It’s not easy running a pro-wolf blog in 2010, it feels more like 1910. Sometimes I write my posts through tears, because I can’t fathom the vitriol directed at wolves.
When a girl was filmed throwing newborn puppies off a bridge into an icy river, the world was outraged and rightly so, I couldn’t bring myself to watch the video. But the state of Idaho is talking about gassing wolf pups to death in their dens, sterilizing alpha pairs and the world is silent? Where’s the outrage? Where’s the media? They are reporting this as if it’s just business as usual. What makes killing wolf pups so cruelly any different then tossing puppies off a bridge?
To get away from it all I enjoy hiking and spending time in the wilderness. It’s necessary for my mental health. Nobody could write about this 24/7 without some kind of a diversion. So as we’ve done many times over the years, we hiked into Glacier National Park, traveling up Going-to-the-Sun road to Logan Pass, then on to Hidden Lake. We were so lucky to be on the pass over the past weekend. Mountain goats, Big Horned Sheep, marmots and ground squirrels abounded. Didn’t see wolves or grizzlies but that’s for another trip.
I posted some of the pics on Wolf Warrior’s Facebook page. It was a balm to my spirit to see these beautiful animals flourishing in the high alpine meadows on the Crown of the Continent.
Mountain goat billy, losing his horn.
Mama mountain goat (nanny) and her babes (kids)
Hoary Marmot
Alpine Meadow
Approach to Hidden Lake
Big Horn Sheep Rams
Big Horned Sheep Ewe
Hidden Lake
Photos: Nabeki
Posted in: Glacier National Park
Tags: Hidden Lake, Logan Pass, Glacier National Park, Big Horned Sheep, Mountain Goats, Marmots
Boulder White Clouds Council
Exposing The Big Game
Footloose Montana
Friends of the Clearwater
Lockwood Animal Rescue Center
Louise du Toit
LUPUSLAETUS
Mercy For Animals
Northern Idaho Wolf Alliance (NIWA)
Predator Friendly®- Because Wildlife Matters
Project Coyote
Project: Wolf
The Nature Conservancy
The Ravensong Group
WildEarth Guardians
Wisconsin Wildlife Ethic-Vote Our Wildlife
Wolf And Wildlife Studies: Jay Mallonee (Independent Wolf Biologist)
Wolf Song of Alaska
Wolves in english ! Les loups en anglais !
WWP's Gray Wolf Page
Yellowstone To Yukon Conservation Initiative
Howling For Justice 
Thank you,Nabeki.for the glimpse of beauty.
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To Rita, John, SCWG, Jon & Vasileios,
Glad you enjoyed the pics!! I loved the goat with one horn. It truly is breath taking on the pass. It’s the Continental Divide.
On Glacier’s Triple Divide Peak (8020 ft), waters flows from the summit into the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Hudson Bay. They call it the Crown of the Continent. I know Yellowstone gets most of the attention but I think Glacier is every bit as lovely.
N.
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What a beautiful place. Thank you Nabeki.
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Stunning views, the works of man can’t hold a candle to it.
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Nabeki, you are absolutely right. Where is the media when you need them most? They can’t be found.
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Dear Nabeki, thank you for sharing the incredible pics with us. I too find myself at a loss as to understand the hate that is directed toward wolves; they are truly the most persecuted animal on the planet it seems. Let’s enjoy the break but remember we have lots of work ahead of us.
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Nabika, the photo’s are stunning. Shame man cannot create such beauty and wonder. Shame man has to be the worst preditor on earth that he misses what god has created in his need to kill.
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Hi Pauline,
Glad you enjoyed the pics, we had a wonderful day. As you said it’s a shame we have people that only want to kill our wildlife and see no value in their lives except to inflate their egos.
N.
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Great pictures! It’s a shame the trigger happy idiots can’t enjoy wildlife unless they are trying to prove their manhood. Look an animal— Kill it!!!!I’m pathetic and I want to feel better about myself!!
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William….my little Minolta is still going strong…lol. It was amazing to get those shots, the animals certainly cooperated. Who doesn’t love moutain goats and big horned sheep?
You can love nature with a camera.
N.
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And how can those that kill animals claim they love wildlife William? It doesn’t make any sense to me. Respect and care for wildlife, but yet kill it? Makes no sense to me.
