Wolf Pack Slaughters 19 Elk in Rare 'Surplus Killing'

[wiggy]

Send this to that Miley whatever bitchite. Open season. Bounties. Frigging govt bs. �� Boiling now

[sawmill]

Meh, life its ownself. Suck it up.I like how the wolves lined them up all nice though, that`s showmanship.

[wideopenthrottle]

they are not so rotten in the second pic so they don't evoke "what a waste" as much...the rotting ones are more upsetting to everyone including hunters

[tipper]

How in the hell do you think wolves did this? Don't get me wrong I do hunt wolves and really don't like the sobs but this clearly wasn't done by wolves.

[elch jager]

Pretty talented wolves to line them up for dramatic effect for the photo op. Likely the elk were spread out here and there so the impact of the story would be lost without the artistic license provided by moving the corpses. Probably done by hunters/farmers looking to get rid of the wolves by shocking the public.

It is an elk farm for crissake. A feedlot. Tame tasty critters that have lost their innate ability to evade predators. Easy prey in big numbers... it's like being invited to an all you can eat free buffet... In the frenzy of the kill, the wolves will not stop if the elk doesn't escape.

[sakohunter]

It is an economic loss for the farmer, but he is probably insured for it. Is it not wolves doing what wolves do. I don't see the issue of wolves killing game. Many people have a problem with predators killing Moose, Elk, Deer, Sheep, Goats, because it takes away from their hunting opportunities, but when your sitting all nice and warm in your home. The predators are trying to survive in the cold hard winter, they do what they do to survive. If we really want to balance nature in favor of the game animals why not stop all logging and mining and gas exploration into the back country, so it is not so easy for us to drive into. Nature will balance itself if given a fair chance. I am still going to hunt Ungulates, but I don't blame the wolves for being wolves.

[bearvalley]

They are not farmed elk.
Several US states have winter feeding programs in place to maintain wild elk herds that have outgrown their witer range.
They had a few choices;
-drop the elk numbers to a sustainable number
-let some rancher or farmer feed them for free until they dropped the elk numbers.
-or feed the elk
So they established feed grounds and feed the elk.

[sakohunter]

So they are unofficially winter farmed Elk that migrate into a ranch of some kind and have become so used to a winter hand out that their survival instincts are degraded. Sound like a good way to ensure the the management of animal numbers, but not the strength of the Elk herd. So the wolves did the Elk herd a favor by killing all the stupid Elk off. I bet the next time the wolves show up the rest of the Elk herd runs.

[bearvalley]

So they are unofficially winter farmed Elk that migrate into a ranch of some kind and have become so used to a winter hand out that their survival instincts are degraded. Sound like a good way to ensure the the management of animal numbers, but not the strength of the Elk herd. So the wolves did the Elk herd a favor by killing all the stupid Elk off. I bet the next time the wolves show up the rest of the Elk herd runs.

It's pretty obvious you know very little about wolves.

[Rob Chipman]

Bearvalley

"Several US states have winter feeding programs in place to maintain wild elk herds that have outgrown their witer range."

I was curious about that part when i read it. Do you think that they've outgrown winter range because the herd is growing, or do you think they've lost winter range to ag or industry or urbanization and the govt. is feeding them in response to that?

Reason I'm curious is that I've heard about lots of success with RMEF increasing numbers, but I'm sure that ag and industry also chews up habitat there like it can here (probably more so).

If the idea was just to keep elk out of ag land you'd think more liberal hunting seasons would be the answer - kill 'em and get rid of them. However, a feeding program makes it sound like they want to keep numbers high while reducing problems for other guys. Can you shed some more light on this?