NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/rec/backcoun/9120

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-20 | 3.5 KB

Xref: sparky rec.backcountry:9120 sci.environment:12923 talk.environment:4714 alt.wolves:244
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From: [e-mail] (Floyd Davidson)
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry,sci.environment,talk.environment,alt.wolves
Subject: Re: Alaska to shoot hundreds of wolves from airplanes
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 21 Nov 92 08:21:17 GMT
Article-I.D.: raven.1992Nov21.082117.28640
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>    This will radically stress the current culture of the Wolves.
>Will the sudden decrease in competition from other packs and the corresponding
>increase in prey give rise to new organizations among the wolves? Will their
>range increase or their pack's size? Or the opposite? It is sure to lead to

My understanding is that heavy hunting pressure will cause the
pack size to become smaller, thus increasing the rate of
reproduction because only the alpha animals in each pack normally
mate.  The net effect over a long period of time is that hunting
may be a very poor way to reduce wolf numbers.

Loss of prey population may cause low wolf numbers, but loss of
habitat is what reduces wolve numbers to extinction.

>a famine and mass die-off amongst the prey after a brief expansion. Look

That could very well happen.  The over grazing of the food supply
in the early part of this century by reindeer (a reindeer and a
caribou are essentially the same animal) herds was initially
blamed on wolf predation.  The concept of wolf management to bring
back the reindeer and caribou herds then didn't work very well...

>for a lot more highway deaths and train derailments, too.

Car moose collisions usually result the the death of both the car
and the moose, though the occupants of the car usually, but not
always, live.  There were something like 30 caribou killed on the
Parks Highway near Cantwell, Alaska in the past month.  I saw a
moose killed on the Richardson Highway south of Fairbanks just 2-3
days ago.

But trains don't get derailed...  and the Alaska Railroad kills a
few hundred moose every year.  The train wins every time and isn't
even scratched.

>    The funny thing about this is that in the next few centuries the
>populations in the North will decrease because the treeline is rapidly moving
>south in response to Global cooling caused by the Milankovitch cycle. The
>Caribou will hang around, but the Moose and the Deer will have to head south,
>too. You think they could just plant more food species or clear more forests if
>they want more herbivores.

Ha ha, good joke.  The treeline is moving north, I don't know about
Milankovitch, but caribou and moose (there aren't any deer here)
seem to hand around all winter now at -65F, so they aren't likely
to move if it ever does get cold.

>    I think someone just wants to hunt wolves..

You got that right.  It has nothing to do with moose and caribou
and herds for tourists.  Money, thats all, just money.  Hunting is
big money.

Floyd
--
[e-mail]    A computer guest of the Institute of Marine Science
Salcha, Alaska          at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks