wyoming wolves
I have heard that the deer and elk populations are way down since the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone. There were packs established outside the Park in two years at most. The animals don't seem as visible, but there it is hard to discern what the causes are or if I am just not seeing them. Like other posters have said, disease, winter kill, and vehicles collisions are all factors to consider. Hunter harvest reports show deer are way down from five years ago, but about the same as ten years ago. Elk harvest was way up in 2012 from 2011, but has been holding pretty steady for ten years. I didn't find pre-1995 data in a quick search from when wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone.
This is the second year that it has been legal to hunt wolves in Wyoming and I have heard that the harvest for wolves is way down from last year. I have heard that the wolves are getting very wary already of any human contact. Hopefully that means less livestock depredation. I am curious as to where most of the wolves were killed as predators. There were only two wolf areas with unfilled quotas and 39 killed as predators.
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