There are no more wolves here because early settlers didn’t have any knowledge of wildlife/game management-so coyotes get into huge packs and have even been known to take down grown cattle for food when no precautions are taken to monitor them. A lot of ranchers keep llamas to guard livestock from coyotes, because they are mean as hell and dangerous-they can kick and trample even a human to death.
We have mountain lions, but they are quite happy to dine on deer, small game etc-and any unlucky pet running loose. They seldom go for livestock, probably because there are plenty of deer, and they just don’t like going around where humans are for a meal.
Wildlife needs to be managed to be healthy-both predator and prey-the people who don’t get that are not dogooders, they are willfully ignorant-and so are folks who want to wipe out an entire species. Game wardens here are hired for keeping a healthy balance of the wildlife population-and that includes hunting season(s) for any species when the population reaches a certain level, no matter what the doogooders say....
Game wardens are power hungry JBTs.
The best ways to manage wolves and yotes is .223, and lots of it.
Early settlers knew way better than the city pansies how to manage the land.
Those valued game wardens of which you speak have done such a bang up job here in Montana that many areas where I used to hunt elk are now closed to elk hunting or on a lottery basis only, odds of a draw very low.
But our wolf numbers are growing exponentially.