What will 150 wolves eat?

[bearpaw]

   some more interesting photos and facts that need bumped up

[bigmacc]

I,ve heard or seen in print that wolves and killer whales are the only animals on the planet that actually "thrill kill", so they are not only killing to survive on all that poundage of elk,deer,etc, but alot more of those animals are being killed for...well... just for killing,s sake ..What a disaster this will be if left unchecked.

[Skillet]

Just curious - where is this 11#/wolf/day number coming from?  That just seems like an insane amount of food for even a large male.  I did a quick web search and came up with 2.5#/day to sustain weight to 7#/day to breed successfully.  But, those numbers weren't linked to a study either. 

[deaner]

Just curious - where is this 11#/wolf/day number coming from?  That just seems like an insane amount of food for even a large male.  I did a quick web search and came up with 2.5#/day to sustain weight to 7#/day to breed successfully.  But, those numbers weren't linked to a study either. 

i could easily see 2.5 lbs being adequate for an animal that lays around in the zoo all day.  a wild animal running up and down nasty terrain chasing and taking down elk would need a LOT more food.

[Skillet]

No argument that a couch potato pet in a zoo needs less than their wild cousins.  If it's 11#, it's 11# - just wondering where that number comes from.

[washelkhunter]

Lets say 1 wolf eats one deer a week and they are all does. That's 52 deer per year. Now those does could have bred and produced 2 fawns each year so now its 52 x 3 = 156 possible deer. And that's just for one wolf. We know for a fact that cougars do eat a deer a week. If the cougar population is 1.5k we can calculate 1.5k x 52 = 78,000 deer consumed by cougar per year. So back to wolves; 150 x 52 = 7800 deer per year. If the deer had bred; 150 x 156 = 23,400 potential deer per year consumed.

[snowpack]

^^^^^
If they eat all does, then they raise the buck to doe ratio.  So during the rut the bucks travel more to find available does (more energy expended) and fight more with other bucks increasing odds of being injured and using even more energy when fighting.  Thus leading to even more bucks disappearing too.

[Dan-o]

Wow.......   We're screwed.

[RB]

What about Rabbits, Grouse, Squirrels, Turkeys and anything else edible to these predators? How many of these get eaten?

[washelkhunter]

Well rabbits are fast and never far from their holes, grouse fly, our squirrels will be in the trees and turkeys run fast and fly. A wolf if lucky probably brings down 1 out of 10 of any of these critters.

[villageidiot]

They wont be eating rabbits or quail or grouse because the PROTECTED hawks and owls have got those populations down to practically extinction. 

[KFhunter]

 


Quick! everyone head to the huckleberry unit for all your small game hunting.

[deaner]

Quick! everyone head to the huckleberry unit for all your small game hunting.

no i live in huckleberry, but hunt and observe small game exclusively in the wedge

[Heredoggydoggy]

I,ve heard or seen in print that wolves and killer whales are the only animals on the planet that actually "thrill kill", so they are not only killing to survive on all that poundage of elk,deer,etc, but alot more of those animals are being killed for...well... just for killing,s sake ..What a disaster this will be if left unchecked.

You left out house cats, Feral and otherwise--It has been proven that they are devastating to wildlife.  Birds, snakes, lizards, anything that moves! 

[KFhunter]

I seen one jump 30 feet straight up and take a turkey off it's roost