A tank is better cover than a Humvee. There's generally different herd defense strategies as well when it comes to wolves & bison & elk, plus you have bears really honing in on elk calves as being easier targets of opportunity than bison calves. Bison close in around the weaker herd animals when confronted with a predator, while elk tend to be less congregated during parturition.
I would imagine that there is some competition between the two, but with elk having the better mobility, I think they can forage in places other than where the bison are. Is that forage quality though? The former Rep from park County, Alan Redfield, not someone I'd consider a staunch environmentalist, had some pretty good ideas on what's going on inside Yellowstone due to over grazing & drought. He was coming at the issue from a soil science perspective and I think that's a side of this issue that we completely gloss over in favor of whatever critter we want to defend.
Out of balance is subjective though. Humans labor under the misconception that wildlife numbers can be managed on a flat curve and wild undulations in populations are not the norm. That's the hubris of humanity.
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I appreciate your insights you do bring a lot to the discussion. You reminded me There is a lot of factors to consider with elk populations. I still think it’s wolves with the Yellowstone herd as that was the only variable that literally changed overnight. On the selway it seems to have lots of excellent habitat. They have had numerous burns in there and lots of excellent forage growth in those areas. 15? Years ago we rode our horses in 32 miles into what appeared to be perfect elk habitat. I got the directions right down to where to camp where there was a spring for water. I received it from an old timer that couldn’t hunt the area anymore. He had racks galore from this area in his shop and old vhs tapes calling in mature bulls and literally taking his pick. If there was ever a good old days that guy lived it. I never seen one elk turd, one elk track and definitely 0 live elk. We cut the trip short and we were in and out in 3-4 days. Riding out along the river and close to the trailhead we met the rancher on his place. We discussed our surprise at the lack of elk or even sign and he just laughed and pointed to some cages. “This is ground zero for wolves boys. They kept them there and fed them roadkill before letting them go.” He said half laughing and half sighing. There were old rubs and other sign of past elk activity but really nothing even remotely fresh. That was before any management of wolves was allowed. Today I think the elk might be on the upswing just due to second hand reports from other hunters. There is still vast amounts of habitat in the selway devoid of elk. I did the math on elk harvest this year for the frank church and it equals 1 elk taken per 11750 acres of land in there. I’m going in this year but probably just deer hunt. I am not a biologist but I know what I have seen. Every time I read a peer reviewed “study “ it contradicts what I have seen completely. I will take your word for g-bears eating a lot of calves in Yellowstone. Makes sense. But I have read articles saying lions and black bears are the problem with some of our local elk herds. This makes no sense because I have been hunting those areas for lion and bears for 30 years. My experience is we have way LESS lions and bears than we had in the 1990’s.. Those areas were polluted with elk in the 90’s if you didn’t get 3 -4 bugles in a drainage it was considered poor hunting to me. What changed? It was wolves moving in. But the studies always blame something else. I have lived on the same acreage for 21 years and my neighbors have for over forty. Neither one of us ever seen an elk on our property until the wolves showed up on the forest service behind us. We both think the wolves are pushing them out of the public ground high county onto the lower private which is our ground. I could get an easy elk every year but I haven’t shot one on my property. I feel like they have nowhere else to go. I agree with you on too many people and not enough land. I would also fall on the side of the animals. That’s been a problem for a long time but we have a solution that works. It’s called the North American wildlife model. If we don’t manage all predators to keep a surplus of ungulates that system fails. We can all have our own world views and feelings about wildlife but at the end of the day it all comes down to MONEY. Without excess elk and deer to create revenue through license sales the elk are eventually screwed. I probably come off as a wolf hater but I am not. I really like having a MANAGED population of wolves. I feel like me and my partner are at the knowledge level finally to be much more successful at trapping wolves, I don’t want Idaho to reduce wolves by 90 percent and these new rules aren’t designed too and won’t do that. I don’t understand why we can’t acknowledge when wolves are the problem and everyone always try to deflect it to something else. Usually it’s habitat because that’s the hardest variable to prove or disprove. A lot of times wolves are NOT the problem at all but an easy scapegoat. Sometimes they are the problem why is that so hard to acknowledge? I think in Yellowstone, the selway, and partially the Clearwater wolves have been the problem and still are. Some local areas I hunt wolves are definitely the problem but I have seen great progress with hunting and trapping of wolves in some of them. Sorry for the ranting . I just can’t buy biologist reports that completely contradicts what I have seen. But I’m just one guy hunting a pretty small part of the country every year.
