Why people expect to put a food source in the middle of coyote habitat and then fault the coyote for doing what comes naturally is beyond me. I have a farm too everything is properly penned and I have not lost an animal in years. I have cats and we only let them out when someone is outside. Primarily because they kill all the songbirds. The coyotes ,bobcats, bears are in balance. Killing them because you fail to manage your farm stock is old school and unneeded. I try to fit into my habitat not alter it unnecessarily. It's different if you run cattle or sheep it's in reasonable to expect someone to pen stock from wolves on that scale. Specifically when there were no wolves when they started the operation.

Yup. They've been gone (wolves) for many decades as a viable population, and the prey species is ill equipped to deal with them because they haven't had them as a predators in generations. While there may have been a stray wolf or pack that had traveled through Washington in the past 50 years or more, they really haven't been here in any numbers until the past decade or so.

Man came and displaced the wolf.

You have your style of operation, I have mine. I make no apologies. I find that taking two coyotes a year usually does a pretty good job of removing the threat from my property for 8-12 months.

Certainly but those two dogs eat a [Bleeeeep!] ton of mice , keep the opossum and coons from spreading disease. They are very beneficial to hobby farms.

And the game animals no longer have their traditional wintering grounds or the ability to move around to find places to excape. Many, if not most, of those areas happen to be the same places we like to live and build cities and towns. This forces those same game animals to live out the winter not only with less food than when wolves last chased them but in deeper snows. Advantage.....Wolves.

I love the thought of wolves and have had four separate chances to harvest one all in Alaska while hunting other big game. Never have. Likely never will. Just not on my bucket list as much as dall, moose or mountain goat so I am not of the "kill to kill" every wolf camp.

I just do not believe we can add in a new apex preditor without drastically changing hunting in Washington for all prey species. Not with how bad we have screwed up the balance of nature. Sal said it best.....We are the cancer that makes reintroduction a bad idea.

Perhaps someone can answer this for me.
Have any wolves been re-introduced in Washington, or have the packs migrated to new territory from Montana, Oregon, Idaho and BC?
Thanks for any info you can provide.
SF

My assumption is that they have migrated this way from Canada, and possibly from Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. The Yellowstone wolves that were reintroduced in 1995 fanned out, and it is possible that as the Yellowstone wolves moves they displaced non-related packs westward towards Washington and Idaho.

WDFW's take on gray wolf recovery and why we've seen an increase.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/gray_wolf/

DF,
Thanks for the info.
SF

Many hunters are perfectly happy when all apex predators are removed from the environment.
So why don't they just hunt high fence?
It's called an ecosystem, and saying we should manage it to the benefit of big game hunters and public land grazers makes no biological sense what so ever.

You can vaccinate canines and cats for those diseases. You cannot vaccinate for the protozoals and tularemia carried by opossum and coons. Horses are more expensive than dogs and you cannot protect them from exposure short of eradication methods.

Coons and possums break into my pens and have killed birds and raided eggs, so I control those as well. Any preditor that comes onto my farm that I see gets dealt with quickly and humanely.







My dog helps as well.

Notice how comfortable the bird is, sleeping?

No hatchets used on the possums?

AM,
EPM from opossum in Wa is far more likely than Sarcocystosis from coyote's . You are so far out of your league on anything to do with farming or ranching , stop while you can.


Stam, My grandpa had that same philosophy. Anyone that used a balanced approach on the farm or had a different idea was a college boy yuppie. He broke his horses, spanked his kids and beat his dog I never saw the need for any of it. There are better ways to do things and if that makes me a college boy yuppie I am honored.

Not seeing what the problem is ?

OK Google hobby farmer I will take pity and assume you wan tot learn something and not just run your mouth. Look up definitive vs intermediate hosts and then look up EPM which one is the definitive host for S. neurona. Now cite the cases of EPM from coyotes in North America?

If you're using the kill as a barometer for success then your probably not going to be happy with wolf reintroduction, but if you judge your hunt by the quality of the chase, then you'll probably like what is happening.

AM, When you come across someone with horses or cattle that have had issues from coyotes carrying EPM let your vet know he will have a good chuckle. You know zero about it like most things.

I lived in northern MN in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

This land is shared amongst--Timber wolves, deer, moose , otters, pine martins, bear, bobcats, badger, beaver, porcupine, possums, squirrels, mink, coons, foxes, wolverines, humans, many many lakes with many many fish, varmints, and feathered friends, dogs and cats, some livestock.

When I lived there I saw occasional wolves or sign of-I never heard/witnessed of a wolf killing livestock or any pets. Living amongst wolves was just part of the deal. I had a friend that had over 20 sled dogs and never had issues, another couple lived there for long time-had many cats, dogs, chickens, took in wounded animals—never had a issue with a wolf, a coyote or a bear. --mink or fox, coons Yes.

I did see a pack of wolves chase down a deer on a frozen lake—that was pretty fricken cool. Another time when fishing a river I walked up on a deer carcass all that was left was rib cage, bones and skull and lots of hair and blood.

Though I did not witness there is depredation and the population est. at 3,000 wolves +- it is the highest population in lower 48.

This is the first year I heard of a season. The season will allow to trap.

squint real hard to see

Egad. I find myself enjoying your narrative on hunting as you like it.
No issues, Well said Todd.

Nice try. That company sells testing. How about you come up with a source from a known vetranary university like WSU, Duke, OSU that will back that up with research.
Then tell every horse farm and cattle ranch in the US that they have to get rid of cats and dogs becasue they carry EPM.

The truth is you know nothing you are scouring the google universe looking for anything that will back you up. Tell us how many horses and cattle you ave raised and doctored. How many cattle ranches and horse farms you have worked on and how many farmers and ranchers you know. A hand full of goats on a few scrub acres and all of the sudden you are an expert.