...I also think the reference to more dog and cougar killings is a little off base since the number of both per capita is much, much higher than wolves. My perspective comes from and Idaho perspective where there are 10X-20X more wolves than in Utah.
To be fair I'm not advocating that Utah needs a 200+ population of wolves in fact I'm not saying we need any wolves at all. What I am saying is if they have already organically moved into historic territories (which Utah is) and are seemingly co-existing with nature now (again, wolf sighting reports in Utah are over 12+ years old now), then we don't need to cry alarm do we? If/when they start killing our historic levels of sustainable Elk (I've heard of zero wolf-elk kills in Utah, correct me if I'm wrong) and school children, I think it prudent to investigate pro-active ways to manage including hunting. See that wasn't allowed in Idaho/Wyoming and in fact ranchers were prosecuted for even conspiring to kill them as well as the actual kills. To me it is apples and oranges.
Riddle me this. Idaho is suspected to have ~750 wolves, some of which likely overlap the number in Wyoming and it is fair to say both overlap into Utah's population no? Regardless, lets assume there are 750 in Idaho and just 25 in Utah (most think closer to double that but lets be safe). So we have 1/30th the population. We hear of the
"hundreds" and even some proclaim
"thousands" of livestock and elk kills, should we not be hearing about at least 'dozens' of kills here in Utah annually? I spent a bit of time googling this last night and came up with perhaps
2 or 3 instances of wolf kills in the last 5 years here in Utah but it is a calf or a few sheep, no significant numbers. Why are our wolves better behaved and not decimating the herds? Group mentality? It was confirmed by the DWR that there is not only wolves in Central Utah but an actual traveling pack, so I'm assuming these packs are capable of killing livestock.
For every bit of research that points to wolves, there seems to be every bit if not more in the opposite direction such as this one from the University of Wyoming published in a hunting magazine and funded by groups like Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Boone & Crockett Club, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Safari Club International.
http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/newshound/2013/06/study-wolves-not-cause-wyoming-elk-decline
A few things I found interesting:
"We can maintain these elk numbers but we had to severely limit hunting opportunity to do that," he says. "That in itself is difficult for people to understand."
Of course, wolf predation does affect overall elk numbers, but in a separate study Middleton found that wolves weren't even the top calf predators. He found that bears typically take out more elk calves than wolves do. During a June monitoring period grizzlies killed an elk calf every two to four days and black bears killed a calf every four to eight days.
“There has been a succession of fires, which destroyed natural elk habitat. Grizzly bear numbers have gone up and the elk have moved to survive. They have moved to more agricultural and human habitat areas. It’s not just the wolf that’s caused the change. People just look to put the blame on one thing. Yes, elk have moved to areas that haven’t seen elk for 200 years. But there are large portions of healthy elk populations that have moved to private land, which makes them unhuntable … Think of it this way: the elk are picking their poison. Either deal with hunters in the low country for 6 weeks, or stay in the high country and deal with wolves and bears year round.”
