Q & A Session with the Wolf Pack
The following question and answer session was prepared by Dr. Ken Fischman, a long-time research geneticist and conservationist from the northern Rockies.
Q: What is the wolf population in Minnesota, compared to that of Idaho, since both states are comparable is size?
A: Minnesota’s most recent wolf population estimates say there are 2,200 which is roughly (4x) as many wolves currently in Idaho. The 2014 wolf hunt was halted in midseason in order to evaluate the effects of the hunt on the wolves, livestock, and other wildlife.
Q: How did grey wolves in the northern Rockies lose their federal protection?
A: Wolves were removed from the Endangered Species List by a political maneuver, in placing a rider on a must-pass appropriations bill. It was never voted on or even debated. This marks the first time an animal was removed for other than scientific reasons.
Q: Is it normal for a species to be hunted/trapped after being removed from the endangered species list?
A: Wolves were hunted in Idaho barely five months after being taken off the Endangered Species List. No other species has had this happen to them. Almost 300 wolves were killed in Idaho & Montana’s first hunts in 2010, and this number increased to over 550 in 2012. (Does not include wolves killed for livestock depredation). No other species has had this happen to them.
Q: What is the quota for killing wolves in Idaho?
A: In most of the state, IDFG did not even set an overall quota for the 2011 – 2012 and subsequent hunts. Hunters were allowed to kill as many wolves as possible. Since then, individual quotas have been set at 10 wolves each, with trapping, baiting, & electronic wolf calls being legal.
Q: Are wolves headed towards a second extermination?
A: The killing of such a large percentage of the wolf population amounts to a slow motion extermination campaign. It is certainly not “managing” wildlife.
Q: How long is the wolf hunting season in Idaho?
A: The 2011-12 Idaho wolf hunting season was 10 months long - beginning September 1, 2011 and ending in late June 2012. This long a hunting season is highly unusual for any animal, and impacts the wolves’ mating and denning seasons.
Q: Have wolves ever killed a human being?
A: There have been only two authenticated deaths of humans caused by wolves in North America in the last 200 years. You are in greater danger of being killed by a dog. For example, dogs killed twenty-seven people in 1997-1998.
Q: What role do wolves play on the landscape? Why are they so important?
A: Wolves belong in our wild areas. They are an essential part of a healthy and functioning ecosystem. As an apex or keystone predator, they are crucial to the well being of everything from flowering plants and trees to insects and all the other mammals,including elk and deer.
A: There has been talk about wolves in Idaho being “aliens” because they were introduced from British Columbia & Alberta. These statements have no scientific basis. All state wildlife agencies as well as independent scientists agree that genetically, the wolves that were historically eradicated from the northern Rockies and the wolves that have been re-introduced in the past decade are the same species (Canus lupus).
Q: Is it true that these wolves can weigh up to 200lbs?
A: All timber wolves (Canis lupus) were exterminated in the lower US by the 1940s. Replacement wolves were imported from Alberta and British Columbia in 1996 by US Fish & Wildlife for the purpose of reintroducing them in the United States. (no visas were necessary). DNA studies have established that these wolves are the same species as the original ones. There have been wild claims that these wolves are huge, many over 200 lbs. All wolves killed (188) in the first 2009-2010 Idaho wolf hunt were officially weighed by IDFG agents. The average female was 86 lbs. and the average male, 101 lbs. The largest was 127 lbs.
Q: Is it true that wolves are eating all the elk in Idaho?
A: Many hunters claim that wolves are decimating elk herds. According to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation 2007 Report, the Idaho elk population has been above 100,000 since 1985, and the northern Rockies elk population increased 32.9% in the last 25 years. Elk numbers in Idaho increased by 3,000 in 2010 alone. In 2013, record numbers of elk were killed by hunters in Wyoming, erasing the previous record, set in 2012. The western United States now has over one million of these animals.
Q: Do wolves effect elk behavior?
A: Idaho’s elk population fluctuates, but the hunters’ have a perception that elk numbers are decreasing. This is false and probably due to the fact that wolves may be pushing elk off the valley floors and into the mountains, making the hunters work harder to find them. Another words, elk might not be hanging out in places where they used to; their behavior is changing.
