Henry Rifle Forums

She was quite old and quite rare.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/scie ... gally.html

Beautiful animal. Sorry to hear she met her end like that. Have no problem with wolves being hunted if the hunt is legal and managed, scientifically. Not my thing, but I do think there are instances where the wolf population needs to be managed. (We have them, here.) Illegal hunting off any kind, though, infuriates me.

The fact that she was shot illegally is bad enough, but to be left to die prior to being euthanized is unforgivable. No animal deserves to suffer because a "hunter" doesn't care enough to make a clean kill.

Disgraceful.

As a hunter the wolf is my competition and I selfishly want them kept out of Colorado. We spent 150yrs trappin, shootin and finally poisoning them out of existence mainly to protect our ranchers herds. As a by product it immensely benefited our ungulate herds. The Yellowstone elk herd has been severely reduced as the wolf population exploded and began to spread, quickly blowing by the breeding pair goal initially set to trigger managing their numbers. But management didn't begin till long after that number was passed, and then it was like pullin teeth to get USFW to impliment and get approved thru the courts a season to begin to manage them. Wyoming "may" actually have a season this fall if the courts don't put a halt to it. But having spent a few years around them in Minnesota's arrowhead region I know the cats out of the bag so to speak. You could lift all hunting/trapping regulations on them tomorrow and there would always be a population of them. Poison was the only thing that eliminated them before. I say this because during the time I lived around them I could go and hear them whenever I wanted, but I never saw one and I spent plenty of time trying to catch a glimpse. The person that shot this wolf was not a hunter, he was a poacher, and should be treated as such. If they have no fear of man as the article states then just how "natural" is Yellowstone? They should have a deep rooted fear of man, as man has hounded them since the beginning of time. Do they have a place? Sure, but they shouldn't be allowed to go unchecked. Its a common belief that they were released in part to eliminate hunting of ungulates. If they're allowed to go unchecked thats an attainable goal but it isn't "natural", man has always been a part of that circle. The biggest lie in this whole thing is that these wolves aren't native to the area as they would have you believe. These wolves are much bigger than the wolves that once lived here but that's not something they like to tell anyone. I dread the day the first breeding pair takes up residence in Colorado and the ridiculous, inevitable fan fair that will surely follow.

I'll withhold comment on this particular incident. That said, these wolves are not native to this part of North America. Never have been in modern recorded history. There is a lot of truth in the rumor that wolf "reintroduction" was to eliminate hunting for ungulates.