There is nothing like saying the "W word" to get folks from both sides fired up.
Nevertheless, predators of all stripes have been doing this for centuries, and big game populations seemed to sustain themselves.
When the folks in the Upper Yukon Valley asserted that the beavers are blocking the streams so the whitefish can't get up into the tributaries to spawn, I ask the question: Whatever did the whitefish do before the Hudson's Bay Company came into the country and started buying beaver pelts?
Wolves are predators. I have to admire them for one thing---I've never seen a human hunter who'd have the cajones to run up and latch on to a moose's hamstring with his or her teeth.
Wolves regularly get the crap kicked out of them. They get broken bones, and they sometimes die as a result. Most of them mend and get back to doing what they do: kill prey and eat it.
Is there waste? No doubt, sometimes, but not frequently. They generally eat whatever they can, and then lounge for a while, and then feed again.
Now, before everyone gets their dander up, and attacks me with bared fangs, let me say that I have absolutely no problem with killing a few wolves, as long as the population can sustain the harvest. Just like any other species of game.
And, just as a by and by, there has NEVER been a documented case of wolves attacking a human that I'm aware of.
Cepting those dang werewolves, of course.
Oh, yeah, Little Red's Grandma, of course.
Again, I don't have a problem killing a few wolves, including using aircraft to do so. I've hunted coyotes from the air. The coyotes get even fairly frequently in those deals as well.
I think wolves, moose, caribou and all other game animals should be managed to maintain healthy populations of them all, and if any portions of those populations need some trimming, open a season.
Easily said, not so easily done.
MTV