I started huntiing Idaho when I was a kid. About 10 or 11. I can remeber seeing herds of elk that would put to shame any sort of herd today. Same goes for the amount of deer you see. Having smaller numbers is not necissarily the problem. The amount of wolves that are showing up are the problem. Ten years ago there were only maybe one or two sightings that I can recall within a couple years of reintroduction to the wild. About five years later that number rocketed. Soon after that you started to see the pictures of them showing up. That is when things started to get disturbing. The problem with the wolves is not that they prey on the animals that we all like to hunt. The biggest problem is the fact that they have a tendency to chase and kill animals for fun. Some of you may be thinking this is absurd, but that is the facts. It is widely known that these guys do this. It has been witnessed and documented the killing of does that are pregnant. The wolves just run them into exhaustion. They dont eat them, they dont even bother with the fawn that is born too soon as a result of the body stress imposed. Basically a natural abortion. Thereby killing two deer in one shot that is wasted.

Hunting the elk is another story. It has become extremely difficult to hunt them and calling is even tougher. They seem to have resorted to short locator sessions. And then you do not here them for days. This is mostly due to the fact the wolves show up. Last year my family and I were hunting an area that we had scouted and cased out a couple of bulls that were more than acceptable shooters. We came in on the day after opening knowing exactly what their habits were and that evening set in and made out calls. We got one bull in and that was it. The next day nothing. No cows, calves, bulls to speak of. Wouldn't you know it. The next night a guy from another camp was in an area about a mile away from where we called and headed back for the night when he crossed paths with a female and a cub. We did not see or here another elk or call for a week before we finally moved to another area completely.

The wolves did nothing to the man. We were never circled up that we know of. And the wolves were happy to get along their way. I have yet to hear of any aggresive behavior towards humans yet. But like anything else in nature, it is only a matter of time. Ranchers have already started to take things into their hands though.

I think what the main problem here is that the wolves that were reintroduced were Canadian wolves. They were introduced into an area that, to the best of my knowledge, was always timber wolf country. A smaller and less invasive wolf than the previously mentioned. With no other predators to keep them and the young in check, they have a seemingly endless boundry to territory they can claim. That coupled with the over abundant prey species, i.e. deer, elk, coyote, and anything else that moves, and you have a infestation. They need to be there. They take care of the things like the half dead zombie deer and elk walking around infected with CWD. And any other weaker of the species. But they do need some sort of regulation. And with nothing left to keep them in check that has to be us.