And therein lies the great question... Why?
To ensure the survival of the species? With so many Canadian wolves roaming around in Canada, maybe there was danger in those bloodthirsty Canucks exterminating them and they needed a new refuge? No, in any reasonable sense, the wolf did not need to be saved from the brink of extinction.
To control the elk population in the Greater Yellowstone Basin? Hmmm. Well, since I was a kid I can recall a very pronounced browse line across the park, no doubt contributed to by an abundance of elk, maybe an "over" abundance? Nah, I don't think that one hunts, either. Otherwise, the NPS would've championed the success of the reintroduction in Yellowstone as the solution to the elk population problem in Rocky Mountain National Park. Maybe they realize something now that they didn't realize back then?
Maybe "hatred of the hunter" should be given more credit than it has been? There's absolutely no question that the conflict and divide between the hunting and non-hunting public has grown over the wolf issue. If you peruse the various environmental/wildlife advocacy sites, any time a judge rules against the wolves, the call for donations goes out. After all, the "assault on our wild friends" must be stopped. How else is an otherwise flat-panel oriented, outdoors-naive populace to be enslaved by a romantic but exaggerated ideology - and particularly if there's a way to pry a dollar or two from their wallets in the process?
It's interesting though. I saw that new Liam Neeson movie "the Grey" over the weekend, as apparently did a number of people about my workplace (the vast majority of them non-hunters). Not too surprisingly, they focused on the wolves getting "revenge" on the humans, "...after all, look at how cruel the whole Yellowstone reintroduction has been" (I need to be careful listening to those who speak of such nonsense when we're huddled around the coffeepot - hot coffee going through one's nostrils is highly uncomfortable). Just a sidebar, but anyone who leaves the theater thinking that the movie has anything to do with wolves is playing in the "kiddie pool" of mental depth.
We're becoming a nation of idiots. We'll believe anything that assuages whatever guilt we may associate with the fact that we are human and we do exercise a whole lot of control over our natural world. That the environmental activists can count on a growing population of morons to support their business (yes, they'll deny it, but it's a booming one) with contributions is mere exploitation of that guilt. They need causes to rally around though. Who ... or What ... is next?
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