Q: Are wolves eating a lot of cattle and sheep?
A: Contrary to the claims of ranchers, wolves are not killing off large numbers of livestock. According to the United States Agricultural Administration’s Statistical Bureau they are responsible for less than 2% of all livestock deaths due to predation (less than 0.1% in Idaho). In 2008, feral dogs killed more than four times as many sheep in Idaho than wolves did. In 2012, two dogs killed 44 sheep north of Riverton, Wyoming. Eagles and other raptors carry off far more lambs than wolves kill. In the northern Idaho Panhandle, hunters were allowed to kill 120 wolves in 2013 despite there never having been a single incident of wolves killing livestock in that region.
Q: What percentage of livestock are wolves eating?
A: There are 2.2 million cattle in Idaho. Last year wolves killed seventy-one cattle. Can you do the math to figure out the % killed? Hint: It is less than 1/100th of 1%.
Q: What impacts will all the hunting/trapping have on wolves?
A: IDFG’s “wolf-management” strategy will reduce wolves to a remnant population. Most wolf biologists agree that they would become geneticallyisolated, prone to inbreeding and disease, and unable to perform their historic function in bringing balance to the ecosystem.
Q: How many wolves are in Idaho? Does anyone know?
A: IDFG is using conflicting numbers when reporting wolf population numbers. It’s a moving target. They assumed a steady annual increase of 20-22% whereas in reality Idaho’s wolf population increased by 8.8%, 15.6%, and dropped 0.4% in 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively. In 2012, they decreased 11%(USFW statistics).
Q: Have wolves been responsible for any livestock loss/depredation in the Idaho Panhandle?
A: There has never been a single case of livestock depredation due to wolves reported in Idaho’s Panhandle. IDFG estimated the wolf population there to be a minimum of (55) wolves in 2012. Nevertheless, the wolf hunt quota for the Panhandle was removed. A total of 71 wolves were killed by hunters/trappers.
Q: Do wolves kill for fun?
A: As an apex or keystone predator, wolves are crucial to the well being of everything from flowering plants and trees to insects and all the other mammals, including elk and deer. The number one rule for all wild animals is conservation of energy. Wolves would not chase down an elk or deer unless they were hungry and stood a good chance of catching the prey animal. Sometimes, when domestic sheep do not react to wolves by taking flight as cattle and elk normally do, their lack of response seems to trigger a killing frenzy. Other predators, like coyotes, grizzlies, and feral dogs show similar behavior
Q: Do wolves have a fair shot in states like Idaho?
A: Wolves are being persecuted in states like Idaho. Governor Butch Otter said he wanted to be the first in line to kill a wolf when federal protections were removed.
Q: Do wolves carry tape worms or disease that threatens humans?
A: Wolf haters claim that wolves are infected with tape worms (Echinococcus) and that they are a threat to infect hunters with the worms. All wolves originally released in 1996 by US Fish & Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park and in Idaho were dewormed first. The Montana & Idaho state wildlife agencies, as well as independent scientists, have stated that tape worms were endemic to domestic livestock long before wolves were restored in the region. Therefore, any Echinococus infections found in wolves in these states, were the result of their contact with local domestic animals and wildlife. In addition, big-animal veterinarians have testified in these state legislatures that there is little or no danger of people becoming infected from handling wolf carcasses.
Q: What is the ratio of wolves-elk-people in states like Idaho?
A: If you divided up Idaho into areas of 100-square miles, and evenly distributed people, elk and wolves among the areas, you would have in each chunk 1 wolf - 140 elk - 800 people. That demonstrates how few wolves there really are. How are they to fulfill their role of keystone predator?
Q. How many wolves were killed in Idaho in 2013?
A 356 wolves were killed in the 2013 Idaho hunt, and in addition 94 were killed for alleged depredation of 448 livestock. (note: there are over one million cattle in Idaho) There were another 16 human caused mortalities. This made a total of 466 wolves killed by humans. This does not include naturally caused wolf mortalities, such as disease, pup mortality, severe winters, etc. (note: life in the wild is challenging for a wolf, and it is rare for one to die of old age).
