Bang on Ben! Wolves and trains and vehicle collisions kill more moose than hunting does. Hunting brings in a lot of money to the provincial coffers whereas collision kills always end up costing a fair amount of money to take care of, either in retrieving and disposing of the carcasses or in repair bills to vehicles, plus the cost of injury claims. I suppose we will have to wait awhile for the numbers but in general discussions, it seems that a large number of hunters didn’t get their moose this season.
We need better protection for moose along our highways and railroads but also somehow the public needs to be taught how to avoid collisions as well.

p.s. Maybe Paul Watson can snowshoe out to scare the wolves away from planes hunting them again? Wink wink.

I was under the impression that in locations where humans are not involved in the state of equilibrium of animal population there is a general up and donw cycle in the population of various species depending on food supply.

So which food supply grew recently to create a larger than normal wolf population? … or is the number a “normal” population and we will see a decline in the near future if ungulate population is dropping for other reasons?

Thank you gus! Well said.

Driving along Hwy. 16 late Saturday night, we saw at least 4 moose and who knows how many there were that we didn’t see. Didn’t see any wolves.

So how many people have read the whole 60 page out line, and read what it says not what you think it will say.

I’m with Gus on this. How did the world survive before humans got into “wildlife management”? I think we all know who upsets the balance of nature. Wolves weed out the sick, strengthen the gene pools of their prey and leave carrion for scavengers.

Since hunting is still a part of our culture and has been for thousands of years then I guess we have been impacting the wildlife for many years. This isn’t about “the world surviving”, this is about keeping a resource, that provides millions of dollars, if not billions to the economy, a viable resource. When humans knock mother nature our of balance it is our responsibility to try to put it back right. You may not have seen any wolves on your “hiway treks”, but believe me, I spend a lot of time in the outdoors hunting and fishng and I am seeing a lot more wolves where I never saw them before. Anyone who doesn’t think there is an unusually large proportion of wolves to prey now, simply doesn’t get out into the wild enough. If there were NO human factors involved then mother nature would balance the books over time, we have taken that away from her and now have the responsibility to future generations to manage it as best we can. Kill the use of ATVs EVERYWHERE in the province, Ban jetboat hunting in sensitive eco systems and put more onus on industies that play havoc with the wildlife and maybe we can let the animals manage themselves more.

Ship some wolves to New Found Land

I agree with But. I have seen wolves where they never used to be,. In addition we are also over run with bears, to the point that they are wandering around town.

Years ago, when Prince George was not much more than a wilderness area, you would see less bears, less deer, more moose, more cougars, less coyotes and fox, more rabbits more grouse, more birds, ie; blue birds and canaries.

So who knows what effects what. One thing is certain, we have more wolves and less moose, we have more Elk because the Government has been planting them in the area. Very few people hunt bears anymore, and fewer yet eat them, so that population is growing.

Road and Rail kill is a big issue, along with clear cuts, and especially all the people charging through the bush sitting on their asses, in atv’s, speed boats, etc; pretending to be hunters.

8500 wolves must be a pretty conservative number, everywhere we go there is sign of recent wolf movement. They should be bringing their numbers into check while we still have some ungulates to watch and hunt.

I have an idea, how about the Province put a ban on all Moose hunting for the next 40-50 years and just allow hunters to harvest the Mule and Whitetail Deer that seem to be doing so much better in the post Pine Beetle landscape of BC? Give the Moose a break from ALL threats until their populations can bounce back along with the forests. I’m sure the Wolves will be just as happy to chomp down on venison.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/moose+ravaged+salvage+logging+beetle+killed+pine+forests/6972712/story.html

As an aside, isn’t this a PERFECT example of how we just focus on the short-term without thinking about the medium to long-term consequences? If we can’t see beyond our nose on anything else, what makes anyone think that we can do a better job of restoring balance to the environment than nature itself? I can’t imagine that the simplistic “cull more wolves” approach will do anything to resolve the issues facing the Moose.

How are the deer populations compared to what they used to be? Any chance they have an impact on the Wolf populations . . .

“Since hunting is still a part of our culture and has been for thousands of years”

Time to call a spade a spade.

Why did humans “hunt” thousands of years ago? Pimarily for food in order to survive, no different than meat eating animals hunted.

