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by CrysBuck25 on 05 March 2010 - 19:03
Crys
by LAVK-9 on 05 March 2010 - 21:03
As far as if i had kids....I wouldn't let them out alone where there are wild animals. Just like the stupid people here letting $1000 cats out to be mousers and a coyote,bobcat,or owl takes off with it. DUH!!! You don't leave children or animals out unsupervised. Never have I head of a person being attacked by a wolf unless it was rabid. Like the few instances where bobcats have atacked people or wandered in to a bar and attacked people.
It is pretty much a dead subject as I have my believes and you all have yours. Maybe the reason for the sheep killing or strange behavior is due to breeding or some kind of change.Look at our domestic dogs. Dogs that have been a great pet turns on the owner.Happened to my friends mom.She raised a Dobe...female.Had her so well trained would probably put anyone on this forum to shame. Out of the blue the dog snapped and turned and attacked her. I can't say that I blame the wolves for killing the sheep....lambykins is GOOD eatin!! (especialy with a bit of curry mmmmm)
by beetree on 05 March 2010 - 22:03
I think this gives an valid explanation:
Do Wolves Kill for Sport?No, but sometimes they hunt down more than they can eat.
Posted Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009, at 6:55 PM ET
During this fall's inaugural wolf-hunting season in Montana, hunters killed the matriarch of a Yellowstone wolf pack that researchers had been studying for more than a decade. Park officials suspect that her mate and three other pack members were also killed. A Los Angeles Times stor
Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2234729/
A Los Angeles Times storyabout the hunt claims that wolves are known to kill for "pure pleasure." Do wolves really attack their prey just for the fun of it?
No. When they kill more than they can eat in one sitting, the pack usually comes back for second helpings. Wolves achieve a very low yield on hunting expeditions in the wild; somewhere between 4 percent and 8 percent of their attacks are successful. (Lions, by contrast, manage a kill rate of 27 percent or more when they hunt in groups.) Consequently, wolves are opportunistic hunters. If the chance to kill prey en masse presents itself, they have been known to go after more than they can consume. But they're rarely wasteful. Hungry wolves are not above scavenging, and they often return to their kill—or another animals'—days later. They may even bury the leftovers to hide them from competitors such as wolverines. (This is probably how dogs, which are descended from wolves, got into the habit of burying bones.) Of course, no one can say for sure whether wolves derive "pleasure" from a kill.
Mass kills are rare. Most of a wolf's favorite prey species—ungulates like deer, elk, moose, and caribou—can mortally wound their attackers with one swift kick, so wolves tend to focus on the most vulnerable individuals. It isn't often that a lucky wolf pack happens upon an entire herd of young, sick, or elderly prey. (It does happen, though. When elk transition from winter to spring diets—from woody vegetation to fresh green shoots—they go through a period of weakness and lethargy, which renders them vulnerable to a lupine rout.)
Sheep and cattle, unlike their wild ungulate cousins, lack any kind of defense against wolf attacks. This mismatch can lead to the occasional slaughter, raising outcries from Western ranchers who demand greater measures to prevent wolf attacks. However, wolves only turn to livestock when their natural prey is unavailable, so these killings are infrequent. In 2008, wolves are known to have killed fewer than 200 cattle and sheep in Montana, and 100 wolves were hunted down in response.
Wolves are not alone in displaying an apparent lack of predatory economy. Foxes have been known to kill large numbers of chicken, eating only the head of each victim. (Veterinarians vaccinate foxes against rabies by sprinkling inoculated chicken heads throughout their territory.) Weasels like the back of the hea
by beetree on 05 March 2010 - 22:03
....like the back of the head and neck of their avian prey and tend to pile up the uneaten bodies in neat stacks. Raccoons eat the head and the crop.
Dolphins have been observed engaging in the seemingly gratuitous killing of porpoises—going so far as to use sonar to locate the victim's vital organs and increase the lethality of the strike—but experts haven't quite worked out their motivation. Some speculate that the dolphins use the porpoises for target practice, preparing for possible clashes with fellow dolphins who infringe on their territory.
Dogs are the only animal that definitely kills for sport, but that's only because humans taught them to do so. When a farmer finds a few dead chickens killed during the daylight hours with no missing body parts, the neighbor's dog is almost always the culprit.
by darylehret on 06 March 2010 - 01:03
Hungry wolves are not above scavenging, and they often return to their kill—or another animals'—days later. They may even bury the leftovers to hide them from competitors such as wolverines. (This is probably how dogs, which are descended from wolves, got into the habit of burying bones.)Guess those three wolves would have a lot of diggin to do. Actually, a lot of what they kill is scavenged on by bears or coyotes, but there's no reason to believe they could have any concept or disregard for wasteful behavior. It's totally irrelevant to them. If you're sensitive about calling it "killing for sport", then call it "fullfilling their drives", "acting on their instincts" or whatever. In the middle of June, 120 sheep are going to spoil long before three wolves and other nearby scavengers could feed on the carcasses. Good ant food, I suppose. Those noble creatures, lookin' out for the little guys.
As far as livestock guardian dogs go, that same rancher lost four last year to wolves. I'd be interested to know the breed they used, but either way, I wouldn't be hopeful that three or more of those dogs could defend against an entire pack. They team up on individuals, and flank them from multiple sides. There's a recent youtube video showing two wolves working at separating a grizzly cub from its mother. How effectively could even three dogs defend hundreds of livestock, each of which are individual targets, from the attacks of a half dozen or a dozen wolves?
by LAVK-9 on 06 March 2010 - 02:03
Forgot to add...a pack of Chihuahuas could guard the sheep. Enough of those ankle bitters would keep anything at bay!!!
by Mindhunt on 06 March 2010 - 03:03
Just like deer that survive living by roads vs. deer who are ignorant of road survival (deer where studied and the majority of dead deer did not have the wear pattern on the bottom of their hooves from being around roads that the survivors did who were tranquilized and bottom of their hooves checked, yes, there was research money available for this in order to study how to reduce the number of deer-vehicle mishaps). Animals will adapt and learn how to survive. Same thing happened in Alaska many years ago when big game hunters claimed the wolves were decimating the trophy animal population and research found the majority of the diet came from smaller animals, not the big trophy animals.
Wolves do not kill for entertainment, they kill to eat, teach their young to kill, and if the animal is not eaten all at once, it will be eaten eventually since the wolves will hide the kill so they can return to finish off their meal.
If you are able to access ProQuest or another research database, their are many informative articles, just make sure to check the scholarly journal and peer reviewed boxes to get the empirical articles.
by Prager on 06 March 2010 - 03:03
So 200lb or more sounds like a Little Red Riding Hood story to me.
What is the subspecies of wolf which was introduced to the region discussed? And
what smaller subspecies of a wolf would you suggest that they would introduce to Mt, Wy, Id region?
Canis lupus irremotus? Maybe that would be better choice. I guess...
Wolf will kill so called for fun if the region is ecologically over populated and then when the animal population is balanced then this will stop. Now there is overpopulation of Elk, deer and so on as far as the original ecosystem goes. That is why there may be more killing by the wolf then wolf may immediatley use. Wolf will return to the old kill. There are also other animals who benefit from such unusr carcases. Also this excessive killing problem is self limiting. The story about snow is also bogus since there is just as much snow in Yellowstone as it is in Canada. And in Canada there is also summer and no snow. So another BS story. The problem is that when there would the ecosystem be balanced then there will not be left as many deer and Elk to be killed by hunters for fun. Hunting is money for businesses and revenue for Government. That sounds more like a problem for the wolf and to me.
Also the Little Red Riding Hood stories of wolf eating the elk fetus and letting mother to die suffering seems to be designed for effect to increase the hate of wolf. Wolf will kill and eat what he wants to. So what? Maybe you would suggest that the wolf preserves the meat by smoking it and making sausages?
Let me say that even so I do not hunt I am not against hunting.
Prager Hans
http://www.alpinek9.com
by darylehret on 06 March 2010 - 03:03
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