More Stupidity From The Fringe…..

“The top photo……from a paper by Ripple and his colleague Robert Beschta, was taken in 1991; the photo below is from 2002 and illustrates the recovery of streamside cottonwoods after just seven years of wolf presence.”…Todd Palmer and Rod Pringle

October 9, 2013

Wolves are being slaughtered left and right but that’s not enough for the wolf haters. They still  find it necessary to visit this blog and spew their anti wolf dogma. The main talking points are centered around the sub species of wolf reintroduced in 95/96.  The story goes that Occidentalis is the big, bad Canadian wolf who replaced the sweet, loving Irremotus. That of course is BS. Yes, Occidentalis was the sub species reintroduced to Yellowstone and Central Idaho..but the myth that they are super wolves is absolutely ridiculous. Wolves are wolves, apex predators who are vital to healthy Eco-systems.

Unlike human hunters, who kill the strongest and genetically sound animals, wolves select out the weak, sick, old and yes sometimes the young, which  helps control ungulate populations. Wolves don’t hide behind AR-15′s, they go toe to toe with their prey, that’s fair chase. Human hunters use heavy firepower, traps, snares and every sneaky trick in the book to torture, abuse, maim and kill animals.  Trophy hunters have nothing to be proud of. NOTHING! They wouldn’t be such big, brave “hunters” if they were limited to using their bare hands. Fair chase my a@%.

Canus lupis Irremotus are very similar to Canis Lupus Occidentalis, who are a bit heavier but still both sub species are wolves. They live in packs, hunt cooperatively and put family above all else.

“Canis Lupus Irremotus…..This subspecies generally weighs 70–135 pounds (32–61 kg) and stands at 26–32 inches, making it one of the largest subspecies of the gray wolf in existence. It is a lighter colored animal than its southern brethren, the Southern Rocky Mountains wolf, with a coat that includes far more white and less black. In general, the subspecies favors lighter colors, with black mixing in among them”…..Wiki

Occidentalis has always lived on both sides of the Northern Rockies US/Canadian border, since wolves know no boundaries. Anyone who believes otherwise is living in a fantasy world.  The idea that Occidentalis is foreign to American soil is absurd. They’ve been crossing back and forth across that “border” for tens of thousands of years.

The burning question I have for the professors of wolfology is if Irremotus was loved so much, why the hell did their wolf hating forefathers try to wipe them out?  Of course  attempting to reason with the unreasonable is an exercise in futility, so I don’t expect a cogent response to that question.

The other favorite talking point of wolf haters is the Yellowstone elk herd. Wolves are accused of decimating the elk in Yellowstone, when in fact it was the feds who were killing Yellowstone elk for decades, in the wolf’s absence, due to the damage elk were wreaking in the park.

“Once the wolves were gone the elk began to take over. Over the next few years conditions of Yellowstone National Park declined drastically. A team of scientists visiting Yellowstone in 1929 and 1933 reported, “The range was in deplorable conditions when we first saw it, and its deterioration has been progressing steadily since then.” By this time many biologists were worried about eroding land and plants dying off. The elk were multiplying inside the park and deciduous, woody species such as aspen and cottonwood suffered from overgrazing. The park service started trapping and moving the elk and, when that was not effective, killing them. This killing continued for more than 30 years. This method helped the land quality from worsening, but didn’t improve the conditions. At times, people would mention bringing wolves back to Yellowstone to help control the elk population. The Yellowstone managers were not eager to bring back wolves, especially after having so successfully ridding the park of them, so they continued killing elk. In the late 1960s, local hunters began to complain to their congressmen that there were too few elk, and the congressmen threatened to stop funding Yellowstone. Killing elk was given up as a response, and then the population of the elk increased exponentially. With the rapid increase in the number of elk, the condition of the land again went quickly downhill. The destruction of the landscape affected many other animals. With the wolves gone, the population of coyotes increased dramatically, which led to an extreme decrease in the number of pronghorn antelope.However, the increase in the elk population caused the most profound change in the ecosystem of Yellowstone after the wolves were gone.”.…..Wiki

Elk numbers had swelled to over twenty thousand while wolves were away…a very bad thing for Yellowstone. As Aldo Leopold so eloquently states in Thinking Like A Mountain:

“I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves. I have watched the face of many a newly wolfless mountain, and seen the south-facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails. I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anaemic desuetude, and then to death. I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddlehorn. Such a mountain looks as if someone had given God a new pruning shears, and forbidden Him all other exercise. In the end the starved bones of the hoped-for deer herd, dead of its own too-much, bleach with the bones of the dead sage, or molder under the high-lined junipers.

“I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer. And perhaps with better cause, for while a buck pulled down by wolves can be replaced in two or three years, a range pulled down by too many deer may fail of replacement in as many decades. So also with cows. The cowman who cleans his range of wolves does not realize that he is taking over the wolf’s job of trimming the herd to fit the range. He has not learned to think like a mountain. Hence we have dust-bowls, and rivers washing the future into the sea.”

Do your homework wolf haters and stop parroting talking points drilled into your heads by the hunting and ranching cabal.

