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Originally Posted by normstad
OK, I may have missed that. The way I see it, predators have different impacts. As I said earlier, bears are really bad on moose for sure (taking up to 50% of calves under 6 weeks old), and I assume similar realities on elk.
Wolves certainly can have a short term real impact on ungulates, I don't think anyone will disagree with that. The problem with wolves though is multi-faceted. If you take out the alpha male and female, the pack will just split up, with two alphas now. I don't don't think that will end up in less wolves. If the ungulate population goes down, either wolves will breed less or move out.
Now cougars are a totally different situation. They seem to moving into areas they've never been, and a lot of that has to do with increase in deer herds. I wish they would go out in the CWD areas and clean up there, and I've heard some may have been spotted there in fact.
The long and short still is habitat. I see more issues with forestry practices, and some O&G than I do with wolves. But that's just me. I figure if a critter doesn't have a kitchen to eat out of, and a bedroom to sleep and procreate in, it won't be around there for long.
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Isn’t that the scenario that Dwight uses as a reason for not managing wolf populations? If you kill them there will be more of them? Let them eat all of the ungulates and when there’s none left they’ll move somewhere else and do the same thing?
I don’t profess to be an expert about wolves, but what about other scenarios, like if you trap the juveniles in the pack and not both alpha wolves there’d be fewer of them.