Hunters help wolves prepare for winter
Associated Press
JACKSON (AP) – Hunters – often among the loudest critics of the expanding wolf population – are the wolf’s best friend this time of year by leaving behind gut piles and other tasty remains of their successful hunts, a federal wolf expert said Monday.
The easy meals come at a time when wolves are trying to fatten up for winter without expending too much energy in the process, said Ed Bangs, Rocky Mountain wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“When human hunting season starts, our wolves in areas with hunting pressure pretty much stop killing big game,” he said. “There are so many gut piles or wounded but unretrieved animals they can pretty much stop hunting for themselves. Wolves are very good at finding dead stuff. If you can find a meal for free, why work?”
Bangs said wolves don’t become habituated to humans the way some people argue grizzly bears do – equating gun shots with a dinner bell.
“If you come up on a whole bunch of wolves on a kill and you yell, they will disperse,” he said. “They’re still avoiding people.”
Because wolves become scavengers during hunting season, livestock depredations fall off in the fall, Bangs said.
Before hunting season starts, wolves are looking to fatten up for the winter, and livestock may be an easier prey than wild animals, which are in prime condition and can often outmaneuver a wolf.
Bangs said research indicates that wolves are a little nutritionally stressed around September “more so than in the spring when big game is not in as good shape. You can see weight decline and pups can actually starve to death in extreme cases.”
Pups, born in the spring, now weigh 50 to 60 pounds and are becoming more mobile but are not yet skilled enough to hunt on their own.
“Think of them as 12-year-olds,” Bangs said.
“In a pack of four adults that has five pups, it means you have to feed not only yourself but the pups.”