ORIGINAL: timbercruiser
Just curious, why were the wolves reintroduced to Wisconsin? As they had been absent from the area for a long time, if it was for deer population control, wouldn't it have made more sense to just increase the deer season or number of legally harvested deer? Hunting seasons are a lot easier to control than wolf populations. Most of the pro wolf people seem to think that to manage a deer herd the ability to turn on and off the killing of deer by wolves is a good way to do it. The problem I see is if you have a bad winter kill of deer or disease kill then the wolves will either move to domestic animals or move to another area. As long as they have something to eat they will continue to multiply, and they have nothing in nature that wil control the wolf population. I'm glad ya'll have the problem.
Well, thanks for the sympathy.
The wolves wandered in from other states like Minnesota, but nobody could do anything about it because they're federally protected. Yes, it would make sense to increase the deer harvest, but now the DNR is realizing what hunters have know for a long time, that the deer herd is not as large as they thought. All these earn-a-buck zones and doe hunts are really taking a toll on the herd. Predators like wolves and bears(DNR realized thebear populationwas much larger than they thought) are certainly not helping things. It seems like a lot of people posting on this thread seem to support the wolf population. I have talked to many hunters in northern wisconsin. I have yet to hear a single hunter say that they are happy with the wolf situation. I would guess that the vast majority of you wolf supporters do not live in an area with a large wolf population.