Watching "Into the wild"

[Darksith]

watching it now on the knowledge network. Its about the wolf problem when talking about caribou

[reach]

PVR set... it looks like it's on again Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Thanks!

[pazz0]

What a depressing melancholic movie.

[reach]

What a depressing melancholic movie.
Heh heh yes that movie doesn't exactly have a happy ending. Great scenery shots and Eddie Vedder soundtrack though.

Back to the thread topic... the documentary on sterilizing wolves. It sounded interesting and had some cool footage of how they track down, capture and operate on the wolves. Not much substance to it though. They didn't give any statistics showing how successful it is, how much it costs or anything. They basically just showed that it was being done for this one particular caribou herd.

[gcreek]

The wolves that were sterilized at Quesnel Lake cost the taxpayer in the neighborhood of $33,000 per head. I know the vet that was contracted to spay and "vasectomize" very well.

The Bunny Sherriffs just don't seem to realize that their fuzzy little puppies aren't F******* the game and livestock populations, they're eating them.

[antileno]

Wouldn't it be cheaper, faster, and easier just to kill off a percentage rather than making them unable to reproduce? By rendering them sterile they will be thinning the population down the road but if they just killed the ones they trapped they would be gone now AND couldn't reproduce. It is an interesting way to waste tax dollars though.

[BillBraskii]

The Bunny Sherriffs just don't seem to realize that their fuzzy little puppies aren't F******* the game and livestock populations, they're eating them.
:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

[reach]

Wouldn't it be cheaper, faster, and easier just to kill off a percentage rather than making them unable to reproduce? By rendering them sterile they will be thinning the population down the road but if they just killed the ones they trapped they would be gone now AND couldn't reproduce. It is an interesting way to waste tax dollars though.
I think the theory is that sterilizing (and not killing) the alpha males is the only way to prevent puppies next year so food demand will be reduced. If they just killed off some of them, another wolf will become alpha and that one will breed. Any amount of killing (unless they wipe them out completely) will still result in a new batch of puppies to feed next spring, so the food demand is not reduced much. I guess it would be reduced until the next spring.

I would love to see some statistics to back that up though. That's why I was complaining the show was light on content. They didn't discuss alternatives or success rates.

[gcreek]

I think the theory is that sterilizing (and not killing) the alpha males is the only way to prevent puppies next year so food demand will be reduced. If they just killed off some of them, another wolf will become alpha and that one will breed. Any amount of killing (unless they wipe them out completely) will still result in a new batch of puppies to feed next spring, so the food demand is not reduced much. I guess it would be reduced until the next spring.

I would love to see some statistics to back that up though. That's why I was complaining the show was light on content. They didn't discuss alternatives or success rates.


The same "experts" have the theory that killing off other game species in a given area will starve out the wolves and save the cariboo. Are they forgetting that most locales in the southern half of the province also have livestock operations near them and that wolves have noses and legs to get them to the nearest food supply?

BC is either going to have to do a mass cull or let them get so overpopulated that they eat themselves out of their food supplies and die of starvation or mange.

Wouldn't this be a lovely province with no game and no ranching industry?

[Darksith]

The same "experts" have the theory that killing off other game species in a given area will starve out the wolves and save the cariboo. Are they forgetting that most locales in the southern half of the province also have livestock operations near them and that wolves have noses and legs to get them to the nearest food supply?

BC is either going to have to do a mass cull or let them get so overpopulated that they eat themselves out of their food supplies and die of starvation or mange.

Wouldn't this be a lovely province with no game and no ranching industry?
I think the people involved in this project probably would agree with you and are attempting to find a different solution. I wonder if it would be possible to write an email to the MOE to see if they have any info on this attempt at population control. It is a good shot at thinking outside the box, and might be effective. If something like this turns out to be effective, it might lead to different methods of sterilization like a chemical sterilization that can be delivired via dart. In the end its not entirely the wolfs fault, they have co-existed with the bou for a long time. Habitat loss is the major problem here, but thats our fault, now we gotta figure out how to control the wolf pop to at least give the bou a chance to recover in herd #s.

[Mulehahn]

In seem to remember a study about this being done in the states and instead of controlling the population it had the opposit effect. The pack split up, the alpha couple lost its status and then you had two packs. This plan is also dependent on having a clear understanding of who the alpha pair is.

[gcreek]

Habitat loss. Funny how the Chilcotin has been logged in the last 30 years and the Itcha Ulgatchuz herd has stayed stable or increased in those years. Cariboo have been seen as far east as the grasslands at Riske Creek during the summer months. The only way the MOE can explain this is that ranchers are keeping somewhat of a cap on the wolf population.
I've personally seen cariboo eating clover in the ditch of a busy logging road in the middle of a huge cutblock. The greenies have used this lame excuse of habitat loss for years. In most cases it is an untruth.

Cutting a wolf's nuts out won't stop him from eating meat but death will.

[reach]

In seem to remember a study about this being done in the states and instead of controlling the population it had the opposit effect. The pack split up, the alpha couple lost its status and then you had two packs. This plan is also dependent on having a clear understanding of who the alpha pair is.
Yes good points. I'm guessing maybe the study you're talking about was done using a bigger hammer - removing the testicles entirely like they do with dogs? In this show they did a more sophisticated operation like they do on humans - basically a vasectomy. That would leave all the hormones intact and in the show they stated the same wolf would remain alpha.

In this show they were just guessing at who was the alpha by chasing them with the helicopter and assuming the biggest strongest one (the one that ran farthest and fastest) was the alpha.

[walks with deer]

I normally don't shoot any thing I don't eat.
If the research is true sterlize the alpha (great) and dump every femail you can I have only ever taken one wild dogs life however I see them more and more every year I may adopt ythe old attitude sooner than later.

Dump the b-(9h