For the wolf lovers and haters

[BuckSutherland]

There are a couple of good documentaries on PBS that you may or may not have seen. I would invite you to watch them on your interweb connection if you have time. They are called:

1. In the Valley of Wolves (Lamar Valley of Yellowstone)

and

2. Cold Warriors: Wolves and Buffalo

Then after you see what they are doing to the elk and buffalo ask yourself where the moose and deer are going in NE MN.

[walleye18]

love the wolfs and all the wildlife that makes Minnesota awesome....hate the wolfs for what they do to the animals I want to eat and hunt.

[lichen fox]

I think they know what the "major" cause of death is for moose according to these MN-DNR research charts....Now, how will they solve it?

[DrJuice1980]

Wouldn't any prey species have predators as the #1 reason for mortality? Complete shocker.

How much money was spent to tell people that wolves are a predatory animal and eat moose? What a waste.

Where is the same pie chart from 15 yrs ago to compare changes? I bet the percentages are relatively similar.

[BuckSutherland]

I think they know what the "major" cause of death is for moose according to these MN-DNR research charts....Now, how will they solve it?

They will have a ten year study, then they will talk about it at the worthless roundtable discussions and after about 20 years they will finally realize that it is the wolves. In the mean, time MN moose hunting will become a thing of the past, as will doe permits for NE MN. And anyone caught shooting a wolf will be treated like a child molesting criminal.

It will be much more of the same with the DNR. Just look how low they let the white-tail population get in N MN, Lake Mille Lacs, or Red Lake, or just about every panfish lake in the state. Our DNR is incapable of being proactive, only reactive.

[lichen fox]

+1 Buck...it has been pretty obvious in just the first two seasons of wolf population control hunting in Mn that the DNR wants more wolves and less wild prey animals when they darn near cut the quota in half on only the second season...IMO their estimates on "any" wild life populations have no proven credentials...they obviously need a different system to estimate these populations...Maybe they could hire the u.s. census bureau and have them go den to den and make the wolves tell them how many wolves are currently in each family unit and where they live! In the mean time, back at the shack..."S-S-S"

[nonteepical]

The next 1.2 million dollar moose study will be in 2 years, when the moose are extinct, they will have to spend 5 years studying on a computer model if transplanting 6 "healthy" moose from the state of Maine will work, 2 years of that will be trying to figure out how many we will have in 2050 if it works.

[Ufatz]

The wolf is a predator. The moose is prey. You guys are all p.o'ed about wolves because THEY are taking YOUR prey. It's like your neighbor picked all your apples by reaching over the fence.

A wolf is the pack. The pack is the wolf.

[Musky Buck]

Ufatz our prey the moose ? How can they be prey when you can't hunt them ? Even before when thousands would apply and only a few ever got chosen. I remember that wise biologist that said wolf seasons will be very difficult and quota's will rarely get met, whatever wolf master, we're currently having little issue filling the quota a month ahead of schedule 2 years in a row. I can't believe the east central quota is like 10. Our neighbor who trapped one said there were 10 others in the immediate area and more, why so few then you read about with frequency around lake Mille Lacs depredation etc. week after week for awhile in the cuffs and collars, think they could bump that 10 spot up a bit. It makes sense some why so many wolves are showing up in Wadena, OT, Todd,Morrison, now DOuglas counties either they overate what moose and deer were up north so they're traveling more or there's just so many.

[Musky Buck]

While I'm no fan of wolves, I'm not seeking their extinction either, it's the same for me with any animals I feel are overpopulated like I do not like pocket gophers when there's too many, skunks, coyotes, opossums, deer, stunted northern pike, you name it and right now there's too many wolves for the prey. The 1st four I listed there's no closed season, deer you can add tags to your license or bring in more guns to do the job during season, pike can keep a 3 fish limit every time out basically and give them to my aunt to pickle or friends to smoke, but there isn't anything I can do to knock down the wolf pop as the current quota's are being filled each of the 1st 2 seasons. I do think we are at a crossroads of sorts with a lot of hunting and fishing resources and how they get managed etc. and answers aren't simple. I just want the DNR to declare I now live in the new wolf range or something, if not no quota my area and lets send the federal trappers someplace else. This guy got 24 wolves and said he barely made a dent as when he was finished in the area he could still hear 4 packs calling to one another and this is when most people were in disbelief that any wolves were around until they rallied a guys pet deer eventually to it's death, when that story hit the front page and like 3 huge wolves were pictured then people started paying attention and when the grouse hunter was nearly attacked and he shot it at 3 feet away, now people are listening. This not being in the wolves range, should it be a no quota kind of thing or since they can't total out a car the way a bison can just let their range go wherever, but we'd never let the buffalo do the same ? idk Is any of it the end of the world no, if wolves had a vote they'd like to see bucks only for a few years.

[Mo Gator]

Wouldn't any prey species have predators as the #1 reason for mortality? Complete shocker.

How much money was spent to tell people that wolves are a predatory animal and eat moose? What a waste.

Where is the same pie chart from 15 yrs ago to compare changes? I bet the percentages are relatively similar.

The difference is the wolf population has increased significantly over the past 15 years which has resulted in the decline in the moose population (and the deer population in NE MN)

[walleye18]

S-S-S.....we all know what that means!

