WolfQuest

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/anim ... 20Carolina.
I am just disgusted that it is allowed to kill nursing wolves in their dens with their pups and I just think this needs to stop

This is so sad. This better change soon.
Unbelievable. Why would they allow that though?

That article was surprisingly a short read; I was expecting something a little more in-depth from NatGeo but I suppose that's expected given that this issue has been covered in the media for quite some time.

GoldenBeauty wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 16, 2020 5:39 pm

This is so sad. This better change soon.
Unbelievable. Why would they allow that though?

I think a lot of people's gut reaction to hunting pups in dens is that it's cruel. I'm not disagreeing, but rather my first thought is, is this an effective form of animal control? There are 11,000 wolves in Alaska (which the article conveniently leaves out and perpetuates the idea that wolves are in constant danger of disappearing, which they are not). I've always been under the impression that wolves can be difficult to trap/hunt/etc. Would targeting a den make it easier? I'm assuming so, since it's a fixed location. I still have yet to read more about this topic so I'm just musing here.

There is no reason to kill wolves this way. It's not considered fair game hunting them like this by any honorable hunter. A nursing wolf is very vulnerable, so it puts the animal at significant disadvantage which has the potential to be exploited. Even wolf puppies are allowed to be killed as "game". And, remember, this was previously banned. So it's evolving. Just backwards. I think we can all agree, regardless of the intentions, anyone who participates in this so-called hunting is immoral.
This really has the potential to wipe out entire packs.
Do you believe this is legitimately necessary or does it have different motives?

This seems like a slippery slope unfortunately. While I was reading through the article it did mention that the Alaskan government is pushing for hunters to chase and corral wolves via aircraft and quote shoot the "exhausted animals". Such form of hunting is NOT a fair chase, and can arguably make it even more difficult for conservation teams to track and tag wolves (I'm not too educated on wolf intelligence, but I'd imagine if they are smart they can associate helicopters with lethality). The aircraft hunting is just the top of the hill, and it seems that the allowance of hunters to kill nursing pups and mothers in their own dens just goes further down hill.

I understand that wolves are overpopulated in Alaska, but allowing and encouraging unfair hunting practices just isn't the way to go. There's a reason for hunting season: to work around natural mating seasons. Hunting season for animals is purposely set so that infant and nursing animals don't get clapped (excuse my slang lol). When the Alaskan government allows hunters to kill nursing mothers and their pups in their own dens, it completely undermines the entire point of hunting seasons.

I'm hoping this will gain the attention of hunting organizations (as mentioned in the article) so they can push the government to roll back unfair hunting practices. I'd imagine that this policy would give hunters an even more horrific reputation than most people already perceived, and will encourage them to speak out against the relaxed regulations.

Also, Alaska just wants that oil money. They're doing everything to minimize the voices and presence of the indigenous people, as well as wildlife populations

P.S I'm not against wolf hunting, especially for conservation. I'm just against unfair hunting practices.

FYI, I generally don’t allow discussion of these kinds of topics because they can be a bit heated. So let’s try to avoid moral/political
characterizations.

Aerial surveillance itself is frequently employed as one of many methods to count wolves, so I am not sure if your claim regarding aerial hunting making it difficult to track and tag wolves is accurate, mistwolf? Use of a helicopter in general to manage wolves is both tedious and dangerous, according to this recent (and decent) article by the Spokesman-Review (https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/ ... tunning-a/). If anything, aerial management (including counting and hunting) is not the easiest task to perform. It seems that conservation groups waffle between aerial hunting being largely inhumane (and by assumption, effective) or being ineffective (and therefore unnecessarily inhumane). Wolf hunting in general is difficult. Dr. Mech makes this point in a 2010 article for International Wolf Center’s winter magazine issue.

Harvesting many wolves is not always easy, which is why in regions where they were not extirpated but have long been harvested, extra- ordinary methods have been used, although not all are necessarily used now. Such methods include aerial shooting (also currently employed for livestock depredation control by Wildlife Services in the NRM), tracking by snowmobile (Canada), and spotting from aircraft and then landing to shoot wolves (i.e., “land and shoot”) in Alaska. These approaches appear unfair to much of the public who are unaware of the difficulties of taking wolves and are bitterly opposed. Hunting wolves with fair-chase standards had never been tried in the contiguous 48 states until 2009. Such standards succeeded better than some expected in Montana and worse than some expected in Idaho. However, there is reason to believe that in most extensive forested areas with low road density fair-chase hunting deliberately for wolves will not be very productive given the low density of packs and the crepuscular and extensive travels of wolves. Chances are high that most wolves taken by fair chase will be shot incidental to big-game hunting, primarily because of many hunters afield during those seasons. Currently, such seasons end by December in most states that harbor sufficient wolves where public taking could open.
Deliberately seeking to shoot a wolf is even harder than going out to see one.

Some dated information but I think it’s worth a read. His article briefly touches on pup hunting and the difficulty of hunting wolves versus public perception of that difficulty.
https://www.wolf.org/wp-content/uploads ... er2010.pdf