OT: Wolf

As is my habit, I looked out at the pasture this morning, checking on the cows and I noticed a week old calf running. Next I saw all the cows surrounding the calf and the mother running to the calf"s side. I though maybe a dog was out in pasture chasing the cows. As cows will do, they were all staring at one spot but it was down in a swale and I couldn"t see what they were looking at. Finally a big ol" gray wolf "skylined" on a rise. He was moving slowly toward the east away from the herd. I grabbed the shotgun and the wife and I jumped in the pick up and tried to cut him off on the road but we never saw him again. I checked the calf while the wife called the tribal dispatcher and within 5 minutes a game warden was at our place. My wife also called the neighbor to warn him because they had pairs where that wolf was going. the warden asked if i wknew the tribl policy on wolves ad I said that I had read it. He said I could treat it like any other "dog" running your stock and shoot it. Then call us. This is a heck of a lot better policy tha the rest of Montana, since the tribe"s policy is basically they will not manage for a given number of wolves but they will also not tolerate attacks on livestock and pets.

We went off to church and he and another game warden checked over the pasture,looking for any sign to confirm the sighting. I doubt they found any because I looked an didn"t see any sign.
It turned out the calf was not injured but what a way to start Sunday morning!

interesting how the various states handled this matter... in Wyoming, we proposed that wolves be treated as "trophy game animals" (complete with hunting seasons) in and around the park... to be managed by Wyoming Game & Fish... and to be treated as predators anywhere else in the state, especially if they were harrassing livestock. Although it works for me (and most Wyoming residents) that plan was not good enough for the feds... if memory serves, I think we are filing suit! Hope they hurry up & git'r done, I need a new coat! ...D

Hi Jerry, what Res are you on? That sounds like a REASONABLE policy on what someone should do if an animal is threatening their livestock. But I would be worried about being charged with a Federal crime if I shot a wolf. I guess the automatic defense would be to claim you just thought it was a big, mean dog and you just did what you were told to do.

Still, I think I would follow the SSS doctrine!

I wonder why the wolf was alone. I thought they usually were in packs. Maybe that was a lone male that had been run off a regular pack. Hopefully he will leave your animals alone. Good luck!

Wait till the big bad wolf eats a couple of children on their way to the bus stop. Then people will begin to recall why the wolf has always been loathed and feared and some reason will go back in to the laws that protect them.

We"re on the Flathead Indian Reservation and the federal rules don"t apply here unless the Tribe adopts them and they haven"t. Non-tribal members cannot hunt big game on the Rez but many tribal members do to provide meat for their families. As I understand it, hsitorically, the natives were not that friendly to wolves ecause they were competitors for the same food source.
Anyhow, they ahve a more realistic policy than the rest of Montana which required a federally approved management plan.
There was a reason why the wolves were killed off here before. It"s not the wolves fault. they have to survive. But the dummies back east or in the big cities who believe that wolves behave like those in a Walt Disney movie aren"t the ones who have to live with them. They are killing machines and when they run short of game, they take livestock. It doesn"t take a PhD to figure that out! Most of our wolves have come down from Canada thouh there are some that come from the Ninemile pack west of Missoula. they are traveling sons a gunsand if there is a pack eliminated others fill the void.

I live "back East" but I applaud the tribe's policy on wolves. The environmentalists have gotten totally out of hand---everywhere.

Jerry-please realize that not all of us "Easterners" are goofy liberals. I live in the country 180 miles west of New York City and have only been to NYC three times in my life---each time on a bus to see a baseball game.

may have to wait awhile for that attack, i did some looking online since the 1800's only a very few documented cases of real wolves attacking humans exist, attacks very rare, usualy preformed by sick animals, however, attacks by wolf/dog hybreds that have been turned loose in the wild are not rare and are a real problem, the wolf/dog hybred has no fear of humans just like your dog, a real wolf, on the other hand would rather be anywhere else but around humans, they will prey on livestock however, and there in lies the reason they were virtually exterminated in the first place , non farming or ranchig tree huggers are now reintroducing them to areas where they were wiped out, guess they cant figure out there was a reason they were removed in the first place

I live in wyoming and grew up in montana. Most of these wolf lover don't understand the ranchers source of income. I would like to take a paycheck out of their hands and let them watch a wolf eat it up. Or better yet, if they think these wolves are so wonderful, why don't we give them some. Central park would be a great place for a pack of wolves. We could transplant the problem grizzly bears to their as well.

