02 May 2014
Posted by: Melanie Gade |
“Inside Idaho’s Irrational War on Wolves”: We’re
putting pressure on Idaho’s elected officials to stop their war on
wolves every way we can: in the courts, on the ground, and in the media.
This week, we’d like to share an article
with you which aptly questions the roots of Governor Otter’s fanatical
zeal for wolf killing. As author Richard Conniff describes: “Idaho’s
political leadership, caught up in fairy-tale notions about wolves and a
fanatic determination to oppose anything, even a native species, with
the taint of the federal government on it, seems determined instead to
drive this magnificent state down in a self-destructive cycle of hatred
and killing.”
We
could not agree more. Idaho’s elected officials are creating a culture
of wolf hatred based on myth and on hype, and as a result, their
aggressive wolf killing programs – like Gov. Otter’s $400,000 tax payer
funded wolf extermination fund
– remain largely uncontested. Defenders is the only national
organization with staff on the ground in Idaho who not only worked to
help restore wolves, but are actively working at the statehouse, in the
wilderness, national forests and grazing lands, and at the state
wildlife commission, speaking out on behalf of wolves against actions
threatening wolves. Click here to support our work and now through May 9th, every gift will be matched dollar-for dollar! New Science Shows Yellowstone Wolves Naturally Regulate Their Population Numbers: After 13 years of research, scientists announced the results of a new study this week which shows that wolves in Yellowstone actually regulate their population levels through naturally occurring mortality.
Pups from Oregon’s Wenaha Pack.
In other words, when the population increased, the instances of
mortality in the wolf pack also increased. Wolf packs are highly
territorial by nature. When populations increase and wolvescompete for
territory, the game “survival of the fittest” begins. But what effect
does hunting and trapping play in this dynamic? Does hunting replace
this natural phenomenon, or is the impact of hunting additive (does
hunting result in even more deaths because pack structures become
disrupted)? It is a question scientists are still exploring. One clear
conclusion is that while natural mortality occurred only in older
wolves, hunting and trapping kills older and younger wolf pups
indiscriminately.
source
No comments:
Post a Comment