I Wish Them Well, Wolves verus Elk Hoof Rot Disease

[Mustangs Rule]

If any hunter grants himself an honest examination of the effects of people on wildlife, on the earth, all he could do is lower his head.



With farming, ranching, logging, canned hunts, land development, releasing CO2 and importing wildlife to places it never belonged, we have plagued nature and us with CWD, Lyme’s, Blue Tongue, Chronic Hair Loss, Sarcoptic Mange, lead poisoning, climate change and recently Elk Hoof Rot.



These are the real “predators” dropping game populations.



Like Gill Rot that infects salmon when denied enough clean, cold water to spawn, the basis for all this suffering of wildlife, and the earth are people, too often businesses that care not.



This began before most of us were born and will continue after we have died. Sometimes the wrongdoer is just watering a lawn in the west when water has become gold.



Comparing maps of both Oregon and Washington, looking where wolves and elk hoof rot are, mostly they do not overlap, except in SE Washington and NE Oregon.



It is my deepest hope that wolves can, by culling out infected elk early, help bring this terrible and seemingly unstoppable plague of elk at bay somewhere.



When that happens, I will lift my head a bit higher.

 

[BrentD]

Never heard of hoof rot in elk. How do humans affect this?

 

[Mustangs Rule]

Included here are the maps I refered to above.

https://www.dfw.state.or.us/wildlife/health_program/docs/elkhoofdiseasefactsheetfinal.pdf

https://www.dfw.state.or.us/wolves/

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattl...ern-washington-for-the-first-time-in-decades/

https://www.gohunt.com/read/life/hoof-rot-and-the-grim-reality-of-elk-in-washington

 

[Mustangs Rule]

Never heard of hoof rot in elk. How do humans affect this?

Bacteria from domestic animals. I included lots of info in the four websites, It is a complicated disease. Research is underfunded and really just in progress.

Beyond the bacteria some research suggests there might need to be a trigger that compromises the elks immune system. The suspected cultprit are defoliant sprays.

The images of elk walking with deformed hooves are just awful. It just keeps spreading. Moist soil is suggested to be a aid to spreading.

It hit the Mt. Saint Hellens herd real hard. See the maps.

 

[Mustangs Rule]

Never heard of hoof rot in elk. How do humans affect this?

What is real creepy is that it has spread east of the Cascades into areas with much drier soil. Previously areas with moist soil have seen the elk hit the hardest. At it's worst some areas have seen a 35% drop in elk popuation.

 

[Panda Bear]

.It is my deepest hope that wolves can, by culling out infected elk early, help bring this terrible and seemingly unstoppable plague of elk at bay somewhere.

I dont understand this ? Do you feel that the reduction of Elk with hoof disease via the Wolf, will eliminate the cause of this disease ?

We are concerned about the spread of certain wildlife diseases effecting herds of Elk, Sheep, Caribou and Moose, to the extent of requiring vehicles --Cars, Trucks, Trailers, ATVs, be washed before entering the Territory, but this is to eliminate disease found in the dried mud on the vehicle.

I would be careful what you hope for in hoping that "wolves" are the answer to this problem.

 

[Mustangs Rule]

"The Enemy of my Enemy Is my friend!"

Regardless of what I want, all the cards are alreary in play. The wolves are in the places I described, the elk rot is just showing up in small amounts.

I am just an observer with no capacity to change the outcome.

How bad it can get is obvious and grim looking at the maps and Elk rot concetrations in other areas,,,yes with wetter soils,,and yes without wolves.

I am a life long hunter and a biologist. That biologist in me always come first. Nothing could be better than bio-remediation

Washing the mud off your vehicles is a good thing but, but really, how does it compare to a groups of apex predators designed by nature to recongnize the first hint of disease/weakness in any animal and selectively target them 27/7 365 days a year.

It is the diference between taking an aspirin or at most a general antibiotic, instead of taking a custom tailored antibiotic designed to hit a very specific pathogen and hit that infection right at it's source early and limit spreading.

At the fist tiny "limp", any elk with that desease will be idenfied as a primal target.

You could wash unlimited cars and trucks for infinity and not compete.

What is going on there will be a trial, a test of unparralled significance in bio-remdiation.

My question to you is,,,do you wish them success or not?

 

[TheTone]

So if it’s from spraying herbicide will wolves stop the helicopters and timber companies?

 

[Mustangs Rule]

So if it’s from spraying herbicide will wolves stop the helicopters and timber companies?

It is a complicated disease and spreading fast in biological frameworks, with so many questions yet to be understood. It is now in three states.

A statement like the one you just made offers no credit to either your critical thinking skills or a desire to look at this entire problem seriously and maturely. It is just nay-saying.

All you would have to do to take it serious is look at a herd of elk with many painfully hobbling around on distorted hooves.

It is heart wrenching, even more so with the helplessness of not having any solution, knowing it will just get worse.

Considering the real possbility that wolves could help in some areas, offers relief.

