I'll preface this by saying I'm not in the wolves-are-Satan-incarnate school.

Story #1: I moved back to Montana six years ago, after many years away. I went to work for a big time hunter, who had hunted the northwestern part of the state (Region 1). He was just full of tales of woe about how the wolves were pushing whitetails up there to the brink of extinction. He was "giving up hunting there anymore 'cause the wolves had killed them all", you know the refrain. Well, I'd just moved back and having been out of the loop for a while, I didn't have much to say, other than to wonder why now?, since wolves had always been there.

Anyhow, I was motivated by his stories to do some research, and about 12 minutes into my "research" I discovered that northwestern MT had had an absolutely brutal winter two years prior that had killed 40% of the whitetails. This winter never rated a mention with the guy! Incidentally, that herd is coming back quite nicely since then, if the ever more generous doe tags they are offering up there are any indicator.

Story #2: I scout elk just everywhere, if it's in Region 2 or the north half of Region 3, I've probably been there, and maybe hunted it. That's a sweep of country about 200 x 100 miles. Anyhow, in the past two years I have discovered a honeyhole, a piece of country with, in my experience, the best elk hunting I have found. Now, imagine my surprise to find that a prominent local elk hunter has hunted this same spot for years, but is giving it up. He's telling everybody that (you probably can guess) wolves have ruined the hunt by killing off all the elk! I mean this is the best elk hunt I've ever seen, and this guy is convinced that the wolves have pushed the elk to the brink of extinction. The guy is considered to be an elk-hunting wizard. Incidentally, the F & G has reported succeeding record elk counts up there for two or three years running.

The moral of the story is to take tales of wolves with a grain, or better two grains, of salt.