Dear Editor,

It was bad enough to read another damning letter from an anti-wolf extremist asking, “Is the wolf an animal we want protected in our area?” as though it’s our birthright to pick and choose which wildlife species are welcome and which are not—that kind of human arrogance is always unwelcome. But since the letter was full of hyperbole aimed at striking fear into the hearts of sport hunters, by suggesting that wolves are completely wiping out the elk in Montana, someone has to set the record straight.

Having recently lived in Montana, I’ve seen and photographed my share of wolves, but also thousands of elk and mule deer. According to a 2012 Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department survey, there are 141,078 elk in the state, 55% over their “management objective” of 90,910; but rather than allowing wolves to solve their elk “problem,” they want to continue to reduce the number of both elk and wolves. That policy is not only flawed, it’s downright kill-happy.

And an alleged threat to the cattle industry is no excuse for today’s rampant killing of these important predators either. Out of the approximately 2.6 MILLION cows in Montana, only 74, or 0.0003%, were taken by wolves in 2011.

But if there has been any drop in business for Montana’s trophy elk hunting industry, it’s because wolves keep elk on the move (thus doing their job of preventing over-grazing). With elk in Montana now wilder and less complacent, the common complaint you hear from hunters is not that they’re disappearing, but that they’re gettin’ “harder to hunt.”

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved