great misinformation tactics and emotional triggers used to continue the wanton killing of wolves on the landscape are the lies about wolves breeding without limit. And that they will eat all their prey only to move on and start eating children waiting at a bus stop in the dark. (Seriously, this is common parlance of legislators, senators and Congress people in Idaho, Wyoming and other states where the hysteria of wolves is rampant.
The truth is that wolves actually regulate their numbers without our help.
1) Wolves establish a "range" and generally stay within the boundaries of that range unless a catastrophe like a massive wild fire or flood that removes all their food or humans usurp their habitat.
2) Wolves reproduce ONCE/YEAR and in some years not at all if the prey numbers don't fall within the number needed to sustain the increased number. When wolves were returned to YNP they bred in large numbers due to the overwhelming number of elk (their primary diet though some will successfully thrive on Bison as the Molly's pack did in Pelican Valley and one pack was reported to have two females bear litters in one year).
3) Wolves don't live very long in the wild, there have been a few cases of long lived individuals but it's not common. The average lifespan of a wild wolf is 4-6 years.
4) Wolves will reject individuals who will wander off to establish their own pack IF they make it through the ranges of other wolf packs and/or IF they actually find a breeding mate.
5) Wolves will kill other wolves for a variety of reasons like intrusion of range boundaries or some other infraction that we humans can't fathom.
They regulate naturally and have familial connectivity, when the alpha pair are killed off, the sub-adults lack the training for how to hunt, raise young, stay away from dangerous other species like humans... they are very curious beings.
Also, they don't breed with relatives, a breeding pair generally come from unrelated packs, genetic integrity is important. The only place where it is known to not be the case is Isle Royale in the Great Lakes where there is little opportunity to get to the mainland, and those wolves eat moose because that's what's there. Most predators are opportunists of a sort.
Good little video, though. All of the points made in it have been documented and peer reviewed and repeated over the last twenty years, some facts for longer than that.
= new reply since forum marked as read