Q: What is the wolf population in Minnesota, compared to that of Idaho, since both states are comparable is size?
A: Minnesota’s most recent wolf population estimates say there are 2,200 which is roughly (4x) as many wolves currently in Idaho. The 2014 wolf hunt was halted in midseason in order to evaluate the effects of the hunt on the wolves, livestock, and other wildlife.
Q: How did grey wolves in the northern Rockies lose their federal protection?
A: Wolves were removed from the Endangered Species List by a political maneuver, in placing a rider on a must-pass appropriations bill. It was never voted on or even debated. This marks the first time an animal was removed for other than scientific reasons.
Q: Is it normal for a species to be hunted/trapped after being removed from the endangered species list?
A: Wolves were hunted in Idaho barely five months after being taken off the Endangered Species List. No other species has had this happen to them. Almost 300 wolves were killed in Idaho & Montana’s first hunts in 2010, and this number increased to over 550 in 2012. (Does not include wolves killed for livestock depredation). No other species has had this happen to them.
Q: What is the quota for killing wolves in Idaho?
A: In most of the state, IDFG did not even set an overall quota for the 2011 – 2012 and subsequent hunts. Hunters were allowed to kill as many wolves as possible. Since then, individual quotas have been set at 10 wolves each, with trapping, baiting, & electronic wolf calls being legal.
Q: Are wolves headed towards a second extermination?
A: The killing of such a large percentage of the wolf population amounts to a slow motion extermination campaign. It is certainly not “managing” wildlife.
Q: How long is the wolf hunting season in Idaho?
A: The 2011-12 Idaho wolf hunting season was 10 months long - beginning September 1, 2011 and ending in late June 2012. This long a hunting season is highly unusual for any animal, and impacts the wolves’ mating and denning seasons.
Q: Have wolves ever killed a human being?
A: There have been only two authenticated deaths of humans caused by wolves in North America in the last 200 years. You are in greater danger of being killed by a dog. For example, dogs killed twenty-seven people in 1997-1998.
Q: What role do wolves play on the landscape? Why are they so important?
A: Wolves belong in our wild areas. They are an essential part of a healthy and functioning ecosystem. As an apex or keystone predator, they are crucial to the well being of everything from flowering plants and trees to insects and all the other mammals,including elk and deer.
A: There has been talk about wolves in Idaho being “aliens” because they were introduced from British Columbia & Alberta. These statements have no scientific basis. All state wildlife agencies as well as independent scientists agree that genetically, the wolves that were historically eradicated from the northern Rockies and the wolves that have been re-introduced in the past decade are the same species (Canus lupus).
Q: Is it true that these wolves can weigh up to 200lbs?
A: All timber wolves (Canis lupus) were exterminated in the lower US by the 1940s. Replacement wolves were imported from Alberta and British Columbia in 1996 by US Fish & Wildlife for the purpose of reintroducing them in the United States. (no visas were necessary). DNA studies have established that these wolves are the same species as the original ones. There have been wild claims that these wolves are huge, many over 200 lbs. All wolves killed (188) in the first 2009-2010 Idaho wolf hunt were officially weighed by IDFG agents. The average female was 86 lbs. and the average male, 101 lbs. The largest was 127 lbs.
Q: Is it true that wolves are eating all the elk in Idaho?
A: Many hunters claim that wolves are decimating elk herds. According to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation 2007 Report, the Idaho elk population has been above 100,000 since 1985, and the northern Rockies elk population increased 32.9% in the last 25 years. Elk numbers in Idaho increased by 3,000 in 2010 alone. In 2013, record numbers of elk were killed by hunters in Wyoming, erasing the previous record, set in 2012. The western United States now has over one million of these animals.
Q: Do wolves effect elk behavior?
A: Idaho’s elk population fluctuates, but the hunters’ have a perception that elk numbers are decreasing. This is false and probably due to the fact that wolves may be pushing elk off the valley floors and into the mountains, making the hunters work harder to find them. Another words, elk might not be hanging out in places where they used to; their behavior is changing.
