown."


"There was a ninth wolf traveling with the OPT pack that WDFW believes is still alive, but not part of the OPT pack”.


"The likelihood is high that another pack will move into the OPT pack's range, Lehman said. That would likely mean more attacks on cattle and more wolves killed for it”.


"Wolf advocates like Cantrell said it's time for the U.S. Forest Service to come up with a better land management plan."

[sagemd]

A quote from the article!!
"It is clearly high-quality wolf habitat so simply killing the wolves isn't solving the problem,"

To me it's clearly NOT high-quality wolf habitat. Marginal at best.
If it were the wolves would not be killing cattle.

[buckfvr]

Ungulates can not thrive in the midst of unmanaged predators.  When ungulate numbers drop, unmanaged wolves will shift to and likely stay with cattle predation.  It will only get worse, and so will the problem with fools who think it can be made better if usfs does away with grazing leases.  The wolves will follow the cattle.

Its time for wdfw to tag the wolves as predators of the same ilk as coyotes, and even then they will flourish and need to be targeted by government gunners.

[KFhunter]

Ungulates can not thrive in the midst of unmanaged predators.  When ungulate numbers drop, unmanaged wolves will shift to and likely stay with cattle predation.  It will only get worse, and so will the problem with fools who think it can be made better if usfs does away with grazing leases.  The wolves will follow the cattle.

Its time for wdfw to tag the wolves as predators of the same ilk as coyotes, and even then they will flourish and need to be targeted by government gunners.

Exactly right, if there were no cattle or other domestics the wolves would have big die off's and eat each other allowing ungulates to make a come back, which enables the wolves to make a come back rinse repeat over and over like a yo-yo.

(enter domestic animals)

Cattle and other domestic animals carry over the wolves preventing a big die off and keeping their numbers bolstered, so when cattle come off range wolves in their big numbers switch to ungulates and scour the landscape during the winter months which is the best time for wolves anyways for hunting.  Thus ungulates collapse and we have huge dead zones. 

Spring time cattle hit the ranges again just in time to feed the next crop of pups. 


Hardest time for wolves would be Oct - Dec,  cattle come off range in Oct and the snows aren't really good until well into December.