Hunting Wolves In Montana – Where Are The Data?
Jay S. Mallonee
Wolf & Wildlife Studies, Kalispell, MT 59901
info@wolfandwildlifestudies.com
Nature and Science 2011
Abstract:
Management agencies have claimed that the recovery and public hunting of wolves is based in science.
A review of their statistics demonstrated that data collection methods did not follow a scientific protocol which
resulted in flawed and often incorrect data. Consequently, agencies do not know the total number of wolves in
Montana, a major reference point used by wolf managers. Therefore, the quotas proposed for public wolf hunts are
completely arbitrary, and management decisions in general have not been based on facts. This has produced a wolf
management system that lacks scientific perspective and does not utilize what is known about the wolves’ role in
sustaining healthy ecosystems. Instead, the absence of verifiable data suggests that management decisions are often
based on opinion and politics rather than science.
READ MORE: http://www.wolfandwildlifestudies.com/downloads/natureandscience.pdf
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Please visit Jay’s website:
Wolf & Wildlife Studies
http://www.wolfandwildlifestudies.com/index.php
Jay Mallonee is an independent wolf researcher with a master’s degree in neurobiology/animal behavior.
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Photo: Courtesy All About Wolves
Posted in: Gray Wolf, Montana Wolves
Tags: Montana wolf hunt, peer-reviewed study, Jay Mallonee, independent research biologist
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Wolf And Wildlife Studies: Jay Mallonee (Independent Wolf Biologist)
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Wolves in english ! Les loups en anglais !
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Howling For Justice 
How stupid can this be. These people do not know about the wolves. Wake up people and stop the killing of parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts,nephews, nieces and cousins.
Wolves do feel pain, love and belonging to a family unit, the pack. Wolf haters are the worse people in the world, along with the ones which kill the wolves.
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This is the real biology I was lamenting that seems to be absent in Montana. I am so happy that a wolf biologist is speaking out about the fake science that is prevailing there.
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Finally the truth is told by a biologist. He is independent, not beholding to anyone, so he can speak the truth, which is so refreshing. Please visit his website, it documents his long history of interaction and study with the Fish Trap Wolf Pack in Northwest Montana. His paper should become the bible for anyone seeking the truth about wolves . Nature and Science, where it’s published, is peer reviewed, making it all the more relevant.
For the wolves, For the wild ones,
Nabeki
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Folks should read the “appeal on the merits of the case” It explains everything in plain english.
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yes they do feel family. I believe many animals have that sense…
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I agree Carmen – I have thought that ever since I was a little kid. People thought I was nuts @ the time.
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Ramses, I would rather be “nuts’ like you than “sane” like them anytime day or night.
Heart Hugs.
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Family? They live and die for one another. They mourn death. They play with joy.
CMM
Toronto
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every word jay wrote about the wolves is true, wish people would listen
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Titanic incompetence, sweltering arrogance, blatant disregard, could we expect anything less from the realm of Jon Testor who attached the rider? These people have played dirty from the start. If they use lies and deceit to achieve an end run around the courts while undermining the integrity of law itself, compromise the ESA and slaughter wildlife for profit, do you really think they would give a damn about how they come up with numbers? In radiant clarity, the only numbers they care about are those of the staggering sums of money they will receive for one hunting season, paid for in wolf blood.
We all know they don’t want the Wolf in their territories, and this is ALL that can be expected under the reckless watch of indifference. There is no fairness or equality when it comes to the Wolf, his greatest misfortune, he was not born a cow. Therefore any attempt to even pretend that states really care about how these magnificent animals are handled is nothing less than ludicrous.
How many times do we have to be shown that the entire wolf delisting scheme has been a carefully orchestrated plot to cater to the whim of unconscionable men, with the intent to eradicate the wolf as their rival? Science, fact, reason, logic, viability, have all been sacrificed along with the wolf. “Hijacked”, exactly…there is no other word to describe it. We have seen all the red flags, smelled the waft of corruption and tasted the bitterness of injustice from the very beginning, and I would think this article would culminate every suspicion and verify the severity of the situtaion to any human being with common sense.
This also brings up a question that has been roiling around in my mind for some time now: what happens after the mandatory 5 year monitoring of wolf populations as required by the ESA, especially after all the ambiguity of magic math and numbers of wolves already killed that have not been accounted for? You can not just dissolve away all prior incompetency and confusion, and it is simply not acceptable to leave it to the arbitrary.
Wolf hunts should not even be an issue, and If there is ANY ambiguity towards actual wolf populations, then all hunts should and must be discontinued NOW. This is further proof that Montana, and therefore Idaho and Wyoming, by extension of bias, are incapable of reasonable or responsible wolf management.
And for those in Washington whose pivotal authority can AND should make a difference, they should have their noses rubbed in these facts. This article should also be brought to the attention of the 9th Circuit Court.
