this is a real eye opener telemetry data on wolves and cows, guess what ? hazing is ineffective
http://www.bluemountaineagle.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=12&ArticleID=24101 The jury is still out on the question of whether or not ranchers and wolves can co-exist. That was the take-home message of a symposium held May 22 at Eastern Oregon University.
The event was sponsored by the Oregon Cattlemen's Association and the EOU Range Club. The two speakers were retired wildlife biologist Jim Beers, who spoke about wolves as vectors of disease and Idaho ranch manager Casey Anderson who told his story of wolf depredation and management issues on his Payette County OX Ranch.
Anderson's ranch is participating in an Oregon State University and University of Idaho Wolf Research study begun in 2009, which monitored interactions between wolves and cattle. Ten of Anderson's 1000 cows were radio-collared and data collected was compared to the data of radio-collared wolves.
"The main purpose of this study is to find out if there is some way we can adapt management," Anderson said. What the study has proved, thus far, is that wolves have far more contact with cows than suspected and that even the most intense management could not prevent wolf kills on the kind of land on which western ranchers work. Anderson told of a calf kill that took place on a pasture where humans had been present most of the day.
"My question to anybody who has a doubt, if you think that herding and hazing and trying to teach wolves not to eat beef is going to work - it's not going to work. We were in that pasture three times that day."
Telemetry data showed that one collared wolf (of approximately 28 wolves in the area) approached Anderson's collared cows (in a herd of 450 cows) at a distance of 500 to 47 yards 784 times from May 23 to Nov. 30, 2009. Researchers, who had expected one or two cows to have contact, were staggered by the magnitude of the contacts, Anderson said. "Some data shows the wolf at zero yards- he's right on the cows, and he's right on a collared cow. How often was he right on a non-collared cow? It's just amazing," he said.
Anderson warned that fish and wildlife departments are working from date up to three years old and said the great danger of that was that it did not take into account the effect of recent wolf population growth and decimation of elk and deer herds.
"Last summer our learning curve just went straight up," he said. "We had 18 confirmed kills, we lost at least 45 more calves on top of that, 5 cows, and two yearlings. One time last spring we had 28 wolves in our area, in our allotment on private ground. On the ranch we killed 13 wolves last year."
That population explosion in wolves was at the heart of the problem, he said. "Originally we were supposed to have 15 breeding pair and 150 wolves in Idaho before they could be removed from the endangered species list," Anderson said. "We've got way over 100 breeding pairs and very conservatively 1,500 wolves. If they would have been removed and the numbers controlled at the proper level we wouldn't be seeing the depredation problems we have. But it doesn't matter how many you have, you're still going to have problems. All I'm saying is you can live a lot better with two than you can with 28."
What researchers are discovering, Anderson said, was that wolves do begin by eating elk and deer, but as numbers grow and wildlife becomes scarce, they learn to kill cows.
It's a learning curve for wolves that are used to chasing down game, he said. But they're learning. "What these wolves are not used to is a 1200-pound black angus mamma turning around and blowing snot in his face and trying to tromp him into the ground. It's taken a while (for wolves) to figure out how to adjust and how to start working on some of these things."
Now, he said, mother wolves are teaching their pups how to kill cattle.
And there are far more wolves than are accounted for, he said.
In another herd of cows where no collared cows were placed and no collared wolves were monitored Anderson reported that of 317 cows he got 255 calves - a loss of 62 calves.
Furthermore, he said, for the first time ever his fecal reports, used to determine the presence of worms in cattle, are showing tapeworm, which is believed to be spread by the wolves. "Very, very strange," he said. "Practically in every fecal sample we sent (for analysis) showed tapeworm. It's something that's never happened before, we have our cows on a good worming cycle."
Anderson spoke of how disheartening it was as a good steward to see all of his work done for naught. "What I have seen since the introduction of the wolf is that being a good steward and paying attention to range conditions, water development and fences and those types of things pretty much goes out the window as wolves get to the level they are on our ranch."
ODFW Regional Manager Craig Ely spoke, admitting that his agency had made mistakes, both in keeping ranchers informed and in working with Wildlife Services in identifying wolf kills. "We've made some mistakes, I readily admit that and we're getting better," he said. He said the two agencies planned a training in June. "We're trying to get our two agencies seeing the same exact things when we are out on the landscape," he said.