As a side note, talking to the local CO's, they feel the same in my area referencing the wolfs.....too many and they gotta be thinned out!

[lichen fox]

It is absolutely true that when the wolves have depleted the prey species in a given area and it will no longer sustain the dietary needs of the pack they move on to an area that has enough prey to sustain the pack...unlike deer, wolves don't live out the majority of their lives in a square mile or two...the pack is nomadic and will move where ever the hunting is better...I witnessed this first hand about 20 years ago during bear hunting in the Beltrami Forest...that year we saw probably 20 wolves over the course of the bear season and deer were quite abundant also...two years later, we didn't see a deer, or a wolf, and when we thought about it we realized that we hadn't even seen any type of wolf sign...tracks-scat,etc. meanwhile, about 40 miles east in the forest/ag transition area where I live, we began to see wolf tracks and wolves quite regularly while deer hunting and varmint hunting...control trappers became an every year occurrence as wolves were taking sheep, cattle, & turkeys on area farms...and it is still the same today...here the packs still have enough wild deer and other wild prey, and if hunting wild prey gets to tough they have ample domestic animals to prey upon...

[Recon]

I noticed in the 2013 deer hunting regulations that quite a few of the permit areas were a "hunters choice" in NE Mn. If deer numbers are so low why allow the harvesting of does? I would guess that many of the hunters that shot does also contributed to even lower deer numbers in the years to come! The largest effect on deer populations comes from deer hunters,not wolves ! Mismanagement of our deer herd rests with the DNR! Wolves are just to easy for most to blame for their lack of success and the DNR to blame for a less than stellar deer season!

[leech~~]

We kind of switched over to Deer but the Moose calf kill on the chart is hard to not "Blame" the Wolves on when it's once in a life time hunt and maybe none at all soon. Here's a little blurb from another site. They will admite that all the predators populations are increasing-but just don't want to stick their necks out and take the back lash from all the huggies out their!

In the Rocky Mountains and the Upper Midwest, increasing wolf populations have led others to point the finger toward increased predation as a primary factor. A news article published in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on February 13 reports that 43 moose, including 25 cows were killed by wolves in Grand Teton National Park the winters of 2010 and 2011. Wolves killed another 13 moose in the park in the winter of 2012. But the full implications of predation from wolves, grizzly bears and mountain lions – all of which have had increases in their populations – is not known.

[skee0025]

Each wolf will consume between 15 an 19 deer a year. So you are looking at anywhere between 45 and 57 thousand deer a year if you go with the estimated numbers of wolves in Mn. Given the fact that wolves do not exist statewide and you better believe they have a greater impact than hunters in the areas where they do reside.

[DrJuice1980]

Each wolf will consume between 15 an 19 deer a year. So you are looking at anywhere between 45 and 57 thousand deer a year if you go with the estimated numbers of wolves in Mn.

Doesnt Mother Nature usually find a way to balance it out? Why play god, that never works because people are greedy.

[minky]

I am glad we have a wolf hunt now.

Maybe over time the number of wolves killed will increase.

This would give the moose and deer a little more breathing room.

[leech~~]

Doesnt Mother Nature usually find a way to balance it out? Why play god, that never works because people are greedy.

I wonder if the ranchers around YellowStone would agree with this statement? Maybe the lets not play God part?

[Mid-Lake Rock]

I am glad we have a wolf hunt now.

Maybe over time the number of wolves killed will increase.

This would give the moose and deer a little more breathing room.

I'm not betting my money that there will continue to be a wolf season moving forward because I don't trust the current legislature and governor to keep it. Howling For Wolves is working hard lobbying the legislature. I checked out their FB page and after reading the comments found that they sure hate hunters. According to HFW commenters, if you hunt anything you have a small dingy or no dingy at all. They also can't wait for all hunters to burn in satan's house.

[laker1]

Each wolf will consume between 15 an 19 deer a year. So you are looking at anywhere between 45 and 57 thousand deer a year if you go with the estimated numbers of wolves in Mn. Given the fact that wolves do not exist statewide and you better believe they have a greater impact than hunters in the areas where they do reside.

I think it is about equal.

[lichen fox]

Dr. Juice, you are correct, mother nature will balance it out...when the prey animals are depleted to a point that the wolves no longer have a viable source of food...the wolves too will die...that is one of the ways mother natures population cycles work...another way is by diseases specific to predetors like mange that causes the animals to loose thier coats without which they simply freeze to death! If there is no population control measures to try and prevent diseases mother nature will just run it's course...and if that happens the DNR section of wildlife will be out of a job...other than "mother nature" the wolves have no "natural" predators in Mn...

[DrJuice1980]

Natural selection has placed them here, they will be fine.

[fr0sty]

Send Some Sammiches?!?!

S-S-S.....we all know what that means!

As a side note, talking to the local CO's, they feel the same in my area referencing the wolfs.....too many and they gotta be thinned out!

[Bear55]

Doesnt Mother Nature usually find a way to balance it out? Why play god, that never works because people are greedy.

Yep ma nature will take care of it in due time but its probably not a timeline we want to deal with. So like all things we will step in and do our best, things won't be perfect but they should work out ok.