NPR: MT Ranchers Learn to Tolerates Wolves

Gray wolves are a controversial and polarizing animal in much of the American West. Wolves have slowly come back from extinction, forcing people to learn how to coexist with the cunning predator. One farmer is teaching his cattle to huddle together as bison do when threatened — there is safety in numbers.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Efforts to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list across most of the lower 48 states hit a hurdle yesterday. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service panel said the scientific research is insufficient to make a decision. The ruling disappointed those who see wolves as cunning predators who threaten their livestock. NPR’s Nathan Rott spent several weeks in Montana, a state where wolves are no longer on the list, talking to people there about the troubled relations between the two species.

And while he encountered a lot of polarization, he also found there are people trying to seek ways that humans and wolves can coexist.

Transcript continues here: http://www.npr.org/2014/02/08/273577607/montana-ranchers-learn-ways-to-live-with-wolves

528624c939a88_preview-620

4 thoughts on “NPR: MT Ranchers Learn to Tolerates Wolves

  1. Thanks, Idalupine! I second the “really”?
    Wolves are not the “polarizing and controversial” animal. The real predators are human.This is a livestock industry mantra, which has existed for many, many decades. There is no way for wolves and livestock to “coexist” because it has never happened, and isn’t happening. It is another ploy by the livestock industry to continue the status quo towards so-called “predators.” which means native wild animals like wolves, coyotes & others will be bothered, stressed, manipulated, and “managed” so the destructive livestock industry can graze on public lands. It is a farce, and it is unfortunate that most wildlife groups have fallen for this lie. The problem is not the wolves & other native wild animals. It is an agricultural industry (ranching) with a history from the 1880’s of dominating Nature, and getting public subsidies to graze on the very public lands that wild animals need to have to themselves–free from exotic livestock.
    “One farmer” (a rancher, of course) who is “co-existing” with wolves, does not represent the livestock industry. When push comes to shove, these people will side with their industry–their cattleman’s associations, livestock boards, etc. At the wolf hearing we attended in Albuquerque, the scores of livestock people, one after the other, were against the wolf & coyote–period. One “hobby” rancher did get up and say something about saving wolves, but again, one out of the whole industry, does not change a thing. Look at what is happening in Montana–is this “farmer, rancher really changing anything? The slaughter continues.

Leave a reply to idalupine Cancel reply