Hope the wolves let these elk alone
Elk
Western Colorado
Western Colorado
Hope that the wolves let this herd alone in Western Colorado.
I’d wander more about the people in that house. Because everyone knows that once the wolves get there, they ain’t leaving the elk alone.
I’d say that herd should be just fine - doesn’t look like any sick or weak ones and those are the only ones the wolves eat :-)
That stuff dripping from Old School's words is sarcasm.
I might be more worried about the lost of elk habitat to human development such as million dollar home communities where hunting is not allowed.
Looks like private land. Of course there’s elk there
They are safe. The wolves are only being introduced on public land...
Yeah, and everyone knows they won't travel outside of their designated reintroduction area, so what's the worry?
haha Don, yes the know and stick to their boundaries very well from what I understand! lol
Boundaries? Sort of like when Norther Pike are introduced to a trout lake to clean out the carp/suckers and are "told" just eat the rough fish!
Look at the bright side: watching a pack haul down an Elk and eat it ‘til it’s dead might provide dome folks with a little perspective.
Not as much as watching the pack dismantle their Labradoodle, but some, anyway…
The wolves aren't going to be anywhere people who live in big fancy houses like those will ever see them.
paul x2, few even think of that impact. Our foot print rapidly destroys more habitat then imaginable.
Really cool picture thanks for sharing I’m sure the wolves would not think to bother those guys simply crazy good luck Lewis
“Our foot print rapidly destroys more habitat then imaginable.”
Yup. Somebody ran a study 30 years ago that found that the 35-acre ranchette is the absolutely MOST disruptive level of development for wildlife, at least out West where real ranches are still getting carved up every week. But nobody wants to hear that…
If development of land is worse than wolves, then why did all those elk move into the towns and onto ranches just north of Yellowstone after the wolves took hold in the park? Why did so many elk all through Montana move to ranches and areas as close to people as they could when the wolves took over the wilderness and mountains? And finally, it seems pretty obvious that the last 30 years has shown whatever study was just referenced is obviously flawed and proven untrue. But then again my two cents comes from logically examining elk and deer counts as well as my experience in northwestern Montana, central Montana and the Idaho panhandle. The above argument regarding “of course the elk are there, it’s private property”, and the argument that ranchettes are very destructive to wildlife are counter to each other. They can’t both be true and the reality is that they are probably both mostly false.
buncman, Im 100% anti wolf. The diff is compounded from our footprint. We eliminated a lot of areas for these animals to escape predators.
Remember it was once a prairie animal, we pushed them up into the mountains, congregated them, and now are turning wolves loose on them. We also shrunk the landmass and along with it shrunk the carrying capacity. These thing combined is what probably makes the wolf impact so huge.
I’m sure they’d like to escape the wolf plus us, but that’s harder and harder to do. So they choosing one over the other.
The wolves in the northern states have drastically altered the elk favored grounds. The elk no longer favor the national forests but have instead moved down to the private open lands to evade the wolves. This makes the private land hunts better than ever, but also causes increased crop damage claims. this will raise havoc with our DOW's western area's long standing plans of controlling the elk, by limiting early hunts in some units to hold the elk in the forest as long as possible so that the gun hunt can really put the bite on them. Imagine thousands of elk hitting the fields in summer. It is so bad in some areas that it no longer worth hunting the forest. Again we fail to learn from history.
So, what should we do about it?
Not be scared to at least start the conversation of human encroachment and population growth.
Do we really want our great great grandkids to have nothing but cement around them?
I think that’s what’s behind illegal immigration right now. For the most part the population has been leveling off, but our debt running economy relates and survive on more consumers in the future to hold it together
The powers at be know this and are letting other countries invade us to keep it going and not have to answer the hard questions.
Maybe I’m just conspiracy though.
Colorado has almost twice the elk than Montana does. And more populous mountain communities.
I think I’ll stick with the statement that elk are probably more likely to be on private land.
Especially since the referenced photo is in Colorado
Gonna take more than “hope” to keep the wolves away!
Gonna take more than hope to keep the wolves (and the illegals) away !
Things may have changed in the past 30 years as Wolf populations have ballooned at rates that nobody anticipated… but that doesn’t invalidate good science; just means it’s time to keep paying attention. But habitat fragmentation is never going to be a good thing… Animals that evolved in vast, unbroken territories will never thrive in carved-up spaces.
I'll be more than happy to shoot any wolf I see while hunting Colorado
Thornton: Every wolf will have a collar with ten people close by recording every time it shits (Exaggerating for effect). Be very very careful.
And, some wolves are microchipped.
