From Nature Notes: 2012 wolf management, by the numbers
During 2012, at least 1,674 gray wolves, in 321 packs, lived in the states of Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Going by states, Montana had 625 wolves in 147 packs, Idaho had 683 wolves in 117 packs, Wyoming had 277 in
43 packs, Washington had 43 in 7 packs, and Oregon had 46 in 7 packs. No packs are known in Utah or Nevada. This population for the Northern Rockies has fallen approximately 7 percent from the 2011 population. “… the wolf population may be stabilizing at some yet undetermined lower equilibrium based on natural carrying capacity in suitable habitat and human social tolerance,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s document “Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery 2012 Interagency Annual Report” report.
Total confirmed livestock depredations by wolves during 2012 were 194 cattle, 470 sheep, six dogs, three horses and one llama. From 2007 through 2011, an average of 191 cattle depredations occurred each year, while an average of 339 sheep have been killed. These depredations were committed by 99 wolf packs. In livestock control actions, 231 wolves were killed, which is about 9 percent of the minimum number of wolves.
During 2012, Montana hunters and trappers removed 175 wolves, Idaho took 329 and Wyoming took 66 wolves. Idaho’s take amounted to about 30 percent of their wolf population. In total, 861 wolves were killed in human-caused mortality in the Northern Rockies, about 34 percent of the total minimum number of known wolves.
The minimum delisting goal has been to maintain 300 wolves, including 30 breeding pairs in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, for three consecutive years. This has been exceeded in the Northern Rockies since 2002.
During 2012, federal funding amounted to $3,345,618 for wolf monitoring, management, control and research. State and private compensation programs spent $564,558 to compensate livestock producers for depredations.
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This data comes from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s document “Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery 2012 Interagency Annual Report” and is the most recent summary available.
Exposing the Big Game 
The statistics given by wildlife and stockmen agencies on wolf predation make it look way worse than it is because the numbers of stock killed is in absolute numbers versus percentage. Wolves kill about .0002% of cattle for which the rancher is reimbursed and about <1% of sheep. Dogs kill more. Eagles kill more sheep. Bears and lions kill more. But all the hysteria is about wolves. Ranchers in western states are very much encroaching on wildlife with 772 permits to graze on national forests in Montana and 3776 permits to graze on BLM land, with 23,000 such permits in 16 western states. Wolves also bring in millions of dollars in tourism, 35.5 million to Yellowstone and region, making each Yellowstone wolf worth over $800,000.00 in tourism dollars. Licenses to kill wolves, 5 per license, sell for $19.00. Elk numbers have increased in western states since wolf reintroduction. Any pocket of elk decline, such as Lolo area or Bitterroots or Yellowstone are more man hunting, climate, forage, normal movement and least of all the predators. But predators, especially the wolf, are the first to be managed, when it should be man. Man sport killing is additive (abnormal negative impact), while wolf presence promotes herd health. The first thing that should be regulated with regard to wolves and predators and game is man and his amount of sports killing (hunting); and the first thing that should be regulated relative to stock predation is man and urging him or forcing him to use better stock management and nonlethal control of predators, especially on public lands.
Roger, that post is very helpful! You rock!
