I don’t know why this topic surprises anyone. Mountt St. Helens had zero wild goats after it erupted in 1980. It now has a population of goats. The nearest wild population is 40 miles away through the forest. Basically zero goat habitat between the two and somehow several made it through that morass to the mountain. Why are we surprised when wolves, a predator that walks all the time, is found “out of range”?



I’m guessing because no one really knows the population wolves. Also, you have no clue what their margin of error is for either sample. I’m guessing you didn’t ask them either.

It's much more fun to speculate on their margin of error.

Do you know what the margin of error is? I do and its a lot as far as I'm concerned. Plus or minus 500. If they think there is any possibility there is only 2200 wolves in this state someone needs to get a new job.


Must be better biologists in Wisconsin, their margin of error is plus or minus approximately 30.

Question for ya Clark or anybody else seeing as you asked us about the margin of error.

Does anyone know that the 2020 Environment and Natural Resource Committee chair lost his election this fall(a Democrat) and was replaced? Does anyone know who his replacement is and his stance on the management of timber wolves? Or more importantly his stance on trapping?

I do and it's not good.

Almost time to move.

A 500 plus or minus from a number like say 3,000 with a territorial, mobile predator species within a state with 84,000 square miles is statistically not a bad guess or number. Now the real issue of say 3,700 or 2300 depends more upon when those numbers were estimated. February or June. There could easily be 30-40% more wolves on the landscape right after pups are whelped then in the dead of winter. Wolf pup mortality is actually pretty high even though the pack creates the heavily protected den areas. If they paired up like coyotes and all the females got bred there would be a ton more wolves out there and being "endangered" would not even be close to an issue.

Bryce

In the era of modern wildlife management being "endangered" isn't an issue.

House or Senate? I looked it up and haven’t found any answers. Also, not sure which committee you are referencing. Clue me in.

I’d be interested to know when the hardest time on the yearly pups is. I would have to believe the guarded den area is just that, and most of the mortality comes at dispersal time later in the year. This would leave wolf numbers pretty strong until later winter maybe? Then bumped back up within a few months with new pups. Not much down time.
I could be wrong.

Osky

Thinking about it Jack aka Gulo would probably have wise input on this.

House committee, Environment and Natural Resource. Take a look at the majority of DFL members on that committee. It isn't good for trappers.