Jay, you are a credit to humanity. Thank you for upholding the integrity of your field and not sucking up to a state bias. Have their been any independent studies of Idaho and Wyoming wolf populations, etc?
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W0W ~ I wish I could write as well as you Spirit Wolf. You write beautifully. 😉
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Indeed,Spirit Wolf does write beautifully.We are all gifted,some more than others, and some haven’t found/discovered it yet and the with that, may we continue the fight.I come here to strenghen myself for the next seige and to come back to the human pack, for their support and for their concern for the wolves,nature and each other.
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Thank you Nabeki for this blog, our Sanctuary, and also for keeping the flow of truth going and getting this information out there….we can not allow the lies and deceit to further the assault on wolves. This must end now.
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You don’t mince words. Remember Scopes and Darrow. It can happen.
Darrow was controversial but connected, the brother-in-law of John Howard Moore whose Universal Kinship is in its way every bit as illumined and sometimes just as moving as Leopold’s Sand County.
There’s a pdf online. It’s a zoologist’s point of view, long and more general, but he had nothing good whatsoever to say about ranchers or sports hunters.
http://www.archive.org/details/universalkinship00mooriala
Moore tells a true story about hunters who pursue a pair of moose through forest. One is shot. The other does not leave its fallen mate and is shot and killed. The first to die had been blind.The second had been guiding a mate to safety.
Such is the world that politicians and ranchers destroy for their bloody schemes.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy upheld the rider reluctantly.You never know when you’ll meet a good man.
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Spirit Wolf
Thank you for your no compromise remarks.
CMM
For the Wolves
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But before you wish the life of a cow on a wolf you might look at Gail Eisnitz’ Slaughterhouse.
Better to live on in a spirit world than be a cow.
I love what Leopold said of wolf howl, that it fades into the far blackness of night, an outburst of defiant sorrow and of contempt for all the adversities of the world.
CMM
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C Morgan, point taken, and I agree. Life in the spirit world is far better than a life of cruelty or exploitation, but it should not have to be that way. For clarity, sarcasm was inappropriate to convey my anger and frustrated thoughts. The implication here was to stress the unfairness of coddled ranchers. Cattle are their cash cows, protected and valued …but only up to the point where they are dragged away to be slaughtered in the most horrible of ways, their last moments of life a testimony to mankind’s epic denial.
You might be interested in reading ” The Bond, Our Kinship With Animals, Our Call To Defend Them.” by Wayne Pacelle. This book is both horrifying and inspiring. It is impossible not to come away from this one without a heightened state of awareness and a passionate desire to make a difference.
All the senseless suffering, it just takes your breath away…
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tell the hunters want a real hunt then tell them to go to war
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Right on ~
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ramses…Jay’s article should be spread far and wide. This is the rock solid truth, peer reviewed data. It’s pure gold.
For the wolves, For the wild ones,
Nabeki
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Sports hunters are at war with life. They were young and handled badly. Though I feel at moments I hate them I realize I can’t. Like a beaten dog that lives in torment or on the end of a chain, if some are full of fear, post trauma stress, others are mad for a kill or a fight. Face to face I feel terror. I remember how I felt when I saw a man driving down Bank Street with the severed head of a moose lashed to the hood of an old model car. Fear. I fear them. And my distress at the thought of the violence they wreck in the wild would be unbearable if it weren’t for family, friends, the animals I live with or have lived with. I defend myself from fear and anguish with anger and sometimes with rage. But had that same man been locked in a cage I would have pitied his fate. War is part of the paradigm, early abuse as object or witness, comodification, no inherent value in life but there is need, for ownership, who owns what land, control over the flow of material things made worse by easy access to guns. It’s a life of poverty and estrangement.
CMM
For the Wolves
For peace
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C Morgan, your words flow with an easy grace and I greatly admire your ability see beyond the situation to the core problem. You are correct on so many levels. It is very often difficult to separate the act from the individual, the sin from the sinner, or the suffering from the witness. We all hide behind a mask, some wear theirs better than others, but we are all trying to fill a void. Some seek out others, while there are those that wield violence.
I would also feel pity for this man, as might many others…we are after all…only human in all our frailties. And when the dust of disdain settles, I could no more wish harm upon him, then I would wish to endure his suffering or take pleasure in his pain. But does that make us weak to empathize or feel compassion, no I believe it validates our humanity.
As you have so eloquently stated, “hunters are at war with life” if I could also add…at odds with themselves. It is a great sickness of spirit that enables man to continue down his narrow path.
As Derrick Jensen writes of in ” A Language Older Than Words” It is only our ability to disconnect from reality that justifies our “claims to virtue.”
Blessings…
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And another title, thank you. Jensen is well liked. His books are not available in library for the most part. I’ll request A language Older Than Words from another location Monday. I’ve read some of The Bond in store only, a very small protest against Conrad Black’s media monopoly and book store winnings openly directed to warfare.