Q: Are wolves eating a lot of cattle and sheep?
A: Contrary to the claims of ranchers, wolves are not killing off large numbers of livestock. According to the United States Agricultural Administration’s Statistical Bureau they are responsible for less than 2% of all livestock deaths due to predation (less than 0.1% in Idaho). In 2008, feral dogs killed more than four times as many sheep in Idaho than wolves did. In 2012, two dogs killed 44 sheep north of Riverton, Wyoming. Eagles and other raptors carry off far more lambs than wolves kill. In the northern Idaho Panhandle, hunters were allowed to kill 120 wolves in 2013 despite there never having been a single incident of wolves killing livestock in that region.
Q: What percentage of livestock are wolves eating?
A: There are 2.2 million cattle in Idaho. Last year wolves killed seventy-one cattle. Can you do the math to figure out the % killed? Hint: It is less than 1/100th of 1%.
Q: What impacts will all the hunting/trapping have on wolves?
A: IDFG’s “wolf-management” strategy will reduce wolves to a remnant population. Most wolf biologists agree that they would become geneticallyisolated, prone to inbreeding and disease, and unable to perform their historic function in bringing balance to the ecosystem.
Q: How many wolves are in Idaho? Does anyone know?
A: IDFG is using conflicting numbers when reporting wolf population numbers. It’s a moving target. They assumed a steady annual increase of 20-22% whereas in reality Idaho’s wolf population increased by 8.8%, 15.6%, and dropped 0.4% in 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively. In 2012, they decreased 11%(USFW statistics).
Q: Have wolves been responsible for any livestock loss/depredation in the Idaho Panhandle?
A: There has never been a single case of livestock depredation due to wolves reported in Idaho’s Panhandle. IDFG estimated the wolf population there to be a minimum of (55) wolves in 2012. Nevertheless, the wolf hunt quota for the Panhandle was removed. A total of 71 wolves were killed by hunters/trappers.
Q: Do wolves kill for fun?
A: As an apex or keystone predator, wolves are crucial to the well being of everything from flowering plants and trees to insects and all the other mammals, including elk and deer. The number one rule for all wild animals is conservation of energy. Wolves would not chase down an elk or deer unless they were hungry and stood a good chance of catching the prey animal. Sometimes, when domestic sheep do not react to wolves by taking flight as cattle and elk normally do, their lack of response seems to trigger a killing frenzy. Other predators, like coyotes, grizzlies, and feral dogs show similar behavior
Q: Do wolves have a fair shot in states like Idaho?
A: Wolves are being persecuted in states like Idaho. Governor Butch Otter said he wanted to be the first in line to kill a wolf when federal protections were removed.
Q: Do wolves carry tape worms or disease that threatens humans?
A: Wolf haters claim that wolves are infected with tape worms (Echinococcus) and that they are a threat to infect hunters with the worms. All wolves originally released in 1996 by US Fish & Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park and in Idaho were dewormed first. The Montana & Idaho state wildlife agencies, as well as independent scientists, have stated that tape worms were endemic to domestic livestock long before wolves were restored in the region. Therefore, any Echinococus infections found in wolves in these states, were the result of their contact with local domestic animals and wildlife. In addition, big-animal veterinarians have testified in these state legislatures that there is little or no danger of people becoming infected from handling wolf carcasses.
Q: What is the ratio of wolves-elk-people in states like Idaho?
A: If you divided up Idaho into areas of 100-square miles, and evenly distributed people, elk and wolves among the areas, you would have in each chunk 1 wolf - 140 elk - 800 people. That demonstrates how few wolves there really are. How are they to fulfill their role of keystone predator?
Q. How many wolves were killed in Idaho in 2013?
A 356 wolves were killed in the 2013 Idaho hunt, and in addition 94 were killed for alleged depredation of 448 livestock. (note: there are over one million cattle in Idaho) There were another 16 human caused mortalities. This made a total of 466 wolves killed by humans. This does not include naturally caused wolf mortalities, such as disease, pup mortality, severe winters, etc. (note: life in the wild is challenging for a wolf, and it is rare for one to die of old age).