WOLVES VS. BIG GAME
Many outfitters and landowners in Idaho and Montana agree that more aggressive wolf management is long overdue. Bangs says verified predation on livestock increased from less than 50 in 2002 to more than 450 in 2007. During the same period, costs associated with killing wolves that prey on livestock doubled to $300,000.

And while livestock predation dominates headlines, big-game herds have also suffered -- most notably elk. Dramatic losses have come in Idaho's famed Lolo hunting zone, north of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. Craig says the Lolo zone has "gone from the best elk hunting in the country to where you can't find a single elk."

Research backs up those claims. "We can demonstrate that wolves are significantly impacting elk in the Lolo zone," Idaho Fish and Game Director Cal Groen recently told the Lewiston Tribune. That's true even though elk started disappearing prior to the reintroduction of wolves.

"The Lolo zone declined largely for other reasons, so it kind of became a cloudy issue," Idaho biologist George Pauley told the Idaho Tribune. "More recently you could probably make the case that it has declined by wolf predation."

Idaho Fish and Game biologists are in the preliminary stages of a study that shows wolves are the primary cause of death for cow elk in the Lolo zone. Cow elk numbers in the area are shrinking by about 13 percent per year, and only about 75 percent of the cows survive each year. Pauley says cow survival rates need to be closer to 87 percent to maintain a stable population.

Calf survival is also down, with only 75 percent surviving in their second six months of life. Wolves have been linked to 65 percent of the deaths in older calves. That's why Jim Unsworth, deputy director of the Idaho Fish and Game Department, says predation is keeping the elk herd from rebounding. As a result, no cow tags were sold in the Lolo zone this fall. More restrictions may be instituted in 2010 following aerial surveys.

WHITETAILS ARE DECLINING TOO
Wolves are taking a toll on elk elsewhere too. Hunters in many units north and south of Idaho's Salmon River reported fewer elk kills than in previous years. As a result, elk tag allocations were reduced this fall for the Salmon zone. Also, fewer tags were issued for the Sawtooth zone north of Boise. In all those cases, Unsworth says wolves are thought to be the main factor limiting elk numbers.

Wolf predation is also evident in Montana. In northwest Montana, hunter harvest surveys revealed a 17 percent decline in the number of whitetail bucks killed by hunters in 2007. While winter was a factor in that decline, some also point to predation.

Wolves are more clearly to blame for declines in the elk herd around Yellowstone National Park. When wolves were re-introduced in 1995 the elk herd was at a stable 20,000. Today the Yellowstone elk herd is closer to 5,000 or 6,000 animals. Don Laubach is an elk-hunting author and a former outfitter, and he also runs E.L.K. Inc., a company that sells game calls worldwide. His business is located on the north end of the park, and that location offers him a unique perspective.

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