[Rich Lucibella]

Originally Posted by CarbineCaleb

Have you heard of any lack of deer/moose/elk in Canada? Is it impossible to raise livestock in Canada, which has 55,000 wolves?
There is nothing to fear. If wolves are reintroduced, I am sure there will be some level of predation on deer as well as livestock. But, it will not threaten the numbers of either one.

Carbine-
This is simply naive and patently untrue.

The Canadians don't exactly have a love affair with wolves; and they are hardly living in "harmony" with the rest of the pretty forest animals:
http://www3.gov.ab.ca/srd/fw/wolves/evol.html

What you will see on this site is a proudly reported Government history of wolf "management" results over a 60 year period:
- Step 1: Reintroduce and protect the wolves
- Step 2: The wolves significantly reduce ungulate numbers so we ban hunting those ungulates
- Step 3: The prey continues to dwindlle, so we retrict human travel in those areas.
- Step 4: The prey population is depleted to the point that the wolves cannot be supported so they eat each other and starve. (Of course, in many parts of the US, they'll eat livestock before starving....then the "bad" ranchers will shoot them and be arrested.)
- Step 5: "Equilibrium" achieved. Of course, that equilibrium is defined thusly: "natural wolf-ungulate systems tend to stabilize at low numbers."....and this is a good thing?

By the mid-1970s, the management perspective began to change again. Wolves had returned to abundance, livestock problems had increased, and hunters complained of too many wolves and too few ungulates. Studies in Alaska, Minnesota and on Isle Royale, Michigan, quantified wolf kill rates and revealed situations where predation was the dominant depressant of ungulate populations

In Alberta, wolves returned to public prominence during the early 1980s. In 1982, Albertans reported more sightings, including packs in or near settlements. Livestock kills were up, and hunters renewed their complaints. There was no doubt that wolves had taken advantage of favorable conditions. Biologists reported die-offs of moose from ticks across a wide belt stretching from east-central to northwestern Alberta during the preceding winter. Wolves apparently found a plentiful food supply, which allowed high reproduction and survival of pups leading to resurgence in populations. Resulting public discussion prompted government to announce several provisional wolf management strategies in January 1983.

Strategies were designed to encourage a trapping harvest of 30 percent of the provincial wolf population. During 1983-1985, wolf trapping instruction and complimentary equipment were provided to trappers.

During this period, investigations of Alberta's only migratory herd of woodland caribou in Willmore Wilderness-Grande Cache, revealed wolf predation was a likely contributor to the herd's decline. The caribou, which numbered 1000 to 1600 in the 1960s, had plummeted to about 300 by 1980. Caribou were classified as threatened throughout the province, and the hunting season was closed in 1981, but the herd did not respond. Ten of 12 deaths of radioed caribou were thought to be predator-caused, and wolves were implicated in several of them. To assist the herd, the provincial caribou plan of 1986 recommended wolf reductions as one component of restoration.

control of traffic to reduce mortalities on the Grande Cache highway.

By the mid-1980s, wildlife managers were reporting fewer wolves on winter moose surveys. This decline was not unexpected because many of the northern herds were at low densities and could support few wolves. Rapid declines had been observed in Minnesota, Isle Royale, and in Jasper National Park following the demise of principal prey species. In these situations, wolves invade neighboring territories, fight and kill one another, and starve. This course of events undoubtedly occurred in parts of northern Alberta. Scientists postulate that natural wolf-ungulate systems tend to stabilize at low numbers.

Anybody who believes wolves can simply be air-dropped into the US, without controlled hunting programs, had best go out and take some pictures of our Elk Herds now. Pass 'em on to your kids.....chances are, they'll never have the opportunity to see what you photographed in the wild.
Rich