Wolves tend to kill coyotes and other competitors. It would be interesting to see whether this caused a net decrease or increase in predation on domestic animals.
Coyotes are the main cause of livestock loss by a fairly large margin.
http://www.wildrockiesalliance.org/i...rspective.html
Quote:
2000 Sheep Losses in Idaho
66% of sheep losses were due to disease, accidents, injuries and weather
34% were due to predator depredations.
Of these depredations, 69% were caused by coyotes, 9% by dogs, 6% by bears, 4% by mountain lions, 2% by foxes, 3% by unknown animals and only 0.4% by wolves.
(Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture)
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iirc the above information is also in the WDFW Wolf plan but I didn't have the patience to read the thing again.
Just to step back a bit. This is a subject that where it is surprisingly difficult to find primary sources. I've tried to link only to government sources or ones that directly link to them. But there's a large static to signal ratio.
For various reasons this is a subject that tends to get emotional. Imho how we treat wolves shouldn't have any more emotional weight than how we talk about moose or grouse. But that's not the way it is.
In other words it's probably a good idea to double check your sources and tone down on the snark.