CMM
For the Wolves
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Charlot…what Bekoff is saying scares many people. Of course animals love, feel pain, sorrow, loss. But in order to hunt these animals you have to think of them as something “other”. Not living, breathing beings with their own lives and loves. How can you stare down the scope of your rifle and believe your “target” is going to suffer tremendously from what you’re about to do? It’s easier to believe animals aren’t equal to us, it makes it easier to kill them without remorse.
For the wolves, For the wild ones.
Nabeki
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C Morgan, ” A Language Older Than Words” is both memoir and nature philosophy. Derrick comes from a shattered childhood at the hands of an abusive father which has been the impetus for his unique perspective. His life gives pause to how domestic violence ripples out on a grander scale in society, which is why I thought of it when you spoke of hunters being at war with life. This book touched me deeply, it was an awakening, a triumph of the human spirit and a homecoming through nature.
Just as an animal must first come to accept you, Derrick’s book found me, and I’m glad it did. I cherished this book, and I can see why he is well liked.
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Nabeki
You, an empath would ask this question. But does low empathy
development mean no recognition of suffering? In trauma
bond the child that witnesses or endures abuse identifies with the
aggressor for how can he or she continue in a state of vulnerability and debasement? To identify with a victim, a sibling, a pet or other animal used in a display of violence would admit defenselessness. A child would then assume a burden, that of shame and disapproval. Contempt for the worthlessness assigned to the victim would be theirs, and as well, a child would then admit the loss of all that he or she had sought on coming into the world, care, love, nurture, protection and a place in arms. In total a terrifying prospect. Children are like pups. You can ruin them. Power instanced through the ability to inflict pain or cause death becomes a wall between the child and their own destruction. Children perform acts of sadism to win the esteem of a sadistic parent, or to displace their rage and disappointment at being badly used, to assuage their fear, to be assured of their own ability to withstand irrational violence. Children who grow up necessarily reliant on these poor tools are North America’s abusive parents, more often abusive husbands and fathers. They are North America’s sports hunters and not infrequently criminals. A sports hunter can look down the scope of his rifle and mean it. Tin cans won’t suffice. To recognize in the self a spirit that desires liberation from fear requires objectivity, or an object lesson not carried out in reprisal, or a shadow of remorse. How do you gentle a sports hunter? To tame a ruined dog is easier. Constant even tempered care, reliability, control of opportunity and a firm but kind refusal to allow aggression. Hunting for amusement and trophy hunting must be outlawed. We need laws every bit as much as the wilderness needs wolves.
For the Wolves
For Peace
CMM
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I called Coldwater Creek and informed the very nice sales rep what was going on. She was totally unaware. I also told her I would not be doing any business with them until the wolf hunt ends. Will others please do the same?
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Coldwater Creek ???
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Please sign the petition to end wolf hunting in Montana and Idaho:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/789/251/287/
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Spirit Wolf
I understood your intention. Even in passing a cow’s fate should never be disregarded. It is important to be clear. A rancher’s motive is money. There’s virtually nothing a cattle rancher won’t do to animals for money. It’s disease with them. There is denial and then there is betrayal.
Maybe grazing cows have a better time of it than dairy. I’ve taken in that these ranchers are grazing their cattle on public grounds meaning electric fence can’t or won’t be employed.
Thank you for suggesting The Bond. It’s a fairly new publication. I’ll look for a copy and share
it with a friend who apart from her love of and devotion to the natural world and all its creatures, is fond of wolves. She was reading about Timber moments ago when she sent mail. She’s loved and lost dogs, a husky, wolf bred or not who was to her a soul mate.
Also a sad, badly used and frightened female gun dog. This quiet polite woman rescued them from sports hunters. I’m so proud of her.
A co-worker has just reported to me that this summer on the Alaskan highway who had a wolf on a leash. The man said when questioned, ‘There are places up here where you can get them’ This may be legal. His evasiveness suggests that it was not.
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At last! Thank you, Mr. Mallonee!
(P.S. What he says about lupine emotions is quite true,however, on a general note, it is erronous to brand wolves as either “savage, horrible monsters” or “saintly, pure Gods”. Either show what WE perceive wolves are, instead of what their true emotions and behaviours feel like to them [wolves])
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Loua…Jay’s paper on hunting wolves is just what we needed to counter FWP’s excuses for hunting wolves. He lays it all out for everyone to see.
As for wolves emotions, only wolves know what they feel and think but I’m not afraid to state wolves and animals in general, experience most of the emotions humans do. It makes it easier for “sport hunters/thrill killers” to dismiss this reality, so they can kill without mercy. Of course animals feel pain and sorrow. I can’t imagine the tremendous suffering these so called “hunters” inflict on helpless animals, whose lives are already hard enough.
