RvW,

I do read a bit on wolves since reintroduction to YNP and Idaho. Read a bunch on a website run by some total wolf haters with numerous photos of pregnant cow elk carcasses. At least they don't claim to be objective, but they think about wolves the way Custer thought about Indians.

I was talking with a wildlife biologist from Wisconsin a couple days ago. Wisconsin is next door to Minnesota which has had many wolves since day one. Seems the Wisconsin wolf population is growing and now numbers around 800, and people (presumably hunters) are screaming about wolf predation on deer. Funny thing is, he said, that there are 10,000 to 20,000 coyotes in Wisconsin that kill way more deer than wolves, and have been since forever. Yet not a word is raised about this predation.

It looks like predator-prey relationships are more complex than most people thought. I was in YNP in June a few years ago and saw a cow elk that had been killed by a wolf pack. Wolves fed on it for 3 days. Coyotes fed on it when the wolves weren't. Then a grizzly sow and cub. Then a black bear. And ravens were around whenever they could scavenge. I hiked down to the carcass after about 5 or 6 days and was amazed to find only one leg bone and a bit of hide left at the kill sight. Nothing goes to waste.

It does seem like wolves strike a nerve among humans that is more emotional than rational that other predators don't. That would make a good social science study.

Sg