That is all fine and dandy there Todd. But tell me something. If these wolves are the only reason for the elk and moose and deer disappearing in ID and MT, then how is it that British Columbia was able to DOUBLE its elk population in the same 10 years that our elk population tanked? How did they take their East Kootenai elk herd from 15000 to 30000 in the midst of FAR MORE WOLVES, FAR MORE BEARS, AND FAR MORE LIONS. How are they able to kill more 6 point bulls in the East Kootenai than we kill bulls in all of Region 1 in MT? Is the 49th parallel a magic line or something? What, the super-wolves can't come crawling back over I90, MT 200? Or do they just stop at the border. Oh, I know, wolves aren't as hungry in BC. Can't run as fast? Blind in one eye? Wooden noses? Arthritis? Must be some reason they have never come over the hill from Alberta into that trench north of Eureka MT, Cause I have stood a hill above the border there, and glassed to the north. It looks like the flipping serengeti up there. Or can you actually have both wolves and elk, with proper mgt of habitat and game? They have something figured out up there. Sorry to be a sarcastic jerk again, but this whole argument of subspecies is irrefutably stupid.
I am so sick of everyone with a website making these things into so much more than what they are. They are big dogs, they eat, they run, they breed(once a year people) and they sleep. All these different species of wolves were all named back in the late 1800s and early 1900s when every scientist and self-proclaimed ecologist were all racing to name everything, just to get their name in the books, all it took was a different color variation, and tada!! A new subspecies. There was a wolf researcher from U of Montana, that just gave a talk about all those "Canadian" wolves intermingling over time, cripes, they walked hundreds and thousands of miles into other "subspecies" territories since the beginning of time. Are we to think none of them bred with each other?
Ever heard of Bergmann's Rule? If some of you scholars want to do something, go to a few of your profs at whatever college you attend, and ask them how many generations of wolves it would take to turn these "Achillian" Mackenzie Valley wolves into a wittle, tiny, plain old Columbian wolf, once they are drop-shipped into Yellowstone.
Given the stats from our first hunt, and all those "giants" that were killed, must be something less than 20 years. Where were these 140 lb beasts?
And you want to talk diseases? Scare all the soccer moms out there? Push the same type of rhetoric as the PETA folks? Nice. But I would suggest doing a little research on it first. You want to talk Echinoccus granulosus or multilocularis? Occurance of E. granulosus(the one wolves tend to carry) is 1 in a million. Even where its considered endemic(northern AK), its 1 per 100,000. And funny where it has been seen in the lower 48, its most common(if you want to call it common) in California, Arizona, NM. You think they were drop shipping MV wolves there too? Or is it possible there are greater risk factors than wolves. See, rhetoric. ANY place anyone ever had sheep, you could have this. Blaming wolves and the gubmint is a waste of time.
Coyotes carry multilocularis, which causes alveolar(lung) cysts. I don't hear anyone calling for extermination there.
And since its such a huge scary issue, why do I see all these successful hunters and trappers in BC and AB giving great big hugs to their wolves for their hero shots. No gloves, no masks, no protection from this horrific affliction. Don't spew that garbage. You had people scared to go pick huckleberries last summer, afraid they are going to pick up Echinococcus.
All the crap about the Lacey Act is going to go nowhere, as is crying over MacKenzie Valley super-wolf subspecies, as is worrying about Hydatid disease. Stick to delisting, stick to getting a hunt.