For the wolves, For the wild ones,
Nabeki
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Nabeki, has Jay’s study been presented to the 9th Circuit Court? If their job is to decide upon the merits of this case, I would think this paper would quell any doubts concerning wolves and hunts that even they could not deny.
How are you?
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I just now posted to Nabeki. It’s above
Thank you for the overview. I found a provider this AM and will have the book within a week. And yes what you describe, Jensen’s experience is a condition about which I am sensitive. Understanding of this kind is I believe the way out. The implications are for peace. It feels so unusual to speak this language. I of course have friends who converse in family dynamics. And there is a growing body of literature I know. Still the world is so tense. Forgive the understatement.
CMM
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C Morgan, tense is not really an understatement, but it is a symptom. I sense it upon the Wind, and at times I swear I can feel our great Mother holding her sacred breath. I don’t know about you, but I grow so weary of being angry at all the injustice in the world, I too long for peace…within myself and within the world. Peace…..the word itself exudes such blissful contemplation and promise. And although this language may feel foreign to our lips, its message is something that yearns to bring comfort as we fully embrace it within our hearts. We really are so much more than our differences, yet we use them as a shield of superiority to keep the world at bey. Sadly, we have become the very illusion we have fostered. Yet that illusion is a hollow apparition, a meager companion and miserable comfort, but if we let it go, what is left?. We must keep asking all those indignant questions that perturb the mind and vex the heart.
Understanding is truly the key, the only way out. Yet as we tread the brackish waters of our personal discontent, we remain distracted and disenfranchised from life and don’t always know just what it is that we seek. At times I believe we come so close to the answers but fail to remember that acceptance is not surrender, it is reality, what lies beneath are forsaken possibilities. This is a great undertaking, but are we ready for the responsibility, indeed, what are our options? We are doomed if we don’t even try. We are more alike, than different. There is strength in that unity, we see it every time we bind together in the face of adversity, it is then that we remember our true priorities, put aside our petty differences and unite in a common goal.
The time has come to celebrate those similarities….
My prayer is for both sides of this wolf issue to come together and find a common ground. But how do you bridge the great abyss of hatred and ignorance without succumbing to it yourself? You can not reason with madness.
Passion is a great fire, this is something we all share, whether misguided or aligned. Words are my weapons. I apologize if I often say too much.
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Amusements, the proud and arrogant manipulations of medical experimentation, the laughable Stranglovian mentality of military and space research, the terrible suffering of the poor and the animals, the icy chill of post humanism, greed- our compensations for loss of spiritual connection to Earth, materialism, commodification. Add to that sports hunters. What a mess. We pledge faithfully to do what we can. What an image, Mother Earth holding her sacred breath. Who’s forgetting? Not you. Not people who come to this page. Not the lawyers who wrote the appeal or the people who man the agencies they represent. Belief in a benefic power inherent in the exponential growth of human self-knowledge is reason for hope. There was never a time when living things did not live by the rule of change. Belief, hope, are irrationals. I’m just not sure about lawsuits. They probably make sense. And sometimes they work. As for that, I for one would rather perish, change state really with the forests than embark upon the imminent post humanist quasi-immortality. Post human man will perish. Equally, abiogenesis is a nice idea. We can’t make life from nothing nor can we show first cause. We’re left with an empty bag. Mystery makes Earth and life more compellingly and compellingly beautiful. There is the satisfaction of being understood at all. Here a whole community understands wolves must be saved for their own sake as well as ours. And this is fine.
CMM
For the Wolves
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I see my reply here is oblique. In the first place belief isn’t reason for hope. Belief may conjure hope. I think out loud on the page. I console self while trying to console others. Your concern is finding a middle ground. Understanding is for the long haul. This is a problem of spirit, our connection to Nature. Brutalized people must be treated with all due respect and prevented from causing harm. There aren’t two sides but many, politicians, the same who engineered the rider, those who want gun lobby votes, political donations from ranchers and life style, far more than they want to participate in the protection of wolves; ranchers who exploit animals as though traditionally, who receive subsidies for losses and graze their cash cows on public lands, harbor a strong sense of entitlement; sports hunters who are statistically among the more abusive members of society. How will a transcendent experience be visited upon them? That’s not something anyone can ordain. But there are people who make protection agencies function and researchers whose work provides the rational to enact better laws. The interaction of family and society is reciprocal. Early nurture or the lack there of shapes lives. We see ourselves. Wars, land deals, monuments to art, people who die trying to save a stranger or a dog. Those who devote their lives to drafting new and better laws bring in check the actions of others who believe that because they can, they may, do whatever they like to Nature. We need laws that govern access to fire arms, end capitol punishment, outlaw corporal punishment in schools and the home, and laws that protect the wolves from man. Be it so. I guess that’s a prayer.
CMM
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