On Feburary 21st, 2008, the Fish and Wildlife service announced its decision to delist the Northern Rocky Gray Wolf from the endangered species list. This decision should be people happy and celebrated but unfortunaly a dozen wildlife organizations sued the federal government. So far 35 wolves have been killed in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. The Idaho governor said he plans to kill 80% of all the wolves in the state. Wyoming plans to kill 16 out of the 23 existing wolf packs. That is a lot of wolves. This may seem odd for a sea otter to talk about wolves and their problems but someone has to do it.
People think of wolves as predators and killers, who kill humans and livestock. The wolf's diet consists of deer, moose, caribou, rabbit and elk. So yes, the wolf is a carnivore. They do sometimes eat livestock but that is only when there is no other food. Humans have continued to take over the land where wolves have lived and also hunted the same food source. Due to the humans moving into the wolves territory, it is difficult for a wolf to know the boundry lines between a domestic animal and a wild animal. They just know they are hungry. I understand that when a wolf kills a cow it affects a farmer's income. But I have watched on the seaTV that a farm could have alarms that go off everytime a wolf comes within a certain distance of a farm which would scare them away. I would also like to point out that when it comes to hunting, humans tend to do it for pleasure and fun while wolves hunt to survive. An average wolf eats about 9 pounds of meat each day. They hunt for food not for points or a decoration on a wall.
Here is an interesting thought about wolves and people. There is no record of any healthy wolf attacking a person, but how many healthy humans have killed wolves? In my opinon killing for pleasure is wrong and could lead to wiping out a whole species. Believe me I know, sea otters in the the 1900's almost became extinct.
4 comments:
I agree. Wolves should not be hunted just for the sport.
I agree that it is a bad thing that wolves are being killed for pleasure, especially wolves that just got taken of the Endangered Species List. I am a little confused as to the Sea Otter writing about wolves, but I think it is an interesting idea. I did not know that there are no accounts of a wolf eating a human, I am suprised by that. Do you know what will happen to the wolves if their number of packs decreases to seven? How will this affect them in the long run? Does it endanger their breeding or their chances to grow?
It is horrible that people kill wolves for fun and sport, heck I had a friend who was an artic wolf.
Marlon,
Yes it is little weird having a sea otter talking about wolves, but I am not just talking about wolves. I am also talking about other animal species in danger. If the wolf packs drop to seven then that will affect the enviroment around them. Wolves help keep the natural balance in their habitat. When they hunt they only eat the sick, old and weak.This actaully strenghtens prey's gene pools. They keep the deer herds in check. Without wolves many species such as deer and caribou would die because they would overeat causing many other species and themselves to starve. Even though wolves are not on the endangered species list anymore does not mean they reached their population peak. Even now there is a small amount of wolves compared on how many there used to be.
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