Ranking Montana's cities - Which Montana city is the best? (Bozeman: hotels, houses)

[MTSilvertip]

Fatal and Non-Fatal Wolf Attacks on Humans in North America | Montana Hunting and Fishing

Wolf attacks on humans are rare, but so are grizzly attacks. Both kinds of attacks do happen.

Cougars, coyotes, black bear, rutting bull Elk and deer, feral dogs, all can and have attacked humans.

The wolves that were introduced here were put here for political not biological reasons.

[wamer27]

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

Fatal and Non-Fatal Wolf Attacks on Humans in North America | Montana Hunting and Fishing

Wolf attacks on humans are rare, but so are grizzly attacks. Both kinds of attacks do happen.

Cougars, coyotes, black bear, rutting bull Elk and deer, feral dogs, all can and have attacked humans.

The wolves that were introduced here were put here for political not biological reasons.

This stuff interests me, what political reasons? When I lived in AK for a year, all my friends up there hunted. They all dispised wolves. You could shoot them out of planes and land and shoot right away, which you couldn’t do with moose or bears or you could lose your plane. This was 20 years ago, don’t know if it’s changed? The friend who guides brown bear hunts told me the worst time to run into one was after the salmon season. They are desperate for food before hibernation and will attack. Bears kill a few people each year up there, but they all warned me of moose much more. We had floor to ceiling windows in a sun room facing my fenced in backyard. A mother moose walked past it within 5 ft while we stood there. Was amazing how big she was and to be that close!!

Are Helena, Butte, Cooke City fun towns to wonder to bars in? I’m planning to driving to Wyoming and Montana in a week to go exploring via driving around and staying and going out in these towns. Pinedale and Sheridan WY too. I take winter is already around? I swapped to my AT mud snow tires already for the trip. I’m taking back roads and off pavement as much as possible. My plan is try and meet people in bars to get info on lesser known places to go see.

[MTSilvertip]

Wolves are an apex predator that competes with humans for game animals like Elk and moose. The ecoterrorists like the buffalo field campaign, alf and other animal rights groups use "glamour animals" that appeal to people that will send them money. Bald eagles and grizzly bears were great money makers, and could be used to close huge tracts of land as "critical habitat" thereby closing it to hunting, timber harvest, grazing livestock, or any other beneficial purpose.

Problem was, the eagles and Grizzly have recovered population to the point where they can be removed from the endangered lists, which means that closed land can be opened up again. So the ecoterrorists needed a new glamour animal.

Enter the Wolf.

The Rocky Mountain Timber Wolf had been eradicated from most of its traditional range by the 1930s. There were still a few around, but they stayed far from any interaction with humans. They had been declared extinct in Montana, but ranchers and hunters knew they were still there and saw them occasionally. I saw one in 1978. Surprised the he'll out of me because I initially thought it was a coyote. Timber Wolves got up to about 80 lbs, so much larger than a coyote which is rarely larger than 35-40 lbs here.

So enter the Canadian Grey or Arctic Wolf. By introducing a non-native species, but using the lie that they were the same species that had been nearly wiped out, would get them protected status, and be a new money generator for the ecoterrorists. Plus, by eradicating big game, you get the bonus of stopping hunting which fits right in their agenda.

Problem though is while they did decimate game populations, (destroying the livelihood of a lot of people that depended on hunting and outfitting), the wolves reproduced too fast. So all that "critical habitat" couldn't be locked off again. (As an aside, they've been trying the same thing with wolverines, but studies have shown they're doing fine and can't be listed. Jury is still out on Canadian Lynx).

Ostensibly, the wolves were introduced to control buffalo population in the park so there wouldn't be any more buffalo hunts. The Buffalo wolves used to do this, but died out with the huge herds of buffalo when the buffalo were nearly driven to extinction to remove the food supply for the plains Indians, and bring them under control.

While the Canadians and Buffalo wolves are of a similar size, (around 160 lbs), the primary prey of the Canadian Wolf is caribou. So when they released them into Yellowstone, they took to killing Elk instead. The Buffalo herds in the park are as big as always, but the Elk and moose are either really reduced in number, or basically eradicated.

Anyway, wolves are not real popular here. I get my 5 tags a year, and do all I can to control this out of control vermin.

Butte bars are fun. Helena bars, not as much, Cooke City basically closes down in the winter, not much there to do except snowmobile, but the drive up from Gardiner is nice in the winter. Beartooth pass is already closed by snow.

As to roads, it started snowing yesterday here at my place in central Montana, still snowing, got about 16 inches on the ground.
I'd recommend sticking to main roads on your visit.

