A message to antis. (Wolves)
 

Good video

I watched a few of his videos. He’s got some great stories.

Shot a yearling deer last week that had its hind end ate off by a wolf or coyote while it was still alive. One of the more horrifying things I’ve witnessed in nature. Funny how wolf and coyote lovers never mention things like that. After all we know wolves and coyotes only eat what they need to survive and only kill what they eat...

Pretty interesting.

12 1/2 minutes of truth that most of the world doesn't want to hear. I have heard it said many times, "The truth hurts".

While I agree with the video to some extent, we hunters are famous for talking out of both sides of our mouths.
Example, non hunter asks why we kill coyotes. “To help the deer population”. Ok fair enough.
Another non hunter asks why we shoot antlerless deer. “There’s too many getting hit on the highway so we need to thin the herd”.
You can’t have it both ways!!!!!
Point is this. Yes habitat loss and development can aid in wolf predation. I don’t think we can argue that. Just remember it’s ok to say we kill deer because it’s in our blood as hunters to enjoy the pursuit. Let’s stop pretending that EVERYTHING we do is with populations in mind.

Not accusing anyone, just general musings from what I see as justification for our passions. It’s ok to like hunting for hunting. Even if it is a controversial species being targeted (wolf, grizz etc). We don’t need to justify or even take it a step further- and BLAME the antis like the guy in the video. He has a point, just something to keep in mind

Or how about the fact we all seem to feel the pressure about talking about the MEAT end of things.. BLAH BLAH BLAH. I cant stand eating deer meat. I crack a deer and the whole thing gets turned into sausage just so I can give it away. But I sure do like deer hunting. Am I a Monster?? I am tired of justifying it all. Fact is, I like hunting.

He is saying that we are responsible for making it so much easier for the wolves to get to their prey with the roads and trails we make. The wolves would not be that mobile because they can't move around in the snow? In the valleys i have seen the snow is what makes the animals(prey of wolves) come down to the bottom of the valleys in the winter. The snow is what befits the wolves as the prey can't stand on top of the snow and break through which makes travel difficult and the wolves are able to stand on top of the snow. The snowmobile, roads, and trails would help the prey out more than the wolves.....Many of the prey find sanctuary in the towns and habitat created by the humans that the wolves won't habituate as boldly and I think this is much more of an imbalance than many of the other issues. It was an interesting video but the explanation is full of holes imo.

What he said is true. Take seismic lines for example. You think it benifits ungulates or wolves more? Wolves are able to cover waaay more ground because of it. With 3 feet of snow a wolf doesn’t cover much ground. On a skidoo track or road they eat up the miles until they cut a track. It’s a no brainer. Look at the tracks on the side of an oilfield road if your ever out there. Go out with a trapper on his line checking sets one day. You’ll see wolves following the skidoo track. Only time it leaves is about 50 yards before each set. Only to reappear about 50 yards after the set.

When you work in the bush everyday its as plain as the nose on your face that access has created the imbalance. It takes so little effort to get around on the disturbance. Unless logging, mining and oil and gas are going to cease and everything is going to be reclaimed we need on going predator management. Period

Only difference between now and 50 years ago is wolf gets to supper table a little earlier with a seismic line or road. He still will kill the moose/deer or elk just a few hours earlier in the evening. The problem is too many wolves not too many roads or cutlines. Just a "Red Herring" for biologists to think they may have a solution. PS most cutlines are already grown over, they were opened in the 50's.

17 years ago in Spatiz BC, were problems with sledders giving wolf's access to caribou

Not really. The wolves 50 yrs ago or so were persecuted to extremely low numbers. There wasnt nearly same amount of access roads, seismic, and pipelines that we have today. Snowmoblies ownership has gone through the roof, there are new seismic avoidance line put in everyday.... roadless areas are now have roads. The easy access has created a false economy for the wolves in the last few decades and they are abounding. Not really a red hearing as oil and gas and logging, mining are not going anywhere but it really just reiterats how badly predator management is needed. All that disturbance creates ungulate habitat too, just creates easy hunting for the predators. Furthermore even over grown seismic lines are still well utilized by predator and prey.

wolves
 

Husky, over grown line with alders very hard to access, much easier for wolf to just run through open bush near line. You will never convience this Old trapper/hunter that has been in Alberta bush for 60 years that cutline access needed for wolves to get their supper. Seen them running at 30km/hr through heavy bush running down deer.

Wow I wonder how wolves ever made a living killing ungulates for 40 MILLION YEARS prior to seismic lines and snowmobiles?:rolleye2:

I wish he'd carried on a bit more. I'm not a biologist, live in the mountains, or have much interaction with wolves. But, if he had carried on, wouldn't it be:

-Wolf pack can no longer sustain themselfs due to the growing pack and declining ungulates;
-Wolf pack starts dying off/moves to another valley as there is less food;
-Less wolves, ungulates population starts increasing?

I have to ask, would all this winter hiking and packed snow shoe trails also make a difference? The easy (Easier) access thing makes sense to me.

"Less" wolves does not ensure ungulate populations will increase.

The catch phrase is "Predator Pit".

Prey populations get so low that they can't rebound as long as there is ANY predation mortality. Such as we are experiencing with caribou in many places.


Lewis and Clarke experience such a phenomenon during their travels.
This is why the crew nearly starved to death and resorted to eating their best friends (mules and dogs) in order to survive. The expedition entered a landscape that was so large and completely devoid of life that they ran out of supplies before they could transverse the area. Predators had consumed Everything for hundreds of miles, then themselves died or left.... it took nearly a century for wildlife to repopulate the void. On Nature's terms, this was/is fine.

So this over-predation has been going on since before white man laid eyes upon much of western North America....but snowmobiles and seismic lines are the problem.

Agreed. If all we cared about was helping the wildlife then we'd donate money towards fixing the problem. Hunting is something I live for and it has benefits for the wildlife population. Nuff said.

A problem only exists if it is considered to be such.

If ungulate population suppression and extirpation through predator predation is considered a problem, then it is.
Within this construct, humans are responsible for influencing ecosystem characteristics that are currently benefiting predators at the expense of ungulates.

Currently, Snowmobile and seismic lines are A, not The, problem.


Steve Isdahl's message in the video is completely accurate.
Right now, roads and an unwillingness to control wolves is causing ungulate populations to crash.
If society decides that the ungulates must be made a priority, the solutions are easy.
Eliminate wolves or roads, or a combination of both.

If wolves are in places that they shouldn’t be because of human activity, the responsible thing would be to reduce those numbers back to normal levels.

As stated by Walking Buffalo, the balance will be restored, but I don’t want to wait for a 100 years to have ungulates back in our forests.

I NEVER stated that balance will be restored.

There is no such thing as a state of Balance in Nature.

Wolves will be wherever they are able to be. And will do what they do.
Even if that eventually negatively effect their future.

Just as humans do.

We need to understand these realities.