You just have to remember, unlike most other animal species (and some humans), Wolves, Manatees, Snail Darters, Blind Cave Fish and Spotted Owls ARE POLITICALLY CORRECT which gives them superior rights over many lowly human beings lol

John T A Politically Incorrect kinda guy

I've got no problem with any wildlife. At all.

I do have a problem with people proposing and enacting solutions that are not going to effect them, only other people. People who live in major urban areas should have no say in how folks in other parts of the country live, even if they do vacation there or fly over it. That would amount to nothing more than tyranny by the majority. Of course, I guess opposition to tyranny is kind of old fashioned. In fact, the word tyranny must have been banned from the media's lexicon.

All the above being said, wildlife are wild and livestock are MINE. If the coyotes around here want to hunt and eat rabbits, fine. But there are lines I won't tolerate wild predators crossing. There are solutions to those problems. You just don't go talking about it to anyone.

Christopher

wildlife is controled pretty well here. If an animal damages property or crops, the hunter/s that are regestered for that area are responsible. There are deer here that look like miniature elk. They are restricted to a region, if they venture out of that region they are shot. A bear made it's way into Germany a few years ago and was a real celebrity until it killed some sleep. It's now a rug. Same with some wolves that made their way over. I guess in the UK Badgers are protected and cause plenty of damage to lambs and folks can do nothing about it. In Germany, you seldom see them but they can be hunted.

Dave

There in lies the rub. The initial definitions for "sucessful wolf re-introduction" were 300 breeding pairs and I believe 1000 wolves in the three state area(MT,WY,ID)and federally approved management plans in each state , encompassing those animals. MT and ID had their plans approved but WY hasn"t. However the wolf was delisted in MT adn ID. There is a suit pending in MT that argues because WY doesn"t have an approved plan, no delisting should take place because the total three state region does not have approved management plans. The so called "environmentalists" are also saying 300 breeding pairs isn"t enough to maintain genetic diversity so they are now arguing for more breeding pairs. THe USFWS disagrees with their argument. I don"t know how the judge will rule but the technicallity is that all three states were supposed to have aapproved management plans before delisting and they don"t because WY"s plan isn"t approved. WY is also suing because they say they have the right to determine their own management plan. And so it goes. What everone agreed success looked like in 1995 is now being questioned by the "enviromentalists".

I say a deals a deal; sucess is 300 breeding pairs in the three state region is what was agreed to and no changing the rules now. There eare more wolves then what was agreed to (1500) and they are reproducing at a rate of 20% a year! MT and ID is hoping their hunting seasons will stem the tide and "educate" wolves not to go around humans and livestock. But a wolf has to eat and feed its young so when they run through all the deer and elk, in an area, livestock is next on the menu. And these so called "environmentalists" are supposed to be educated people! Maybe so, but they have no common sense and they are selfish and sef centered in their goals. To hell with the people who have to live with their definition of the environment!

I didn"t mean to imply that all easterners are environmentalists. It"s just that the ESA doesn"t appear to be enforced in the East and it really toughly enforced out here. If it"s the law of the land, there ought to be wolves introduced in Central Park and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in DC. They lived there once upon at time also.

My advice is to grab a high powered rifle, not a shotgun, and shoot to mortally wound it. If you kill it, you have to haul it off, which can be alot of work if it is big.

Although the ND Dept of Fish and Game is in denial, the wolves are out here in the western part of the state. They were also in denial about Mt Lions untill one tried to go shopping at the Home Depot in Bismarck. I think this is great. Finally we may get rid of our coyote and deer problem. The wolfs and lions only kill to eat, and I don't want to deny anyone a meal. I raise lots of beef cows and my losses to the big predators are not economically important (so long as you don't eliminate the pack leaders that know avoiding man is the key to survival) , and who cares if a wolf eats a horse ? The coyote drove us out of the lamb business. Really, do they have to come in and kill 30 animals and not eat anything ?