Today, humans hunt generally not because they need to eat the meat they hunt, they hunt because of the hunt.

I mean, just look at fishing. Whenever I see a program about fishing on tv I see them throwing the fish back …… at least they are doing it right …. they fish because they enjoy fishing … not because they need the fish to survive.

In fact, the meat that one gets from fish and game costs a fortune when compared to the market price of the wild meat.

So let’s cut the crap about tradition. Tradition takes on new forms over hundreds of years.

“Road and Rail kill is a big issue, along with clear cuts, and especially all the people charging through the bush sitting on their asses, in atv’s, speed boats, etc; pretending to be hunters.”

you are saying that atvs and boats take out more moose than roads, rail, and loss of habitat…any stats to back that up or is this more “life according to Palupo”?

Actully Gus, some of us hunt because we actually PREFER the natural meat of wild animals instead of the hormone infested stuff from the store shelves. I for one would turn down a beef steak for a good moose or elk steak anyday.
NMG, don’t let the vancouver yuppie culture fool you, where I hunt there is NO logging, NO mining, NO quads allowed, NO railroads, and last year, even though I got mine, there was very few moose spotted or taken, BUT what there was, was lots of wolf sign. And interceptor, spoken like a true ATV riding “hunter”. Ban ALL ATV hunting in my opinion, the forest would be better off.

actually I dont actually hunt actually But ;)

Catch and release fishing works great. I wonder how we can translate that to hunting moose. Maybe we can start using paint ball guns…Or maybe tranquilizers so you can get your picture then let them go. Long range stun guns? What are those other things called “Flash bangs”? so we can disorient the moose?” Personally I like the paintball idea. We could get all different colors….. hey, and when there’s no moose around we could shoot each other.

“NMG, don’t let the vancouver yuppie culture fool you, where I hunt there is NO logging, NO mining, NO quads allowed, NO railroads, and last year, even though I got mine, there was very few moose spotted or taken, BUT what there was, was lots of wolf sign”

I don’t doubt for a minute that there are fewer Moose around, but there has to be a spike in the Wolf population for some reason. I’m certainly not a biologist, but I would assume that spikes in predator populations go hand in hand with spikes in the populations of whatever it is they are eating. Logic dictates that this has to be the case otherwise the predator population would not be sustainable (they would die off from lack of food and their populations would shrink).

So if the Moose populations are shrinking, then what is sustaining the increased Wolf populations?

I don’t think it has anything to do with Vancouver yuppie culture, I think it has more to do with science. And for the record (and as much as it pains me to say it as an astute fisherman), hunters and fisherman are not scientists, nor should we believe that we are ;)

Having read the entire report and checked on where they got some of their figures, I say that the report is a huge disappointment. It is loaded with inaccuracies, filler junk and lack of decisive recommendations.

“don’t let the vancouver yuppie culture fool you, where I hunt there is NO logging, NO mining, NO quads allowed, NO railroads, and last year, even though I got mine”
now that I think about it, do you have week long hike into whatever area has none of those things and then pack the moose out on your back? just curious

I think natives pitlamping has done a lot to lower the moose population in this province. When you find 10 dead moose (shot) around Vernon and the meat was never touched, it should ring some alarms. The folks I know in Vernon blame it on Native pitlamping; then not taking the meat because it was too far from the road. We need the ministry to get rid of this ludicrous law. Until they get rid of this law, I will never have any respect for the natives who do it or the ministry that allows it. Hunters should be rioting in the streets regarding this matter but we are all too busy with other things than to overturn unjust laws.

Sure kill the wolves that will fix the problem, more crap…. all the ground workers been laid off so who knows for sure if there really is a problem. Ranchers can look after their own as they have done for years, kill the wolves , kill the moose kill the deer then what? were is the real science in all this on a camputer??

NMG is closest to the mark I think. If the food supply for wolves is dwindling, so will the wolf population. Maybe instead of the knee jerk reaction of “kill all the wolves”, someone should be checking into what the wolves are actually eating.
Wolves, like most predators will mostly prey on the old, sick or young. Is there some disease or blight in the moose population we are unaware of? I also note that moose populations have dropped, but deer & elk populations have boomed. Could they be forcing the moose from their habitat?