I have one point to add: Ranchers get paid for dead cows so they can’t whine about that. What they hate most is wolves make the cattle move around, which is great for the environment but bad for their wallets when they send the cattle to slaughter and they are not super-sized blobs of meat. All they see are dollar signs. Look into the beautiful brown eyes of a sweet, innocent cow, Mr. Rancher, if you dare. Look into an alpha wolf’s eyes at rest and see the knowledge of the wild places and all the stars in the Universe past, present and future. Peacefully watching over his family. These last few wolves are like Jesus on the Cross…scapegoats of corrupt politics all the way to the top! Eyes are the key to the soul. Be they the dead eyes of serial killers of people and animals or the government lackies, bureaucrats and leaders that allow the killing, their eyes show they have no soul. Wolves are innocent children of the garden man was thrown from. Wolves eyes tell us they have pure souls. They are not numbers, they are highly intelligent beings who mate for life and even won’t breed when the environment won’t support more wolves! People could take a lot of lifeway lessons from wolves! Many years ago, I had a vision and communicated with the ancients who live in stones… this was witnessed by an Abenaki Medicine Man. I don’t speak of details but wolves do understand way more than people outside of First Nations People will ever know. They seek out those with an open heart and evolved mind. I didn’t know there were ancient spirits in the stones when the grandmother of all wolves came alive for a few moments and froze me in place and locked her eyes into mine. Knowledge flowed into my mind and heart as old as space dust. She told me it was up to me to save her grandchildren by teaching humans to coexist, live and let live. To physically rescue the captives who were in grave danger and keep them safe. I have done all these things for most of my adult life and continue to the best of my ability.
After all the horrors humans have done and continue to do, wolves still forgive us and seek out the enlightened among us to take a spiritual walk with them. They are trying to teach us to respect their wisdom and learn their ways. As go the wolves, so goes the planet! They are trying to teach us how to save ourselves by saving them and to coexist peacefully. This is not some blissaninny ecobabble. It is the gravest of warnings and must be heeded if our world is to survive! After that, grandmother of all wolves turned her head back to lay on her paws and sunk back into her stone to sleep. As she closed her eyes, the glowing stone became just another stone until she chooses to reveal herself again. I passed out from the intensity of the vision and stone wolf grandmother’s warning. I didn’t talk about this for over twenty years but now I feel that I must! Share my story of a vision unlike most Anything that will save wolves.
Tagged on favorite list. Look into a wild wolf’s eyes…wild places and all the stars in the universe past, present and future…old as space dust…You have a poet’s soul Melody.
Thanks, Denderah! I wasn’t sure if the non-natives would understand, would think I was in an altered state…I wasn’t. I have always been like this. 🙂 It is too bad you are so physically far away! All of us here on Jim’s blog get to come together in a wonderful way, to fight ignorance with facts, as Roger does so well, to yank the psychopaths out by the roots by exposing them as Jim does like none other! To paint pictures in our minds of places we have never been as you do and make us laugh and cry with your stories. And of course, Geoff with his wonderful activism and words to encourage us. Gail, Sue, Nancy and all the others who give us links to deeper understanding of all animals, and of course recent visits from Nabeki, who lives and breaths for the wolves. We are all pieces of the puzzle and here we come together and build the foundations of the paradigm shift, the evolution of enlightenment!
I have found that, (at least at the local level) that the data is forged, inaccurate and completely outdated. They might as well write it crayon. Next, they are a board of inequity, mostly or all Hunters. The numbers do not make sense at all for hunting. Wildlife Watching is what the public wants, and this can be proven by the presentation’s Peter Muller has prepared to show anyone that wants to listen, but unfortunately, the 2-5% of the hunters continue to hold us all hostage. How can we unite to change this? All Anti’s. org need to unite with League of Humane Voters to get the right people in politics?
Reblogged this on Wolf Is My Soul.
if the numbers came fro usfws they are suspect
high on depredations
high on actual numbers of wolves
low on human caused mortality
sketchy
Yep, always consider the source
The source and the goals of the lies, present and future! Wolves are on the front lines of the destruction of NORTH AMERICA by all those who participate in the maturation of the goals. This means psycho wolf hunters to the Koch brothers to the White House! Their suitcoats smeared with the blood of wolves in the form of gravy stains made from the lives of all those innocent animals. The future innocents who will graze beside Enbridge’s leaky Tar Sands oil pipelines and drink filthy, poison fracking wastewater. So evil this wanton distruction of the planet is. All for what? Paper notes that say ‘In God We Trust’! No my God, I bet not your’s either? Maybe they should be asking if God trusts them? But then sociopaths wouldn’t ask that question, would they, Jim?
A lot of sociopaths are church-goers. And then there are those of us who don’t believe in God, yet are good people who care about animals.