Wolves Have Been Released

[Gus Chiggins]

IMO, us, "hunters" have experienced the shitty manner predators are regulated.

Lot of people unfortunately dont understand that living in a bubble. A lot harder to elk hunt these days due to ballot box biology, esp when due to lower elk numbers (from predation) youre limited to a five day spike season.

Easier to kill elk with weeks of elk seasons and multiple elk tags.

 

[Gus Chiggins]

The things you don't see or haven't seen, have made a huge impact to public land elk hunting in the mountains.

They elk are on private ag fields and in big gaggles in the open because they don't want to be in the mtns where the wolves have and continue to pick them off. Elk behavior has changed. Wolves love to hunt lone elk in rougher forest country. The elk that used to creep away from bigger herds after the rut into the mountains for seclusion do not do that anymore if they want to survive, even on zero snow years like this year. Bummer deal for some folks that would prefer to have a handful in the "mountains" in the fall.

This is exactly what has happened in certain Oregon hunting units too (with general lack of predator management). Ive seen it first hand over the past few decades

 

[BigHornRam]

I’m just trying to focus all of the hollering. More than likely I just killed the thread, though.

Nope! Not even a speed bump or a round about.

 

[appaloosa]

Honest question, how do you guys feel about moose being introduced into Colorado?
Mountain goats?

 

[SAJ-99]

I think there is something to this, It is possible, maybe even likely that wolves and other predators with there superior sense of smell can detect CWD long before the infected animal starts to feel "woozy". It would not be long and the predators would learn that the infected animal was an easy target and take them out early in the progression of the disease. This would greatly reduce the amount of prions that the animal would spread. On down side wolves and other predators likely also contribute to the spread in that they can travel long distances in a short amount of time and prions likely go through them just like chokecherry pits through a black bear.

That last piece would happen eventually anyway once the animal died. Vultures, coyotes, foxes, crows are all going to spread the prions. So much work and research still to do I guess.
From @Hyhunter q&a

Studies have shown that passing CWD-infected elk brain tissue through the coyote digestive tract reduced the amount of prions available to cause infection.

 

[elkduds]

CWD and multiple other items are addressed.... rather interestingly... in their faq

Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is a nationally recognized leader in conservation, outdoor recreation and wildlife management. The agency manages 42 state parks, all of Colorado's wildlife, more than 300 state wildlife areas and a host of recreational programs. CPW issues hunting and fishing...

cpw.state.co.us

 

[Sasquatchewan]

U

Until their starving in a bad year, then a pack circles your graddauter or little dog. What are you go do then?

SHOOT DEM IN THE FUGGIN HEAD

 

[KB_]

I just wish I had balls that you think you have and I wish I could be as macho as you think you are.

Dudeski, I'm tellin ya its rough having these GIANT Balls.

 

[Benfromalbuquerque]

I strongly believe CWD can be reduced through the selective targeting of predators. Conceding that human hunters too are predators and it’s plausible we indirectly limit CWD by reducing herd numbers. But none of us would willingly sacrifice a tag shooting a deer that we suspected was dying of CWD. Lions, wolves, bears, coyotes work year-round targeting easy prey. Yes, if these predators target livestock, manage accordingly. I think the producers most affected could be they who lease grazing and have their stock out in the mountains where it’s harder to watch the stock. Here’s something from CPW regarding lion depredation and CWD. The spokesperson makes a compelling argument based on scientific data that lions kill infected animals several months prior to the animal dying of CWD. Thereby reducing the exposure to the herd by removing the sick animal before other herd are exposed to CWD.

Colorado mountain lions help cull deer with chronic wasting disease. Could wolves?

Study shows adult deer infected with chronic wasting disease are four times more likely to die from mountain lions than uninfected adult deer.

www.coloradoan.com

 

[HONEYBADGER]

Honest question, how do you guys feel about moose being introduced into Colorado?
Mountain goats?

Colorado Moose will be gone soon. Moose are the first animal to be impacted by wolves when they are re-introduced.

 

[Sytes]

NEXT UP - Colorado ballot box biology: Cougars.

Initiative 101 “still honors the intent of the original initiative by calling out trophy hunting as a problem,” said Samantha Bruegger, the manager of the Cats Aren’t Trophies campaign. “Both initiatives really get at banning trophy hunting of mountain lions and bobcats.”

Enough international $$$, as shown with forced wolves onto Colorado landscape versus the natural progression of wolves, cougars are the new treat for naive Colorado city shopping "adult" signatures to introduce a ballot to ban cougar hunting.

Pandora's box has opened to the international funding $$$ campaigns for The Center for BS Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Earth Justice... in support of "Cat's Aren't Trophies". Ballot Box Biology has shown its success!

"Be it Enacted by the People of the State Colorado:

SECTION 1. In Colorado Revised Statutes, add 33-4-101.4 as follows: 33-4-101.4.

