Posted on 01/01/2014 11:45:35 AM PST by bkopto
Illinois’ own once-thriving wolves were hunted to extinction by the 1860s. But since the first confirmed sighting in the state in 150 years, in 2002, wolf sightings have gone from rare to regular — with at least five in the last three years.
“We used to joke with our counterparts in Wisconsin that, ‘Yeah, one day your wolves will be coming to Illinois,’” said Joe Kath, the endangered species manager at Illinois’ Department of Natural Resources. “Well, we’ve reached that day.”
That has state wildlife officials contemplating another day — still way off — when there are so many wolves in Illinois they’ll have to ask residents to decide if they want to encourage the growth of a wolf population or strictly limit it, possibly through hunting or trapping.
“It’s too early to ask the question, but it’s not too early to prepare for a time when the question might have to be asked,” said Kath. That preparation, he said, has already begun, including by drafting plans on how to manage wolf packs should they become established.
The North American wolves, known as gray or timber wolves, have proven resilient.
Their numbers in the lower 48 states fell to a few dozen by 1970 but dramatically rebounded with federal protections and wildly successful reintroduction programs in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.
In Wisconsin, which shares a 150-mile border with Illinois, wolf numbers went from few to none in the 1970s to more than 800 today.
The core of Wisconsin’s wolf population is in its forested north. But, explained Kath, of their own accord, the wolves have moved south. There’s even one pack near Beloit, Wis., only miles from Illinois.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I see your bear spray and raise you a shotgun. I’m in Alberta, we have it all up here, dangerous. Go hiking armed heh.
Have cougars been sighted in MA?
Yikes!
.
Sounds like a good cage match! heh
I hike with a pistol sometimes-the shotgun is too cumbersome and heavy to hike with-when I’ve seen fresh feral hog tracks on a trail recently-I am far more afraid of them than I am of the mountain lion-they are not reclusive and solitary like that big cat is, many weigh upwards of 300-400 pounds, they have tusks that are several inches long, they travel in packs, are not afraid of anything at all, and are known to attack humans.
There are bears where you are-big bears-I’d be terrified of them, too...
I think you make a great deal of sense.
True conservatives “conserve.” Little room in there for extermination.
I’ll make an exception for pathogens.
Multiple sightings, scat and tracks. It’s always hushed up. Some animal control folks will tell you off the record that they’re here in western and central MA. One was hit on the Merritt Parkway in CT and was traced back to South Dakota.
Best I can do is carry a Henry Mare’s leg or something, they don’t let us carry pistols up here in Canada, though I do own a few .45s.
We had the same Bill of Rights that the U.S. had until the commie idiot Trudeau passed the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms or as I call it, Charter of slavery and servitude.
They're already here.
Horsecrap...they're two different species. Timber wolves are smaller, less aggressive, and generally travel in smaller packs, usually no bigger than 7. Canadian gray wolves are much larger -- up to 200+ ponds -- travel in packs of 20 or more, are so aggressive they think nothing of taking on griz and black bears, and have destroyed the deer and elk herds here in Idaho. There is a reason why generations ago, when people were smarter and more pragmatic than we are today, they were driven out of Idaho and other states.
Incidentally, Canadian Gray wolves have displaced native Timberwolves from Idaho.
We're not talking about cute little Two Socks from Dances With Wolves (a Timberwolf). A few months back, two Canadian Gray wolves wiped out 120 sheep in eastern Idaho in one night. The naysayers responded that only a dozen or so sheep were actually killed by the wolves themselves, and the rest trampled one another to death in the resulting panic. Well whoopdie-friggin'-doo! Had it not been for those two serial killers in their midst, a rancher wouldn't have taken such a loss.
This deer season, I hunted in four different game management zones, and saw not a single deer, not a single elk, not a single antelope. Nothing. Gray wolves are the serial killers of the animal kingdom, and they never should have been reintroduced. Similar stories are coming from Montana and Wyoming, and will soon be repeated by hunters in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. Gray wolves destroy wildlife. They are thrill killers who more often than not, simply kill their prey and leave it to rot.
Anyone who wants a good education on what Canadian Gray wolves are doing to the Northern Rockies, go to www.saveelk.com. It's eye opening.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
I don’t know much about Trudeau-MrT5 was French, of
Canadian ancestry-his grandparents came to Seattle, Wa from Quebec, so most of what I do know came from his family-they were not fond of the man...
We don't have too many deer or elk in Idaho anymore, thanks to the damn Canadian Gray wolves. Come to think of it, we apparently don't have many left at all. I've not seen a single elk in five years, and the only deer I've seen in the last two years were three does crossing Highway 21 last summer. Wolves have destroyed the ungulate herds all the way from the border to I-84, and are now making their way into southernmost Idaho...antelope country.
Incidentally, our forefathers didn't hunt Gray wolves "to extinction" , though they should have. They merely drove them out of states like Idaho, back to their native Canada. They knew that Gray wolves are serial killers, with an insatiable thirst for wildlife and livestock. They are the animal equivalent of Muslims, only they don't give their prey the option of converting...they just kill them.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
He openly cavorted with commies such as Castro, among others. He did so much harm to the west that he almost completely killed the economy. He was a terrible moron, kind of like your current leader ( I use the word leader here loosely).
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Silly. Wolves are apex predators and play a key role in balancing the carrying capacity of the environment, like all other apex predators.
Human are, of course, apex+ predators, and have the ability to displace apex predators whenever they choose. Doesn’t make that choice a wise one.
I recommend the article at the link. It’s from a loonng presentation by Michael Chrichton. The whole thing is good, but he has a section on the (mis)-management of Yellowstone about halfway down, a key component of which was very early wiping out the wolves.
http://www.independent.org/events/transcript.asp?id=111
Well, maybe someone should ask Canada to put up a fence to keep those illegal wolves out-the next thing you know, they will be demanding section 8 dens, free emergency vet care, and free elk stamps.
Like I said-a season on animals to manage them and keep a healthy balance...
I was taught to not hunt and shoot a deer or other animal I do not intend to eat, and I do not have any sympathy with those who want to keep up populations of animals for trophy hunting, or by others who do not eat what they kill. There are far too many like that in every state who want to exterminate everything from wolves and bears to crows and vultures with deer and elk running everywhere for them to shoot, after a leisurely walk from the lodge to a heated blind in a fenced pasture with a feeder. That is not what I call “hunting”.
Also-have you never noticed that privately maintained and owned land has plenty of meat animals to hunt, and a good, healthy balance of predator and prey? That is because the fed doesn’t do any better at managing land and animals than they do at anything else they touch-they just screw it up. Most land is in private hands here-you have to lease from the owner to hunt, and so you mind your manners.
Here's a link to site that is more pertinent, and you don't have to sift through a bunch of crap to find the information you're looking for:
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
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