I talked to the saddle shop owner again and he said his info was coming from an university that is involved with wolves somehow. I will be going back over and will get copies of some of this literature so I can read for myself what it says and I will share it with all. It sounds like most who have responded to this thread feel like I do and that is it's not the wolves that are the problem, just the way we manage them. My Dad lives up in Mn. and said that the estimated wolf population has exploded by the original targets. I was working for the ranger district in Dubois Wyoming when the first pack migrated out of Yellowstone and took up residence just North of town. They immediately started killing local livestock and a some of the wolves were killed or moved.

I believe wolves are a natural part of the ecosystem but that the ecosystem isn't all that natural anymore. I question what the effects of all the dissapearng winter range outside the park has caused. I don't believe the animals can migrate like they use to and they are forced to bunch up in areas where they might not naturally, if they could migrate out of the park. Does this make them easier prey for the wolves? Just a non-expert with some thoughts.

One last thought, and some of this comes from my living in Catron County and some of you may have heard about the range/rancher issues we have down here in N.M. We might think twice about making it harder for the ranchers to make a living. If they go out of business and sell their ranches they will be sub-divided and we will loose more winter range and we will see even less game animals. There has to be a fine balance somewhere.