Well, we live with wolves all around us (I’m in the Alaskan Bush about 280 miles west of Fairbanks). I’m not going to be very popular saying this, but the decrease in elk and other large herbivores is probably a move towards a more natural number. Yes, of course you’ll get a ton of elk and deer once you remove all the predators. If you got rid of the cougars and bears, you’d be swimming in elk.
On other hand, I’ve seen what happens to the forest back east once you remove all the predators and let the deer population explode. The forest is eaten, literally, from the ground to the highest point that the deer can reach; there are no longer seedlings or underbrush; and the deer are like rats with hooves, and scrawny looking as well. Sure, that could be solved with lots of hunters culling the herd, but it’s not happening that way.
I’d say put a limited season on wolves to make them wary of humans, but keep enough to have some kind of impact on the elk and deer, too. Our wolves haven’t kept me from filling my freezer with moose every year. Sorry to be unpopular.
Did Alaska villagers have a recent problem hunting with low moose populations ?
Were the moose population then up after a brief wolf aerial hunting season ?
Well, we live with wolves all around us (I’m in the Alaskan Bush about 280 miles west of Fairbanks).
Yep, I’d call that smack dab in the middle of no where Alaska. Except for one thing, It its Ruby, you have a road, and a river.
Our wolves haven’t kept me from filling my freezer with moose every year. Sorry to be unpopular.
Not unpopular where I’m concerned, as previously stated Nature needs balance, and man is in charge, not the idiot environuts.
Back when I lived in Fairbanks, you needed a ton or two of equipment to bring in a moose. Airplane with tundra tires, Snow machine and sled, chain saw, gun, four wheel drive vehicle and trailer, winch, chain hoist, big freezer, and if you were stupid enough to kill one while the lakes were not yet frozen, and he died in the water, uh oh...
...and then some nautical stuff, like a boat and trailer.
Used to fly over your area back in the seventies when I was stationed at Eielson AFB. Never got a moose, but kind people were always sharing theirs. MMMMM MMMMM good.