Have fun.

[nowhereman427]

I had heard Montana has a wolf problem so they were encouraging to kill them anyway you can b y running them over with vehicle or hunting them down.

[MTSilvertip]

Originally Posted by nowhereman427

I had heard Montana has a wolf problem so they were encouraging to kill them anyway you can b y running them over with vehicle or hunting them down.

Smoke a pack a day.

That's a very popular bumper sticker with a picture of a Wolf on it.

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

Smoke a pack a day.

That's a very popular bumper sticker with a picture of a Wolf on it.

Do you need tags to kill em or are they considered pests and varmints to kill of at will now?

[MTSilvertip]

Originally Posted by nowhereman427

Do you need tags to kill em or are they considered pests and varmints to kill of at will now?

You can buy 5 tags per year.

They are pests, but officially classified as a game animal so you can't just take them at will.

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

You can buy 5 tags per year.

They are pests, but officially classified as a game animal so you can't just take them at will.

[wamer27]

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

Wolves are an apex predator that competes with humans for game animals like Elk and moose. The ecoterrorists like the buffalo field campaign, alf and other animal rights groups use "glamour animals" that appeal to people that will send them money. Bald eagles and grizzly bears were great money makers, and could be used to close huge tracts of land as "critical habitat" thereby closing it to hunting, timber harvest, grazing livestock, or any other beneficial purpose.

Problem was, the eagles and Grizzly have recovered population to the point where they can be removed from the endangered lists, which means that closed land can be opened up again. So the ecoterrorists needed a new glamour animal.

Enter the Wolf.

The Rocky Mountain Timber Wolf had been eradicated from most of its traditional range by the 1930s. There were still a few around, but they stayed far from any interaction with humans. They had been declared extinct in Montana, but ranchers and hunters knew they were still there and saw them occasionally. I saw one in 1978. Surprised the he'll out of me because I initially thought it was a coyote. Timber Wolves got up to about 80 lbs, so much larger than a coyote which is rarely larger than 35-40 lbs here.

So enter the Canadian Grey or Arctic Wolf. By introducing a non-native species, but using the lie that they were the same species that had been nearly wiped out, would get them protected status, and be a new money generator for the ecoterrorists. Plus, by eradicating big game, you get the bonus of stopping hunting which fits right in their agenda.

Problem though is while they did decimate game populations, (destroying the livelihood of a lot of people that depended on hunting and outfitting), the wolves reproduced too fast. So all that "critical habitat" couldn't be locked off again. (As an aside, they've been trying the same thing with wolverines, but studies have shown they're doing fine and can't be listed. Jury is still out on Canadian Lynx).

Ostensibly, the wolves were introduced to control buffalo population in the park so there wouldn't be any more buffalo hunts. The Buffalo wolves used to do this, but died out with the huge herds of buffalo when the buffalo were nearly driven to extinction to remove the food supply for the plains Indians, and bring them under control.

While the Canadians and Buffalo wolves are of a similar size, (around 160 lbs), the primary prey of the Canadian Wolf is caribou. So when they released them into Yellowstone, they took to killing Elk instead. The Buffalo herds in the park are as big as always, but the Elk and moose are either really reduced in number, or basically eradicated.

Anyway, wolves are not real popular here. I get my 5 tags a year, and do all I can to control this out of control vermin.

Butte bars are fun. Helena bars, not as much, Cooke City basically closes down in the winter, not much there to do except snowmobile, but the drive up from Gardiner is nice in the winter. Beartooth pass is already closed by snow.

As to roads, it started snowing yesterday here at my place in central Montana, still snowing, got about 16 inches on the ground.
I'd recommend sticking to main roads on your visit.

Have fun.

Good to know, thank you!

[Sumerian_Summer]

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

While the Canadians and Buffalo wolves are of a similar size, (around 160 lbs), the primary prey of the Canadian Wolf is caribou. So when they released them into Yellowstone, they took to killing Elk instead. The Buffalo herds in the park are as big as always, but the Elk and moose are either really reduced in number, or basically eradicated.

Bears and drought are mainly responsible for the dwindling Elk population in Yellowstone, especially Elk calves that are killed, not Wolves.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/pla...k-disappearing

A combination of bear predation, severe drought, and sports fishermen (humans), are responsible for the dwindling Elk population. Wolves play a very small part in that equation.

Sport fishermen introduced invasive species of fish in the Yellowstone area which competed with the local fish population and caused it to decrease dramatically. The local fish were the main source of food for bears in the Yellowstone area. Once the local fish population declined, bears began hunting Elk calves in ever increasing numbers.