 

[TheTone]

Here’s what I know; areas around me have wolves, they also are starting to have elk with hoof rot. It sucks and I hate it. Timber companies have also started largely spraying instead of burning clearcuts. Regardless of whether that is causing the hoof rot it certainly makes for an awful dead zone with little to benefit wildlife. I struggle to see how elk in early stages of hoof rot getting eaten is going to help if they’re acquiring it from a condition in the soil

 

[Panda Bear]

you missed my point, but that is o.k.

We do everything we can to keep anything that will harm the habitat and/or wildlife out of the Territory ---Even---wash the mud off of vehicles from outside the Territory when they enter.

This is not the only thing or even the most important.

Last year B.C. spent 2 million dollars ( approx ) to kill 500 wolves ( approx ) to help the Caribou. The wolves didn't reduce the Caribou herd---- oil, minerals, roads, logging and increased moose herds reduced the caribou herd.

If in doubt--------bring in the Wolves--- or----- kill the Wolves

I am out, good luck

 

[corndog1]

I myself have chronic hair loss on my head

 

[Dakota79]

It is a complicated disease and spreading fast in biological frameworks, with so many questions yet to be understood. It is now in three states.

A statement like the one you just made offers no credit to either your critical thinking skills or a desire to look at this entire problem seriously and maturely. It is just nay-saying.

All you would have to do to take it serious is look at a herd of elk with many painfully hobbling around on distorted hooves.

It is heart wrenching, even more so with the helplessness of not having any solution, knowing it will just get worse.

Considering the real possbility that wolves could help in some areas, offers relief.

You can kill all of the damn elk you want with wolves or otherwise but that is not going to change the bacteria in the soil. What you're saying about wolves solving this isn't adding up.

 

[BrentD]

You can kill all of the damn elk you want with wolves or otherwise but that is not going to change the bacteria in the soil. What you're saying about wolves solving this isn't adding up.

Yeah, it is. Or at least it might be. But there are a heck of a lot of other things to know before it might be plausible. The mechanism would simply be that wolves prevent sick elk from moving around and spreading it further. If viability of the microbes in the soil is relatively short, this may, in fact, be a means by which wolves could promote elk herd health.

But as always when talking about biology in the wild, the devil is in the details and there are a lot of them to know. We could make a list and then hit the literature to see what is known and how it compares to what might be necessary for this mechanism.

 

[Dakota79]

Yeah, it is. Or at least it might be. But there are a heck of a lot of other things to know before it might be plausible. The mechanism would simply be that wolves prevent sick elk from moving around and spreading it further. If viability of the microbes in the soil is relatively short, this may, in fact, be a means by which wolves could promote elk herd health.

But as always when talking about biology in the wild, the devil is in the details and there are a lot of them to know. We could make a list and then hit the literature to see what is known and how it compares to what might be necessary for this mechanism.

Gotcha!

 

[Gerald Martin]

I am looking forward to when wolves fart rainbows over Big Rock Candy Mountain and we can watch them while sipping our free Bubble Up.

 

[mtmuley]

Huntingwife incoming. mtmuley

 

[MTLabrador]

I attribute the excellent hoof health of my bull to the high numbers of wolves in the area.

 

[Mustangs Rule]

What any of you, or me say or think, is not worth two dead flies.



The game is in play.



The only area where wolves could bio-remediate Elk hoof rot are SE Washington and adjoining NE Oregon. In the rest of these two states and northern California where Elm hoof rot has taken hold, I believe the situation will get grim and grimmer.



Chalk another sad point for mankind with our domestic animal diseases and a huge loss for wildlife.



In my early posts I forgot to mention that prion scabies from domestic sheep and well as pneumonia causing bacteria continues to wipe out herds of bighorn sheep.



You guys just don’t get it at all. We and our environmental disasters are the problems. Look at the scope of the damage that cattle/sheep and grazing industries and our war on predators have done.



It took decades for the Kaibab Plateau in Arizona to recover after all predators were wiped out and deer populations went ballistic and the land was ruined.



And here is another gift from the cattle industry.



For tens of thousands of years the tropical monsoons dumped their rain on the American southwest and all was great. Then the cattle industry came in and dug cow ponds all over the desert to retain rain water, now with these never before mosquito breeding grounds we have Dengue Fever, Encephalitis and West Nile fever all endemic. These diseases are increasing, some are deadly and people get them



And of course in the desert along the way all the big game got run out all shot out and contracted diseases from domestic animals.



If, and this is quite possible, transmission of Elk hoof rot disease happens while on heavily used muddy game trails then having carriers constantly eliminated by wolves could be a great help.



Also via the ecology of fear, just created by the mere presence of wolves, if the elk stop using the same trails over and over, this would also be great.



I wish the wolves luck. They are already there and offer the only possible answer for one particular area. There are no other solutions on the horizon for Elk Hoof Rot Disease in other areas, none,



MR

 

[JV842]

What ur saying is sad, no doubt
But Wtz ur answer…..human population control…..human culling?