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The call of the grey wolf
The call of the grey wolf reverberating off the canyon walls deep in the high country, adds a sense of wildness and majesty to one’s surroundings. For me, the mournful calls are reminiscent of an ancient time when long ago hunters walked the land, armed with primitive weaponry and survival skills which far surpassed our own. I still stalk the wild places armed with a stick bow and handmade arrows, but the call of the wolf holds a much different meaning for me than for the long ago hunter gatherers. In our modern world, the so-called wild Wyoming wolf is handled by humans in it’s lifetime, through study and scientific evaluation, more than my pet dog. My family and I made a pilgrimage into Yellowstone National Park this spring, in the hope of spotting a wolf pack in the early spring snow, and maybe getting some photographs. We were truly lucky to spot the pack feeding on a recent kill, an elk they took down the night before. We watched as these super predators surrounded a second elk and watched in anticipation as they moved in for the kill. For some reason they suddenly quit the attack and moved off in pursuit of some other prey. The reason I brought this up is I felt compelled to let people know what was happening on the sidelines concerning the so-called wild wolves of Yellowstone.
Several vehicles lined the roadway, various spotting scopes and long-range cameras follow every move of the pack across the frozen terrain. Among the watchers, conversation drifts between the raw beauty of wolf number eight and how well wolf number three is doing after last weeks encounter. Wolf number seven seems healthy despite the wound received on the tenth of September last fall, somehow wolf number eleven has hurt her foot and number one the alpha male of the druid pack looks sad… you get my point. These wolves are followed everywhere by animal rights activists who with a seemingly unlimited amount of resources at their disposal keep a constant vigil over the packs and document the lives of these WILD wolves religiously. Let us take this story to the other side of the mountains along the Absaroka front, a rancher and his daughter ride through the sagebrush-covered hills below a timbered slope. For over a hundred years, this honest and hard working family has raised cattle and pastured the cows and calves in these meadows. On the wind the stench of death permeates the summer morning, their horses are restless as they approach the now rotting carcass. “This is getting old.” the rancher replies to his daughter as they dismount and examine the kill, blowflies and summer heat have decomposed the calf’s carcass quickly. Wolf tracks are everywhere and the half-eaten carcass leaves no question to the trained eye as to the demise of the calf. Dozens of cattle have fallen prey to the wolves this summer, last winter near here his son lost a good cattle dog when the pack came down while he was cutting firewood and boldly killed the dog and went on their way. Countless man-hours have been spent riding, driving and walking the summer pastures in search of wolf kills, hoping to find them in time to allow the proper authorities to decide if wolves killed the cattle or if something else contributed to their demise. On the other end of the spectrum, if a wolf comes up missing the choppers are in the air immediately, the wildlife warriors are summoned and an unlimited amount of resources becomes available to determine the reason for the disappearance. The battle lines have been drawn and are perfectly clear, the wolf lovers want the wolf to be protected and unharmed, the ranchers want to be able to raise their herds unmolested, and the outdoorsmen and hunters want to ensure a future for their sport through proper game management. The wolf is such a good predator that their impact upon the elk herds has far surpassed the projected numbers, and their own numbers have increases at such a rate that without some sort of intervention the long term impact in Wyoming’s elk herds will be disastrous.
(B&B)- Mike “Hawk” Huston is contributing editor for Bulls & Beavers LLC
www.journeywithredhawk.blogspot.com/
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Very well written. The wolf is a very beautiful animal, yet so who think they are trying to save them have totally removed the wild from them. There has got to be some common ground. I just hope that it can be found without destroying our heritage in the process..Saddly people will look the other way, as long as it is not their lively hood, or lifestyle that is being threatened..
There’s room for the wolf but not room for special treatment. If the DNR determines the wolf numbers have grown to the point hunting should be permitted, then i say we hunt them. We can’t allow the animal rights activist to determine the fate of the wild life. Who ever calls the shots for the elk and deer should also be calling the shots for the wolf. Thanks for the article Mike.
As usual, Mike has hit the nail on the head. His writing gets to the point, says it like it is and makes everyone who reads his words think about them. Great job, Mike.
that tells it like it is, good job son. We as humans seem to like making rules, however we must look at all consequences and perhaps try to make our decisions based on the final outcome of all parties envolved, not just the beliefs of the party with the most influence or assets. lets all try to look to nature herself for guidence and let her have the final say. again, good job on getting an important point across. keep your chin to the wind. a/ho
a/ho hawk! i know exactly where your coming from with people taking the wild out of wildlife. its like that around here with the yoddlers.
As usually Mike …you hit the Nail on the Head…The Animal Rights Groups spend Millions of Dollars to watch and Protect the Wolf everyday of the Year….But there isn’t anything spent to reimburse the Ranchers for their Losses…or to protect the Deer…Elk or Moose from these beautiful…but Deadly Pack Hunters. I am a firm believer that the Wolf has a right to be part of this Ecosystem…but the Ecosystem has Changed and shrunk…so without monitoring and thinning the Packs….they are going to do irreparable damage to the Wildlife…I hope that this is figured out by the Blind and One-Sided Animal Rights Groups before it is too late for all of Gods Wild Creatures
Nice article Mike. Your words speak of experience and the legitimacy of the situation comes through loud and clear. We too just saw a black wolf in Yellowstone last week – he walked 20 feet in front of our vehicle – without any fear. They are definately at the top of the food chain, even at the top of my food chain as the lack of management as decreased the number of hunting licenses because of all the wild game they kill, therefor less hunters for my business – less food on MY table! Where is the justice in that?
