I'd agree with you more strongly Ol Smoky if it didn't mean aligning myself with your avatar.
I have
nothing against hunting Wolves, nor do I think Wolves incapable of killing people. But I've read more reports of even the Whitetail deer killing people than Wolves. Some folks I'm arguing with here (I'm on a smartphone and it's a pain to go back and get the names) seem to want to push anyone who scoffs at the 'great wolf' threat into a corner, saying we all are of the Disney view of nature and are out of touch. I also note many of those voices come from urban areas, all but devoid of Wolves (bearkilr is a strong exception and has a lot of experience in the matter). The plain and simple fact is yes, everyone agrees Wolves are indeed predators and are capable of killing humans, but we disagree on how likely that is. A lot of the urban and southern residents seem to think that threat is immenent, and I feel myself and all the others hundreds of thousands working in the north and bush demonstrate that's not likely. I like the comfort of being armed but this ridiculous push of the 'wolf threat' is getting to the point of emotion and not reason. Show me a hundred reports of wolf kills of people in the Canadian north and bush in the last few years, and I'll concede the point. I can't find those reports, but I bet I could find reports in those numbers of people killed by work mishaps in the bush, by falling through ice, crushed by falling trees, ice, or suffocated in avalanches. Even guys killed accidentally by the guns they brought to defend themselves. We are getting worked up and arguing for pages about a threat as likely as death by lightening strike, probably even less likely than that actually.
I'll never disagree Wolves can kill people, so can my dog. I won't even disagree and argue they never do kill people. But I'll never join the frenzy and think we are in some sort of situation or at risk when any number of things I do at work in the north is more of a risk by thousands upon thousands of times. You guys know why I like Wolves? Because they are apex predators, the
first animals to disappear when the health of an ecosystem is damaged. Reference the plunge of the Tiger, the Lion, the American Wolf and Grizzly (thankfully rebounding), the complete extinction of the Tasmanian Tiger and the Caspian Tiger... and on. I
love wild places with a passion, I travel to find, hunt, and explore them at great expense, I chose a career that keeps me in them despite meaning I'm rarel home, it's a consuming passion. Nothing, and I mean nothing embodies a wild place better than still having apex predators present. Africa hearing lions, hyenas, and leopards at night while in your tent, northern Canada hearing the call of Wolves or seeing Grizzly. You know you're
somewhere when you see them and hear them. No romanticising, no sentimentalism, just a strong appreciation for the areas humans haven't yet completely subjugated.
When we have flickers of the real wild around us we pannick and advocate destruction on sight. If we could step back and watch ourselves we'd be sick. There aren't half as many Wolves or Grizzlies out there as this forum would have you think, and there may even be the odd Cougar or Wolf in southern Ontario now- lucky them! But some ignorant people already talk about the need to 'control' something that only just re-established itself, just barely bringing some wild back. It makes me sick, as a very avid hunter and outdoorsman. People have even brought up the re-introduction of Wolves to the north-central continental US as a
negative!
It is ONLY a negative to the ignorant there who became used to ranching a tamed landscape and enjoyed unsustainably large populations of Elk and Deer and came to think that was normal. Yellowstone has had its rivers deepen and clear, fish stocks rebound, and new tree growth start again in any meaningful way among hundreds of other improvements since the reintroduction of the Wolf. People didn't think of the humble trout when they thought of Wolves. Far overpopulated Elk were eating down the lush riverbanks' foliage, causing the streams to erode the now unsupported banks into sediment making turbid, warm, shallow waters that destroyed trout stocks. Wolves hunt open sight lines, and use rivers heavily to allow them to spot game.
The reintroduction allowed the reforming fl the bank foliage and restoration of trout streams, and this is just one of hundreds of examples of improvements. There are far too many armchair 'conservationists' certain they know best for an entire ecosystem when in fact they are woefully ignorant of reality. Hell, I don't understand it! Therefore I do not try and 'moderate' or make a balance in a system far greater and smarter than myself. I take from that system sustainably, predators and ungulates, I don't fear it, and I let people far more knowledgeable and with far more education than I make the calls.
