dollar question that neither the EPA, USFWS, and certainly not the Defend- ers of Wildlife, ever asked, answered, or cared about. What are today’s free rang- ing wolf packs feeding on? They are no longer in Yellowstone confi ned largely to herds of elk and easy prey. Outside the park in the real world of Idaho, Mon- tana, Wyoming, Oregon, and Washing- ton, wolves will feed largely on mule deer, whitetail deer, and elk. Of the three there are more deer than elk, so we can rightly assume they will suffer the brunt of predation. Mule deer already are in trouble in many places throughout the West for a variety of reasons, both man- made and natural. Will they now suffer even greater reductions at the appetite of growing wolf packs? You bet they will! And is the day coming when a lone hunter out for deer or elk is confronted by a pack of wolves? I believe that will happen, too. Wolves hunt in packs because it
makes them more successful than lone killers like black bears, grizzly bears, or mountain lions. Once the snow fl ies, wolves, being lighter, can run over the top of snow while deer and elk founder
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and break through, making them easy targets. Once such a kill is made wolves will feed on it until it’s gone, even if that takes more than one day to consume. Then smaller predators come in to clean up the carcass. There is almost no way any big game department can document from piles of bones left in the spring thaw just how many deer or elk have been taken, when they were killed, or what type of animals were involved. This also is not the late 1800s when
Yellowstone was fi rst deemed a national park and big game herds roamed across the West in far greater numbers than they do today. The only tool available to state game departments today try- ing to control expanding wolf numbers taking deer and elk is by initiating long and liberal wolf seasons to try to cull predator numbers. Of course, we could always call on
the Defenders of Wildlife and their pals to come in and feed dog food to wolves, but somehow I just don’t think they’ll show up. They will be too busy head- ing back to court to stop any wolf hunts planned in the future, not only in the original three states involved, but also
those new states that will try to control wolf numbers as they grow. And so the biological time bomb
known as wolf reintroduction into the Mountain West has come full circle, and with results no one predicted or thought possible. The wolf is on his way to build- ing new numbers wherever he has put a foot down, and there seems little limit where he cannot do so if given time. It is clear that you, me, and all American hunters are the ones who will pay and pay dearly as the big, apex predators take down the valuable big game ani- mals we’ve supported, protected, and paid for over the decades … only to see them now become feed for growing numbers of wolves. That is the real trag- edy of this entire plan. Don’t hold your breath waiting for those who blindly supported the wolf reintroduction scheme, such as ESA administrators, the USFWS, or Defenders of Wildlife, to begin admitting the scale of depredation gray wolves will reap on our cherished big game animals. I promise you that is one statistic they will never bring into a court of law.
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