| If you happen to live in any western state west | | | | to eat what they normally eat so they stay in |
| of Colorado and you're a hunter then there's a | | | | the thick cover eating food that doesn't provide |
| 99% chance that you've heard about how the | | | | enough nutrition or near the amount that they're |
| Canadian Gray Wolf is wiping out our elk herds in | | | | used to eating to stay alive. So when winter rolls |
| Montana, Idaho, Wyoming with sightings and killings | | | | around they're not fattened up enough thus |
| in Northern Utah and soon to be Colorado and | | | | causing starvation. |
| Nevada. If you actually look at how many wolves | | | | One of the more serious problems the elk are |
| and wolf packs there are in those states and the | | | | having has to do with them not being able to stay |
| amount of elk they kill every year the numbers | | | | pregnant or get pregnant due to low levels of |
| would blow you away. Last year alone wolves | | | | progesterone, a hormone that cow elk need |
| wiped out between 300,000 and 400,000 elk, | | | | before the birth pulse (right before they're about |
| moose, deer and other big game animals. | | | | to give birth to a calf). |
| The Montana State University did a study on the | | | | So to sum it up the elk are facing three major |
| amount of damage the wolves have done and | | | | problems from wolves: |
| are doing to our big game herds. Here's just a | | | | 1. They're slowly starving to death. |
| few statistics from Montana State University. | | | | 2. They're being slaughtered. |
| The elk herd in Yellowstone has gone from | | | | 3. They're not reproducing. |
| 17,000 to 19,000 down to 6,738 and 6,279. Not | | | | As anyone can see this is a very serious problem. |
| only are they getting slaughtered by the wolves | | | | If the wolves are not stopped then our elk and |
| but the wolves are causing serious lasting effects | | | | big game herds here in the west along with our |
| on the way elk eat and reproduce. Here's a quote | | | | other big game animals will be wiped out left with |
| from MSU "Essentially they (elk) are slowly | | | | only the wolves running around, killing anything |
| starving to death." To sum it up in simple terms | | | | that crosses their path. |
| the elk are too afraid to wander out in the open | | | | |