Excellent article, Mike! The wolf should be managed just like any other predator. It has been heralded as the pet project of animal rights activists for years because of its endangered status. I have studied wolves all my life and where I live they are too starting too rebound. The wolf packs can strengthen a herd by removing the sick and the injured; but, when they are pampered and left unchecked they can also do some damage! I would like to see hunting seasons on the wolves not only to control the numbers, but to protect the wolf as well. If wolf numbers are allowed to grow unchecked, there will be more conflicts with ranchers, which in turn will endanger the majestic wolf even more!
A nice article from one side of the spectrum, I enjoyed the read. As an avid hunter, outdoorsman and supporter of the wolf re-introduction I tend to occupy a space that not many others do. We need farmers and ranchers, I would never question that. I feel very sorry for all the losses and hardships that the wolves have caused them. However, just as every animal is, the wolf is important to the ecosystem in the mountains. We can say they aren’t wild, but just because they are monitored by humans, that doesn’t mean they can sit, come or stay. They’ve been relocated from resembling habitats and are just as natural as any other species. And as every elk hunter, I have been disappointed to not get my bull for the last two years. But so it goes, sometimes we need more of a challenge. Just like a free market economy, it will only make us better at what we love to do. I’d rather see someone work for their meat like a true hunter rather than shoot something off of an ATV or from a road. The elk populations are not devastated and the F&G departments won’t ever let them become that way. We as hunters should embrace and enjoy their presence just as we do with all other game.
It’s a tough call… because wolves are great animals. Humans wrecked natural habitat, and created numerous problems in the food chain. If wolves are going to damage other animal populations, they need to be regulated. At some point humans decided to attempt to step outside nature, adversely affecting it. We irresponsibly destroy things, but cringe to think about what’s needed to fix these problems. Personally I could care less about wolves killing cattle… that’s how life works. Killing a wolf because it hurt profit in meat sales is ridiculous to me. However, if the population of wolves skyrockets and severely threatens other animals then something should be done. Transportation first, followed by whatever means are necessary to insure the safety of both wolves and prey animals. If they do rise to extreme numbers, starvation and disease set in after other animal populations are wounded. It really boils down to a respect of nature and responsability as part of that circle.
The article was well written but it could elaborate more. Then again, this is a blog not necessarily a 5000 word per article magazine. I’ve talked with ranchers and hunters who have seen wolves kill for the sake of killing, leaving carcasses barely touched. I’ve heard them speak of the SSS method of dealing with wolves – Shoot, Shovel and Shut-up.
On the flip side the wolf is a part of the ecosystem that belongs and has long been absent. We talk of how much the wolves are beginning to impact elk and deer populations but I don’t hear much talk of how logging roads/outfits, mountain cabins, development into forest lands, etc are impacting those same herds. A friend of mine complains about how the elk keep eating his shrubs but the fact that he build his house in the foothills where elk herd up each fall after the rut is beyond his thought process. It’s pathetic really.
It all comes down to sacrifice on all sides of this – we as hunters, conservationists who want to protect the wolf indefinately, developers, home/McMansion owners…we all need to look outside our own personal desires a bit more often when it comes to complex issues like the Grey Wolf.
Fully agree. Although I don’t have a lot of knowledge on the subject, but learn more and more from my husband on these sort of issues. These aren’t the wild animals of yesterday, killing for food each time. And just like with the coyotes, farmers are losing their livestock. When my husband was a boy he would have to shoot and kill packs of dogs that he would see chasing down and killing deer just to be killing them. These were domesticated neighbor dogs, dogs being fed by their owners and yet they would chase down deer just to kill them.
Good article
Wolves are no different than any other animal,their numbers have too be kept in check.And by the way there are more wolves then the Government admits to.
Just ask a cattle or sheep rancher in the northwest states.
I live on a small rural island where all of the predatory mammals, other than mink, were killed long ago by sheep and cattle farmers. We have no wolves, no coyotes, no cougars, and tons and tons and tons of deer. They are weak, getting smaller and smaller all the time, curly hooves from some sort of mineral deficiency, they are like squirrels here, tame, begging for food from tourists. Apparently they aren’t even worth eating anymore, they are so inbred and unhealthy that the aboriginals that hunt them don’t eat them, just use their pelts. Here the farmers won, and the wildlife is shot, as in, kaput. Nature doesn’t require humans to keep their numbers in check. Wolves caught on farms I can understand shooting, but I don’t agree with keeping their numbers in check for the sake of elk or moose etc, they do just fine in the wild without us.
Unlike some other predators, like grizzlies or cougars, wolves are pack animals, right? Has anyone looked at what happens when you take out the alphas from a wolf pack? I’m wondering if the packs will split up, if they’ll be able to survive and hunt with some members missing, or if they’ll end up turning to easier prey like sheep and cattle (which would sure make this worse for ranchers!). I agree that we should treat them like other predators in general, but I wonder if we can truly predict what will happen once we start hunting them for the first time in decades. Just like Joshua says, respect of nature and responsibility means we have to think about all the potential impacts when we start to “regulate” nature.
I’ll keep this short and sweet. Man needs to leave nature to repair itself. Their meddling has created this inbalance in nature and by leaving it alone will put it back in balance. My husband is an avid hunter, but sees the great contribution wolves make in the ecosystem. Let’s restore nature by working together instead of trying to play God.
Without regulation most predators will eventually have conflict with humans and livestock. Wolves like other predators.. like lets say pedophiles.. left to their own devises will prey on the weak until they exaust their source of prey.. then when their numbers are so big that they cannot be contained then it will be an all out battle to bring their numbers back to a reasonable amount for the habitat they live in. fortunately human predators are hunted down and locked away.. government sponsored terrorists like the grey wolf are allowed to continue to thrive in habitats and in numbers that are damaging to the ecosystems they hunt in.
I’d rather have meat for the table and live guard dogs than wild wolves. My empathy is all with the farmers and their stock.