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Jon-
I was facinated with the exchange that we had with our hunter friends yesterday. Hunters don’t want to talk about the lack of ethics that is present today. Elk 275 used the same old tired I don’t think you understand line. It’s common sense that it is not right to kill lions in canned hunts because the animals are compromised and not wild, not to mention the lack of fair chase. It is also irresponsible for wildlife management to allow alpha male pride lions to be killed because of the destruction that occurs when a new lion comes in and kills the future generation of cubs! Isn’t that just common sense? I will always confront people that exploit animals. When I go to bed I see the face of the sad wolf on page 46 of Predatory Bureaucracy- it is the face of persecution.
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William, they don’t see anything wrong with using hounds to tree lions or shooting lions for sport. When you give them your opinion, they will come back with the you don’t understand bs line. What is it that we don’t understand? The thing that truly bothers me is these mt. lions that are treed and shot and these lions in africa that are shot in africa for sport, they DID NOT HAVE TO DIE. They could have lived, but a hunter decided to take their lives away from them. It was the hunter’s choice to kill them. I am sickened by the behavior of hunters after they kill the animals as well. Having a smile on your face and standing behind the dead animal and taking a picture of it is caring and respecting wildlife? Could have fooled me. I am going to post this article later on ralph’s blog. Take a look at it.
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/08/hunting-for-conservation-backfires.html
I exchanged emails with a guy named Chris Mercer out of sa, he fights to save lions and what not and he told me trophy hunting is basically the same thing as canned hunting. They sometimes drug a wild lion and put it in an enclosure where there is no escape. We have to be honest though, wild lions stand virtually no chance against hunters with high powered rifles and armed safari guides right behind them.
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Nabeki- ya mean you don’t go along with the hunter bullshit of being the true conservationists, as they bait animals and kill animals collared for studies. I don’t think these people are as stupid as they appear, I think they enjoy playing god and making decisions as they are what animal lives or dies. This one hunter was bragging about how good of a bear hunter he was, in Minnesota using attractant and bear baiting is perfectly legal- that makes for a sitting duck bear. There is no hunting only shooting involved!
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2 year old article but still disgusting and heart breaking.
http://www.middletownpress.com/articles/2010/07/02/news/doc4c2d5f80a2ef8306594962.txt
We should send you to this guy’s house Williams. The laws for animal abuse NEED TO CHANGE. I am sick and tired of these people just getting fined. Throw them in jail for many years.
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i wouldn’t even need five minutes with this coward. Jon- how many other states have this ridiculous hunter harassment law? Any idea?
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I think quite a few William. A lot of people think it’s unconstitutional. The funny thing is if you tell hunters who are on YOUR PROPERTY to get off your property, you could be fined and jailed for harassing hunters. How bogus is that?
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William…I truly believe trophy hunting is connected to the sociopathy of serial killing. There have been articles about it. Some of the similarities: lack of empathy, killing for pleasure, no remorse or guilt over the killing, taking souvenir’s of the victims, it’s all related. People don’t connect the dots because animals are being tortured and animal life is not valued by many in this society or around the world for that matter.
N.
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It is Nabeki, but the funny thing is these trophy hunters think people like me, you, and William are the sick ones because we are disgusted by wild animals being shot to death for sport. They refer to us as radicals because we fight to save animals lives while they continue to kill them and they have the nerve to claim they care and respect wildlife. They are conserving wild animals so they can be shot. That is the hunter’s agenda. Are these trophy hunters so stupid that they don’t realize why many people are disgusted by their actions? I mean going to africa or anywhere for that matter is purposely shooting an animal to death for sport is disturbing and it’s sick. Who are they to play god and take an innocent animal’s life away from them? Sometimes I just wish these trophy hunters switched places with the animals they hunt. I am truly disgusted with these people.
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Jon…they are defensive about what they do because how dare anyone question their motives.
It’s always been wrong to kill animals for sport but trophy hunters have been coddled for so long by organizations like the Safari Club. Now people that love animals are speaking out and challenging this behavior.
This country is littered with the dead souls of animals going back hundreds of years. The culture of death has been allowed to flourish and now it’s become the norm. We are here to say NO to trophy hunting, that it’s evil, cruel, state sponsored murder of our wildlife. Of course the hunting groups don’t like to hear that.
The analogy could be made between trophy hunting and smoking. Once smoking was accepted behavior, everyone smoked and didn’t think anything about it. Then it was discovered smoking causes cancer and kills people. Now smoking is banned in most public places, it’s not considered normal, the tide has changed. Trophy hunting is a dying sport. The majority of people are turning against them. One day it will be banned.