Wild cats – declaration of intent – hunting season - penalty. (1) THE PURPOSE AND INTENT OF THIS SECTION IS TO LIMIT THE INHUMANE AND UNSPORTING TAKING OF MOUNTAIN LIONS, BOBCATS AND LYNX AND TO PROVIDE FOR A LIMITED SEASON AS REFERENCED HEREIN, BUT NOT TO REQUIRE ANY SEASON AT ALL. THESE PROVISIONS ARE INTENDED TO MINIMIZE NEEDLESS ORPHANING OF THESE ANIMALS’ YOUNG. THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SECTION SHALL BE SO CONSTRUED."

 

[appaloosa]

Colorado Moose will be gone soon. Moose are the first animal to be impacted by wolves when they are re-introduced.

I live in the epicenter of wolf reintroduction in Wyoming, I have killed three moose since they were introduced, working on a fourth.
It's been 30 years, the moose aren't gone.

 

[Benfromalbuquerque]

Colorado should also vote on a State recipe. Some Pueblo chile crockpot low? Yeah.

Mountain Lion: Misunderstood Quarry, Under-Appreciated Cuisine

Some hunters might find it hard to believe that a saucer-shaped depression in a fresh layer of snow can arouse just as much excitement as the sudden appearance of a bugling bull elk—unless they were experienced mountain lion hunters. Then, they’d know the drill. The abrupt transformation inside...

www.themeateater.com

 

[KB_]

Colorado Moose will be gone soon. Moose are the first animal to be impacted by wolves when they are re-introduced.

We still have moose around here.

 

[LuketheDog]

Ok, I watched the release video, I found a closeup of the gov's face as he opened the cage door:

 

[Gus Chiggins]

We still have moose around here.

So long as other predators are properly managed (e.g., there are no far flung restrictions on lion and bear hunting), the intro of wolves won't be as impactful.

The real danger is when there are far-reaching restrictions on controlling other predators (arising from activist DFW commissioners or ballot box biology), that over the long term (15+ years) there will be a significant change to the landscape as far as hunters/tags are concerned.

Having said that, as I've posted elsewhere in these forums via a recent article that focused on wolf/moose populations in NE Oregon, some (including biologists) believe that wolf expansion into E. Washington was why a budding herd of forest caribou could not establish, and in fact disappeared. Same with the moose population that started to establish in NE Oregon. In combination with Oregon's 1990s ballot box biology restrictions on other predator control (lions and bear), wolves moving in took care of the Oregon moose (though some are still around).

This means that assuming CO wolves establish and populate (which they will), and expand, then if CO voters also pass lion and bear restrictions, though it will take a while after that, eventually CO hunters will have a lot fewer tag options. Just my opinion (and based on what I've seen locally here in OR).

 

[Carnage2011]

So long as other predators are properly managed (e.g., there are no far flung restrictions on lion and bear hunting), the intro of wolves won't be as impactful.

The real danger is when there are far-reaching restrictions on controlling other predators (arising from activist DFW commissioners or ballot box biology), that over the long term (15+ years) there will be a significant change to the landscape as far as hunters/tags are concerned.

Having said that, as I've posted elsewhere in these forums via a recent article that focused on wolf/moose populations in NE Oregon, some (including biologists) believe that wolf expansion into E. Washington was why a budding herd of forest caribou could not establish, and in fact disappeared. Same with the moose population that started to establish in NE Oregon. In combination with Oregon's 1990s ballot box biology restrictions on other predator control (lions and bear), wolves moving in took care of the Oregon moose (though some are still around).

This means that assuming CO wolves establish and populate (which they will), and expand, then if CO voters also pass lion and bear restrictions, though it will take a while after that, eventually CO hunters will have a lot fewer tag options. Just my opinion (and based on what I've seen locally here in OR).

Yes. The biggest problem with the wolf re-introduction in CO is the liberals will fight against management at all costs. Wolves aren’t a problem if managed but that won’t happen in CO.

 

[Westelker - W. Colorado]

Yes. The biggest problem with the wolf re-introduction in CO is the liberals will fight against management at all costs. Wolves aren’t a problem if managed but that won’t happen in CO.

The problem is... the liberals are becoming the management in CO.

 

[mtmiller]

The problem is... the liberals uninformed are becoming the management in CO.

This is the sheet that pisses me off. How about the problem is the SSS and smoke a pack a day conservatives are the issue and continue to step on their d*ck? Pretty stupid, correct?

 

[Dsnow9]

This is the sheet that pisses me off. How about the problem is the SSS and smoke a pack a day conservatives are the issue and continue to step on their d*ck? Pretty stupid, correct?

Yep, issues on both extremes for sure. When the majority of us are pretty rational and in the middle somewhere…