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Wolves Have Been Released

I talked with some private land owners west of Driggs, Idaho and the they said wolves have moved in to their property the last couple of years. The gentleman I talked with said that it affected his cattle and the elk migration into the Teton Valley.
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Lucky for them the season is year round on private property

Also most of that area around driggs could support way, way more elk if cattle operations and farmers had more elk tolerance and development wasn’t absolutely nuking elk winter range.
 
There is no wolf charging you. I’ve hunted them a shitload and they will be headed the other direction when they see you. Contrary to many of the Facebook posts out there….the chances of a life and death situation with a wolf is very tiny.
I agree, the chances are very low. I'm just saying if a starving wolf happens on a helpless hiker, he's going to check them out and make a move growling and drewling and approaches a few feet... If it was you, are you going to just sit there and say, "nice puppy go away" or are you going to defend yourself.
 
Lucky for them the season is year round on private property

Also most of that area around driggs could support way, way more elk if cattle operations and farmers had more elk tolerance and development wasn’t absolutely nuking elk winter range.
I'm not sure about the duration of the season, but when I hunted up there I wasn't in the right "fraternity" to access the property that the elk stayed. You're correct the development is outrageous, overflow from Jackson, WY.
 
Lucky for them the season is year round on private property

Also most of that area around driggs could support way, way more elk if cattle operations and farmers had more elk tolerance and development wasn’t absolutely nuking elk winter range.
You're correct the habitat west of Driggs , I forgot the mountain range has a low population of elk for some reason??? Lots of good farm land down in the Teton Valley. The moose are loving it!!
 
Idaho has had wolves almost 30 years and that is not the case with elk here. There are pockets that the wolves have decimated and then other wolf areas with elk over objectives. The elk are going to get their asses kicked for a few years and then they’ll figure out how to live with wolves.

The biggest problem for elk are weather and over harvest by humans.
Most of the places in Idaho I have been to in the central part of the state, there is almost zero private land. Elk have a choice of get chased by wolves or get shot by people with high powered rifles. It is not a hard choice. If there is plenty of private land with limited hunting the elk may make a different choice.
 
Any studies on an apex predator slowing spread of CWD? Seems like an infected animal that starts to feel a little "woozy" would be taken out first and thus stopping its ability to spread the prions to others through direct contact. Of course the prions remain in the environment, but just trying to find a positive to this whole thing.
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.
 
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