Culling of wolves

[-TSS-]

I see that you in Canada also have a similar problem to think about as we in my country:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/01/31/bc-wolves-caribou-protect.html

There are contradicting views over a handsome animal being killed to extinction and people's legitimate fears for the safety of their family and domestic animals.

In my country we have observed that wolves have clearly got too much used to the presence of the human and are less afraid than before and venture more into people's yards and cause mayhem. There are countless stories of rural people losing their dogs, their sheep, their cows or even their horses by being mauled to pieces by wolves.

Needless to say that the most ardent protectors of the wolves live in the cities.

[The_Squid]

There are always special interest groups that want to cull things...

wolf culls

seal culls sea lion culls

sea otter culls

bear culls

deer culls

and, one of my favourites, was a proposed cull of cougars, wolves and eagles that was proposed by "conservationists" who wanted to save the Vancouver Island Marmot. The marmot's habitat has been decimated, and ergo the marmot, by 100+ years of industrial logging. Logging practices haven't improved, and (surprise!!) marmots haven't recovered.... but they want to kill some predators and hope it worked.

A cull is sometimes necessary in very rare instances (invasive rabbits for instance), but not as much as special interest groups would have you believe...

[Jack Weber]

I wanna cull sea gulls and Canada geese....

[eyeball]

Cull the cullers.

[-TSS-]

There are estimated 60,000 wolves in Canada. However, as about 99% of Canada is either completely uninhabited or very sparsely populated by human beings there is a lot of room to roam for the wolves. Or is it common in canada that wolves would attack people's farms and kill domestic animals?

There have been news recently in the US that in some parts of the country the wolf-population has increased and has led to conflicts and the authorities have resumed to shooting and poisoning of the wolves.

[The_Squid]

There are estimated 60,000 wolves in Canada. However, as about 99% of Canada is either completely uninhabited or very sparsely populated by human beings there is a lot of room to roam for the wolves. Or is it common in canada that wolves would attack people's farms and kill domestic animals?

There have been news recently in the US that in some parts of the country the wolf-population has increased and has led to conflicts and the authorities have resumed to shooting and poisoning of the wolves.

It's rare, but does occur. And nuisance wolves are killed. There doesn't need to be a mass cull to get rid of a few that cause issues.

[Guest American Woman]

There are estimated 60,000 wolves in Canada. However, as about 99% of Canada is either completely uninhabited or very sparsely populated by human beings there is a lot of room to roam for the wolves. Or is it common in canada that wolves would attack people's farms and kill domestic animals?

There have been news recently in the US that in some parts of the country the wolf-population has increased and has led to conflicts and the authorities have resumed to shooting and poisoning of the wolves.

In parts of the U.S., as in where I live, the gray wolf is considered an endangered species, and thus protected. It's also true in Wisconsin, and in Minnesota they are considered a protected species - so authorities most definitely are not killing them in these states, but there have been a number of illegal kills. In some states the population is rising, and yes, they have been known to attack and kill livestock, so it is a problem. There's no easy answer that I can see, although personally I'm for protecting them. On the rare occasion that I see a wolf, I consider it a privilege.

Edited April 14, 2012 by American Woman

[-TSS-]

In parts of the U.S., as in where I live, the gray wolf is considered an endangered species, and thus protected. It's also true in Wisconsin, and in Minnesota they are considered a protected species - so authorities most definitely are not killing them in these states, but there have been a number of illegal kills. In some states the population is rising, and yes, they have been known to attack and kill livestock, so it is a problem. There's no easy answer that I can see, although personally I'm for protecting them. On the rare occasion that I see a wolf, I consider it a privilege.

Thank you for a very nice answer you just gave to me!

However, it can't help escape my mind that you must be a city-person, aren't you? If you lived in the countryside you most certainly wouldn't have written the stuff you just wrote.

[Guest American Woman]

.

Edited November 6, 2013 by American Woman

[-TSS-]

You're welcome.

I live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (U.P.), which is one-third the land mass of the state (which makes it about the size of Denmark), a state with a population of 9,876,187, yet the U.P. has a population of only 320,000 (compared to Denmark's 5,544,139)) - so I'll let you figure out how much of a "city-person" I am.

Thank you very much. You just gave an accurate explanation as to what the density of population is where you live. When you gave the European comparison, in this case Denmark, I really understand what you're saying.

As for the subject, you feel no need for the wolves to be culled if they make visits to people's farms? It was just a day or two ago in the news that in many parts of the US they have resumed to killing of wolves as the wolf-population has risen and propably there is not enough food in the nature to feed the whole wolf-population, therefore the wolves become very aggressive and invade people's farms.

[jbg]

In my country we have observed that wolves have clearly got too much used to the presence of the human and are less afraid than before and venture more into people's yards and cause mayhem. There are countless stories of rural people losing their dogs, their sheep, their cows or even their horses by being mauled to pieces by wolves.

Needless to say that the most ardent protectors of the wolves live in the cities.

I feel strongly that wild species should not be "culled" to promote other wild species. On the other hand, I do agree that fear of man must be installed in wolves, cougars and bears. That may involve some harassment, shooting and trapping. But the goal should not include the reduction of predator populations.

Similarly, deer, moose and other species should not be encouraged to become too comfortable with humans. The results, even with those species, can be tragic and dangerous.

[Guest American Woman]

Thank you very much. You just gave an accurate explanation as to what the density of population is where you live. When you gave the European comparison, in this case Denmark, I really understand what you're saying.

You're welcome.

As for the subject, you feel no need for the wolves to be culled if they make visits to people's farms? It was just a day or two ago in the news that in many parts of the US they have resumed to killing of wolves as the wolf-population has risen and propably there is not enough food in the nature to feed the whole wolf-population, therefore the wolves become very aggressive and invade people's farms.

As I said initially, it is a problem. There's no easy answer that I can see, but I don't believe in culling; for the most part, I agree with what jbg said.

I have to wonder why there is not enough food in nature to feed them; are we over-hunting? Should we ease back for awhile?

As for the problems farmers face with their livestock, an overabundance of other animals that wolves feed on results in farmers losing crops to those animals. It is a problem; I'm not downplaying that, but I don't see killing them off as the answer.

I do think one of the problems is that some people feed them and think it's great to have a friendly rapport with them, but this is dangerous to people at large - no one should be teaching these wild animals to interact with people; to trust people.

[jbg]

As for the problems farmers face with their livestock, an overabundance of other animals that wolves feed on results in farmers losing crops to those animals. It is a problem; I'm not downplaying that, but I don't see killing them off as the answer.

I do think one of the problems is that some people feed them and think it's great to have a friendly rapport with them, but this is dangerous to people at large - no one should be teaching these wild animals to interact with people; to trust people.

I believe that all wild animal-human interactions need to be discouraged. As we learned from the Stamford, Connecticut chimp (link to thread) a few years ago wild animals remain wild.