Here's a few thoughts I had:
Howdy all.
Late night and the two pebbles in my head are spinning around and bumping in to each other in that vast void known as my brain. That led to me thinking about wolves.
As a mythical creature they are great for stories, but I'm not so sure they are so great in real life. Arizona, along with other western states has gone to the exspense and trouble of reintroducing wolves to the wild. Since wolves have no predator, other than man, I can see the potential for the wolf packs to grow out of control, while decimating game herds and livestock.
Given that a big part of founding the west was based on livestock production in the early years, the wolf was hunted to almost extinction. Was this a good thing? I tend to think so, as the livestock herds grew so did the other game animals like deer and elk. Coyote management was often done by trapping, which is now almost illegal. I hardly see a Mule Deer now, when back in the 1980's, after multiple poisonings of coyote packs, the coyote's prey rebounded and were abundant, like rabbits. Today I'm seeing more coyotes and less rabbits and deer in many of the areas I frequent.
This leads me to think that better and more effective predator control needs to be accomplished. Of course even mentioning such a thing tends to send the tree hugging bunny loving granola eaters in to a tizzy. Since game animals will self correct in a natural environment, with some becoming extinct, the unbalance in the equation is us, man. We are now a consideration in the equation. Animals no longer have the vast expanse of territory they once had as the human population exspands. Thus it falls to us to become that regulating feature that Mother Nature once had.
I submit that predator control needs to be increased, and wolves hunted in most western states no matter the sensitivities of the tree hugging granola eating crowd. I am curious as to everyone's opinion on the matter. I have found that good livestock management, and healthy cattle, tends to also benefit the deer and elk population as well. What say you all?
Biker
