Free: Contests & Raffles.
Quote from: meatwhack on March 01, 2020, 07:22:59 AMThat’s collateral damage. I know it ends up effecting a lot more than just the wolfs but that’s the price we’d have to pay to eliminate them. I know it’ll never happen though so it’s all just for discussion.But you said you'd prefer it to Air gunning You know Canada and Alaska have done fairly extensive helicopter gunning for Wolves with great success? Air gunning is a viable option that ought to be on the table. Would be super successful in some of the major wilderness areas in Central Idaho.
That’s collateral damage. I know it ends up effecting a lot more than just the wolfs but that’s the price we’d have to pay to eliminate them. I know it’ll never happen though so it’s all just for discussion.
Why I said I’d prefer poison is because poison is the only way we’ll ever eradicate them. Air gunning would be another management tool that could be used but wouldn’t eliminate them. There’s too many areas in Idaho that are far too thick for air gunning to work in. I just don’t see them ever making it an option to the general public. Another thing to consider is think about all the crying you hear when F&G does aerial surveys in the spring. Can you imagine what that’d look like if it was guys flying around shooting at wolfs? They’d be disturbing the same deer and elk that people don’t want pushed around by the aerial surveys. I’m not sure what the right answer is but for now I’d say trapping is by far the most effective option available. I know why you said poison and I agree with you that’s only way to eradicate wolves. Just pointing out all the collateral damage. There’s a lot of hunters agree with you but I don’t think it’s worth it. Trapping is best option but is hard to do for most guys still working with families. I have a tiny line out now and even that is hard to keep up on.
I think he’s saying 300 licensed trappers killed more wolfs than 40,000 hunters with wolf tags in their pockets.
It's still shows how resilient they are. They kill alot of wolves every year and the population still seems to be growing. One breeding pair is two to many for me.
Quote from: fishngamereaper on March 02, 2020, 10:44:51 AMIt's still shows how resilient they are. They kill alot of wolves every year and the population still seems to be growing. One breeding pair is two to many for me. I think you have to kill 50 percent of population to even control the numbers. Even more to actually reduce the population. I don’t remember exactly the percentage but it’s depressing
ID estimates on wolves this summer went to 1541 and that is a number that fluctuates with pup season and mortality. Said numbers can be as high as 1900 to a low of 1100. Funny fact I learned in the wolf trapping class is they had a bio/state trapper teaching the class. The guy had over 40 years trapping wolves from AK,russia,mongolia,ID,WY and MT . Has weighed several thousand wolves in this time frame and the largest wolf he has ever weighed was 136.2 lbs. The avg winter wolf weight in ID is 94 lbs.
