Alaska to Kill Over 75% of Wolf Population in New Aerial Hunt
Alaska abruptly resumed shooting wolves from helicopters this weekend in hopes that shooting the wolves will increase the population of caribou for hunters to kill. The state plans to kill up to 328 wolves, sparing under 100 in the Yukon area.
Not everyone in Alaska is gung-ho about the plan. The National Park Service has been collaring wolves for a two-decade-long study tracking predator-prey relationships, and now many of those wolves are bound to turn up dead.
>>UPDATE: Defenders of Wildlife has taken legal action to stop the hunt.
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“They [the state] have a mandate to provide for maximum sustained yield. They want to provide more moose and caribou for people to harvest,” said Greg Dudgeon of the park service. “Our mandate is to manage and provide for healthy populations of wildlife. So we don’t place the value of a wolf over a caribou, or a caribou over a moose.”
The state hopes to increase the caribou population from 40,000 to 100,000. Dudgeon said the goal is outrageous because the animals haven’t been that populous since the early 20th century.
Defenders of Wildlife, a wildlife conservation group that has vocally opposed aerial hunts, said they worry that the wolf population estimates are smaller than in reality, meaning it’s possible that only a couple dozen wolves could survive the cull.
“The Palin administration and the Board of Game are acting with complete disregard for scientific wildlife management,” said Wade Willis, Defenders of Wildlife’s Alaska representative. “It is unprecedented for such a wholesale slaughter to take place, especially when it is based on such shoddy science and when it includes wolves that have been collared by the National Park Service for scientific study.”
The wolf hunt rings similar to the sea lion cull currently underway in Washington and Oregon. The sea lions are being trapped and killed because they eat a small portion of endangered salmon and instead of cutting the commercial fishing salmon quota, the states decided to kill sea lions for the second year in a row.
[Via LA Times] Photo Credit: dobak on Flickr under Creative Commons license.
How absolutely tragic. This aerial hunting is beyond the definition of cruel and inhumane. How very, very sad and unnecessary.
Humans are not the only species to inhabit this planet.
Enough killing. Enough senseless bloodshed.
“Wolf Counter”, even though you were mistaken in your comment, whether it is 2% or 75%, it’s disgusting and there is no excuse for it.
I hope Sarah Plain gets snipered down by one of her own helicopters, with no chance to defend herself like those helpless wolves. They have approved the use of gas to kill wolf pups in their den. Absolutely sickening. Makes me ashamed to call myself human.
Please check out these sites FOR MORE INFORMATION, and HELP the NRDC in their fight against Plain by making a small donation (even $1 helps) or writing to Palin on their site.
http://www.savebiogems.org/wolves/
http://www.eyeonpalin.org/
sorry the autocorrect thing keeps making Palin “plain”
Oh. and “Emperor Bob”.
You’re an idiot.
“Prudent game management requires predator control to preserve healthy game and prey.” How the F**K do you think the food chain survived before humans started getting overinvolved? WE are the ones F**king it up, not the wolves. They’ve lived in healthy balance with their prey for years and years. Hunters like Palin are throwing it out of whack.
“Live in fear of wolves”? Please.
“STFU about something you know nothing about”- and I’m assuming you’re the expert, CLEARLY.
I won’t even justify your senseless and misguided commentary with a reply of any substance. That’s just a little taste of how ridiculous you sound.
It is not just Alaska we have Idaho and Montana. Can’t wait till they allow hunting licenses for hunters and idiot governors. lol. Why don’t they just move back to the cities if they don’t appreciate the wilderness states in which they live. Pretty soon they will kill all the wildlife and bulldoze the wilderness to make their state a giant parking lot. Who are they to decide what are children and grandchildren see. Boycott these states. Palin will never see the White House. Stop stupid people.
All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.
To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.
He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
Just because humans cannot figure out their issues in their (our) lifetime, does not mean that we should mess with the animal world, does it?????
Is that why humans have an ongoing war happening all over the world please justify the slaughter of these wolves so humans can have a larger number of caribou to kill for themselves! I do not agree!
SPARING ONLY 100!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Humans are idiots…(im not human) im a native.
I DONT KILL WOLVES>>>>>>>>
Typical animal activists lies. There are over 10,000 wolves in alaska today. Way to many. The headline says 75 % to be killed. Not true. In a single game area where wolves are very very overpopulated a larger percentage will be culled. The populations of moose and caribou are being decimated by out of control wolf herds. One wolf can kill 60 caribou a year.Hopefully area shooting and trapping will spread to yellowstone park where out of control wolf numbers are decimating the elk and moose there. Native alaskans depend on moose and caribou to feed themselves and their dogs. Fat liberals sitting on their couches in encino do not know the facts.