N.
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Nabeki
I just want to compliment you on this site. It is informative and you also take a mean picture! Congrats!
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Thanks William, I appreciate that!! I will be shooting with my camera this winter, hoping to catch a glimpse of wolves to share with everyone.
N.
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Nabeki, I am assuming you took those pictures. They are amazing! You should put pictures like that up more often when you can. Have they found out if there are any wolves in Colorado yet?
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Everyone should watch this video. There a few more parts to it as well. Hunter harassment law is unconstitutional and you can go to jail for just saying hello to a hunter.
Look at what some of these women had to go through.
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Yet they can yell obscenities, behave inappropriately and threaten the non-hunting public however they please.
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I just watched this and I have to say I have always thought hunters were despicable simply because I do not see how anyone can enjoy killing an animal, but this is truly, truly shocking. It absolutely makes me sick. It is always been my considered opinion that men hunt because they are insecure about their manhood and somehow killing/dominating innocent animals somehow replaces their nonexistent/unfulfilled intimate life. I am going to see if I post this on Rachel Maddow’s blog maybe she will consider a segment on hunting and the ramifications it has not only on wildlife but humans. God this is maddening.
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The goat is losing its antler, not a horn.
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Hey Mr. idaho biologist….as far back as I can remember as a child, goats have horns. I’ve never heard of goats with antlers. If the terms are used interchangeably, most people do not say goat antlers.
From Wiki:
Mountain goat
“Both male and female mountain goats have beards, short tails, and long black horns, 15–28 cm in length, which contain yearly growth rings. They are protected from the elements by their woolly white double coats.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Goat
This is from a hunting site:
N.
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Jon, I think alot of people would be disgusted about how hunters act and how they hunt.Problem is ,along with other things,it doesn’t get on the front page nor does it get a line or two on TV.Look at the wolf situation.I only found a piece on msnbc,but not on the news shows on tv.Hunters from what I have read always go on the defense when it comes to their rights and to hunt and own guns,anyone elses views that doesn’t concur with theirs are called greenies,green necks, or worse.They love intimidation and they get by with it.Hunters form clubs and stick to gether and feed on each others egos.I bet they come in with their hunting gear so they get noticed. Wyoming is anti- government.They want to handle wild life the way they want to,if not,let the feds take care of it.. They rather have everyone to pay for the feds to remove packs.They don’t believe in compromise,it’s their way or the highway.They haven’t had to much resistence in the past,but that needs to change.I commend both William and you for speaking out for your beliefs and for not backing down for if we back down,they win. Thank you.
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Thanks Rita, but I am just one of many. They try to discredit us and our beliefs by calling us liberal greenie tree hugging radicals. I can’t tell you how many times a hunter or hunting supporters has accused me of being with peta when I’m not. I don’t belong to any organization. i am just one person who is disgusted with hunters killing animals for sport.
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Rita
People in the cattle and sheep industry have had their way for so long they expect people to kiss their ass. I think things are changing as evidenced by WWP and their recent success against the BLM- who like the MMS needs a complete overhaul for their close ties to the ranching industry. Go on Amazon and buy a copy of “Slaughter the animals, Poison the earth” by Olsen. I have an extra copy I’ll send it to you if you feel comfortable enough to give your address to nabeki who has my email. the book is shocking!
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I think I might just do that. Take a look at that book you mentioned. William, everytime I speak up about ranchers specifically public land ranchers aka welfare ranchers, the hunters get on me like a pitbull. Ranchers are responsible for a lot of the deaths of native wildlife. Ranchers are the reason why wolves were brought back. They were responsible for wiping out the wolves in the 30s. I said this a few days ago, but it is truly sad and disgusting that in this day in age, a cow’s life is worth much more than our native wildlife. I am not saying that a cow is a worthless animal or anything like that. Cows are amazing animals, but they are not wildlife. Wildlife should always trump livestock/cattle. Instead of compensating ranchers for losing cattle and livestock, the feds should stop their killing of native wildlife and help ranchers find non lethal solutions that protect the wildlife and even their cattle and livestock. Some will say that there aren’t non lethal solutions. I think that is bs. There has got to be some way to keep predators from getting your cattle and livestock without resorting to having them killed.
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William, I will get in touch with Nabeki about giving you my address.It will probably be tomorrow. I would like to read that book.I thank you.
