Editor:
There
has been much publicity recently about 19 elk (17 were calves from
2015) killed in a single night by wolves at the McNeel feedground near
Bondurant. This publicity has been accompanied by considerable hand
wringing, teeth gnashing and crocodile tears from state wildlife
officials and outfitters over the wolves killing for "sport" and not
even eating their kills. It should be made clear that wolves do not kill
for "sport." Human hunters kill for "sport", not wolves. Wolves may
make "surplus" kills being opportunistic carnivores, if prey species are
by geography, age groups, or behavior placed in vulnerable positions
(such as artificial concentrations at feedgrounds).
However wolves have no intention of
not consuming these kills. Unless displaced from such a surplus kill
site, they will return again and again until the prey species are
completely consumed.
Even if wolves are completely
driven from the area, the carcasses, if left in place, will eventually
be consumed by other predators, scavengers, microorganisms, etc. and
these deaths will be reincorporated into the fertility of the ecosystem.
The real villains in this story are
not the wolves, but the state politicians and wildlife officials who
demand elk feedgrounds that artificially concentrate prey species in
abnormally high numbers that render them not only more susceptible to
such opportunistic surplus killing but also serves as breeding grounds
for such diseases as chronic wasting disease and brucellosis.
A
better response to this killing than railing against the wolves is to
stop treating elk as livestock, close the feedgrounds and let the elk
disperse across public rangelands for their winter foraging. This
management strategy will result in smaller but healthier herds and with
less opportunity for sporadic surplus killing by the wolf.
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