Dewey wrote:john1984 wrote:https://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/content/articles/deer-news/more-deer-killed-by-wolves-than-by-hunters-in-2019
Good article John. I especially like the timeline. Really gives perspective to what we have been dealing with for so many years. It’s been an uphill battle no doubt.
I don't know that this is as dramatic as they make it sound. The wolf range is mostly in forested low deer density areas anyway, the hunter population isn't all that thick to begin with because the hunting has been poor for ten years but is picking up again. Lets just say in my little corner of wolf country our permit section shot 866 deer in 2019. This area is 1650ish square miles, if we go 7 deer psm you are looking at 11550 deer. If the wolves are taking a 1/10 of the population and we are about the same you can see it is mostly fear tactics and over 80% of the deer will survive us and the wolves. I think a hard winter could easily beat hunters and wolves but a huge margin and I see that as a much bigger population influence over wolves, in fact I have lived it far too often. Hard to catch a break up here, although this winter has been nice and mild after 3 long hard winters with deep snow. Only way to go is up!