Originally Posted by
Bugle M In
Firstly, glad to see your back.
As to Trapman, I have heard that it is "really tough" to trap wolves....due to their intelligence.
PG66, thanks for some insight on your experience and that little tidbit about goats, as I was just thinking about my past season talk with a GO up in the EK.
Yes, lots and lots of wolves up in that watershed area....and beyond.
The GO keeps repeating that the trapper in that area, basically refuses to trap wolves....so, they don't get taken.
Now, from what you have said, and the fact that there isn't much money in wolf hides, answers that for me, and why
possibly that trapper chooses not to go for them.
Intersetly, I have watched 4 GO's own that territory....actually 5, but the 1st GO did well, but just decided to sell.
The 2nd, who owned it for years, slowly over time watched the game disappear, to the point he just kept saying to me that there was "no game" left really back in the high country like it once was.
The 3rd never even got really started, and sold off to a 4th.
The 4th basically shot up what he could find, but within a couple of years, he also said there was nothing out there.
That really, he was mostly targeting goats....which, from my understanding, he sort of lost that territory due to shooting "too many nannies".
Anyways, the 5th, this current GO, has had poor success in harvesting elk the past few years, and basically said that Goats were now his real main source of revenue, and again, stated the same, no game, bad habitat....and wolves.
Like you said, he said the same....he takes 1 here and there, but it's not enough, and hunting them is really hard.
But, one last thing about Goats....he explained to me how these Goats, come winter time, seem to come way down the slopes of this 1 particular mountain that carries lots of nannies and kids.
Just so happens, this slope comes to a pinch point on the river....right where the wolves seem to get most of their success.
I have a bad feeling, it's only a matter of time, until these wolves, and the increased # of cougars in the area, deplete this watershed of Goat as well.
And if that happens, that GO and anyone after him is finished....IMO.
And if no GO buys that territory in the future....well...we have seen how "other groups" are slowly buying them up,
and they ain't the sort of folks, we as hunters want to see buying up these territories.
Just another thought on how bad other things can come from our current situation that we don't really take into account for the future.
That's 4 of the last 5 GO's....who have sat at "my camp"....not theirs....talking to me, telling me how bad it is for them up there, and no, it's not the competition that they are trying to alleviate.
Anyways, when the wolves get done with one source, they may not necessarily move on...they just may possibly switch, so your think about "more goats" after removing wolves holds a lot of water in my books.
Thanks for the insight...and confirming some of my thoughts/fears.