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ff

Submitted on 2013/07/14 at 1:17 pm | In reply to Helga Guillen.
Kill them alL!
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Andrew Light

Submitted on 2013/08/02 at 3:37 am
You antis need to go back to high school and learn about “carrying capacity.” fuck these wolves. bet half of you didn’t know these aren’t even the same breed of wolves we once had. i hope all your pets get eaten by wolves. Trap and hunt for life, come stop me please.
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LUNATIC OUTPOST FTW

Submitted on 2013/08/17 at 5:46 pm
who cares kill the wolves, IDGAF. stupid libtards.
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steve

Submitted on 2013/08/28 at 7:08 pm
You guys dont have much of a clue about wolves! You need to be educated on wolves! You should look at the web site “saveelk.com”. Read the Lynn Stutter on the truth about wolves!
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80hd

Submitted on 2013/09/03 at 11:21 am
Dispelling a myth, eh? The original wolves in Yellowstone were C. l. irremotus…. the wolves introduced were C. l. occidentalis. Guess where they came from?
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O.
submitted on 2013/09/17 at 10:28 am | In reply to Jan.| In reply to Jan.
Dear Jan,
I have lived in the West all my life. I am dedicated to conservation and habitat improvement for all native wildlife. The Canadian Grey Wolf is not native to Idaho, Montana or Wyoming. The Rocky Mountain Wolves that were documented living here in the 1980′s and early 1990′s were scavengers and did not efficiently hunt in packs. The native wolves were solitary, except during mating season, had large territories and made very little impact on prey species within their range.

The efforts to control the exploding population if this invasive species of wolves are warranted by the respective States because they need to protect native wildlife, livestock, tourism, habitat, and a number of other issues which are more important than accommodating a Federal Government’s program to establish a feral nightmare.
It is not about killing wolves. It is about protecting our ecosystems.
Respectfully,
O.

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Mark

Submitted on 2013/09/23 at 2:40 pm
That’s all fine and good but humans shouldn’t die so that these predators can thrive. Pure bleeding heart BS..

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matt

Submitted on 2013/09/30 at 1:57 pm
This is the biggest hunk of shit that I have ever read. You tree hugging fucks need to get a real job! “Protecting the Wolves” from the big bad ranchers and hunters. Please!

The “reimbursements” for cattle killed in New Mexico, are still yet to be seen. Countless cattle killed on ranches and not a penny in site. Furthermore, when the average cost to introduce one of these wolves is upwards of $1 million dollars, and our tax dollars go to this bullshit rather than the present deficit that our failed president has bestowed upon our country…
Sickening

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John

Submitted on 2013/10/06 at 3:40 pm

Thought you might like to read a response from one of the sickest part of the population. How much time do any of you spend on wildlife conservation? How many hrs per year do any of you spend on habitat renewal? I am willing to bet not as much time as your average hunter. I enjoy every second I spend in the wilderness I personally see hundreds of animals in a year. I also see the impact on the animals from over population. I see the side of nature most of you want to pretend doesn’t exist. The starving animals and the displaced wolves, coyotes, fox and others. You say its wrong to kill a coyote. Say that when you find one in your backyard about to rip your child apart. Ask a rancher how they feel about wolves. You won’t hear many say they like them.

Now onto “trophy hunting”. Trophy hunting and caged hunts are as different as night and day. Any respectable hunter would never take part in a caged hunt. Most people that do are rich wall street types that have no morals in the first place. A true Trophy hunter is not a butcher. They are men and women just like you. However they posses what some call the alpha gene. Most of these ” butchers” and “serial killers” see more animals than all of you combined. Maybe the kill one or two. They kill them because they are the oldest and largest of the type. A damn hard thing to do. Instead of blaming hunters maybe you should focus you misguided anger towards the developers. The ones who keep pushing the city further into the habitat of these animals. Believe it or not I love animals just as much if not more than most of you. I however am not afraid to get my hands bloody fixing the mess created by the non hunter. You might hand out meals at a soup kitchen. But hunters are the ones who put the meat on the plate.

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NOBODY

Submitted on 2013/10/04 at 4:41 pm | In reply to Daniel Martinez.

I live and hunt in Wyoming. Now hear me out, I do not hate wolves and do not want them to go extinct, but wolves have killed over 50% of our elk herds near Yellowstone and have completely decimated our moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, and deer herds. I agree that shooting a wolf right when it exits the park is kind of unethical, and that Wyoming needs wolves in its ecosystem. The thing is, these wolf populations have to be kept in check, and hunting is a good way to do that.

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These hateful views are represented by the hunting and ranching monopoly,  who in turn control policy makers in Washington, on both sides of the aisle. Their disinformation campaign has spread like a virus across this country and is contributing to the mass slaughter of wolves now taking place!

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Why We Need Wolves In Our Parks

Todd Palmer and Rob Pringle

Posted March 20, 2009 | 12:32 AM (EST)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-palmer-and-rob-pringle/why-we-need-wolves-in-our_b_177209.html

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Top Photo: Courtesy Huffington Post

Bottom Photo: Courtesy of Brett Havestick

Posted in: Wolf Wars, Trophy hunting, Biodiversity

Tags: Canis Lupus Occidentalis, Canis Lupus Irremotus, anti wolfers ill-informed, biodiversity, trophic cascades, Aldo Leopold, Thinking Like A Mountain, trophy hunting animal abuse, hateful rhetoric, non science based thinking, lies and damn lies.