[ko_kyi]

Interesting post. As a person who enjoys the outdoors, isn't predation to extinction almost unheard of? (rats and dodo birds notwithstanding.) I would think that the number of wolves would depend on the availability of prey, but prey species reproduce and adapt quickly and should end up at a smaller but stable level in a few years.

Have the herds totally lost their self-preservation skills? If so, they should be considered domesticated animals and not wildlife.

[presidio9]

Have the herds totally lost their self-preservation skills? If so, they should be considered domesticated animals and not wildlife.

What an interesting philosophical point! But if they are truely domesticated, don't we then have some sort of "good husbandry obligation" to defend one domesticated species from a newly introduced ones? You don't let your cat eat your parakeet, do you?

[sergeantdave]

This is why scientists recommended a gradual re-introduction of the wolf, so the matter could be studied.

Regardless of what people think of wolf re-introduction there are consequences. Consider -

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources told the federal government that the state could maybe handle 100 to 150 wolves. So, naturally, the number is now in excess of 300 and there’s trouble in Dairyland with no solution in sight.

Milwaukee Journal reporter Dan Egan wrote that farmers are finding “calves with their hindquarters shredded, still alive and trying to suckle. They have stumbled upon a pregnant cow ripped open and her fetus torn out. They have seen calves with crushed throats - dead without losing a drop of blood. Killed, they believe, simply for the thrill.”

Children can’t walk in the woods alone and adults must carry weapons.

Beef cattle ranchers raising stock in northwestern Wisconsin say wolf raids cost them 92 calves last year. They expect more this year when the tally is taken.

These farmers are cussing mad. They, as their ranching compatriots out west, believe they and their livelihood have been targeted by eco-extremists and their allies.

The Wisconsin DNR, the farmers and hunters all agree the packs should be culled. But the Washington DC legislators fiddle in Rome, chase interns and refuse to manage the timber wolf.

The result? Last year the Wisconsin DNR buried 15 wolves, culled by shoot, shovel and shut-up.

Upper Michigan is believed to carry the same number of wolves as Wisconsin. Last year six grey wolves were shot in the UP.

The killing goes on in spite of shooters facing a $100,000 fine and six months in jail for culling an endangered wolf.

“It’s way beyond time” to begin killing problem wolves in Wisconsin, said David Mech in the Milwaukee Journal story. Mech is a senior research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey and one of the world’s foremost authorities on North America’s wolves.

Mech fears that if the wolves aren’t delisted and managed, the public backlash could grow. “I worry,” said Mech.