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Back in the sixties and early seventies these paranoid psychopaths used to kill coyotes, open up their stomachs and insert wool from sheep to give the appearance of predation. As we have seen from New Mexico with their wolf baiting stunts I wouldn’t trust a word that comes out of their redneck mouths
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Yep, I am certain some ranchers have indeed lied about the way some of their livestock have died in order to be compensated. In New mexico, there are what, 30 wolves I think, Nabeki knows and you still have ranchers whining and complaining. They have even filed lawsuits. Can’t these people find non lethal ways to protect their cattle from predators w/o resorting to having the predators killed? If a predator sees an easy meal, he is going to take it. I often wonder where are these rahcners when wolves and other predators are killing their cattle and livestock? They just leave their cattle unwatched, unattended, and unprotected and expect nothing to happen to them? These ranchers are god dam idiots if you ask me.
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don’t forget that in the past when all the wildlife was subjected to predator control for years that’s exactly what the ranchers did, they left their property unwatched as hundreds died from weather, disease, accidents, but when one gets killed by a predator, they screamed bloody murder. In the book it documents how for decades the livestock industry reversed the two figures of losses from predators to losses from other forces, because the predator losses could not justify the poisoning onslaught
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Everyone should read this. jerry Black is an amazing guy and he posts here sometimes.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20100909/NEWS01/9090307/Man-threatens-to-sue-FWP-over-wolf-ruling-coalition
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Jon….Jerry Black is one of Wolf Warriors administrators and a founding member. He’s right in the middle of things, looking out for wolves and other wildlife!! Way to go Jerry.
PS. I agree with SCWG, we need more men like you, William and Jerry!!
N.
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Hi Nabeki,
I just posted at the Great Falls Tribune in support of Jerry under Lanier1. I didn’t want to use my SCWG screen name as I felt my comment would be immediately dismissed.
I didn’t know Jerry was part of Wolf Warriors; that is awesome!! We need to keep urging people to speak up on the FB page. It just isn’t enough for people to be upset, they have to be proactive.
BTW, Madeline Pickens now has over 70,000 letters in support of the wild mustangs. If only I could find out the date she is actually going to Washington. The deadline for letter has been extended until tomorrow, so I am hoping that sometime next week is IT. Round ups are still going on.
I am almost scared to say it but for the first time, I feel like I can take a half sigh of relief.
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SCWG….I feel good when we’re doing something proactive instead of constantly reading all the bs that comes from the ant-wolf crowd. When we are able to take a stand for wolves and in this case take a stand against sneaky meetings with special interest groups, it feels good.
Wolf Warriors should start a letter writing campaign for wolves. Salazar needs to hear from the American people. not just special interest hunting and ranching groups. Also thank god for M. Pickens, she’s doing a wonderful job rallying the troops.
Two messages for Salazar: Stop the slaughter of America’s wolves and stop the brutal round-ups of our wild horses. Obama saddled us with this rancher/Interior Secretary….thanks a lot Pres.
N.
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Amazing video. Check it out guys/gals.
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Thanks for sharing Jon! Boy, they really seemed to like that one dog didn’t they? Why, oh why can’t people be more like animals?
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Hi Nabeki and everyone. Just posted on Warriors that I called Salar and sent an email regarding the Butcher of Idaho, who unfortunately happens to be governor. We simply have to do more about getting our voices heard. As I said, wolves cannot make phone calls and send emails, but we sure can. We simply cannot sit back and let this happen. We can do it and we will!!
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Thanks SCWG…I’m going to do a post concerning the Otter situation and urge people to write Salazar but I had to go with Jerry’s article today in the Trib. This is big news for Wolf Warriors!!
N.
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Absolutely Nabeki!! As I said before, I almost feel I can take a small sigh of relief. I have hope for the first time, not just about wolves but our mustangs and all our treasured wildlife. And I sure hope you are right about trophy hunting and smoking. What a celebration that would be.
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And another thing I would like to say to William and Jon: if more men were like the two of you, this would be a much, much better world.
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Stunning Photo’s, thank you Nabeki. The Mountain Goat losing his horn is funny!
~ Zarago ~
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Zarago…that was a great day on the pass. All the animals were out and grazing. That billy was about 6 feet off the path, standing there looking like he wanted his photo op. Plus the horn hanging by a thread. I keep wondering what happened to the other horn. Mountain goats don’t shed their horns, that’s how you tell their age by the rings in the horns..so maybe he was in a fight?
N.
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Yes, he must of been in a fight, you do often see wild goats and sheep with one horn missing. Poor thing.
~ Zarago ~
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