‘World’s most famous wolf’ shot and killed outside Yellowstone

[selzer]

Originally Posted by Magwart

We went to Lamar Valley in the winter to wolf watch a few years ago inside Yellowstone. It was magnificent. The wolves are often visible in the valley from the road with field scopes.

I believe she is the gorgeous female we watched playing with her pups for an entire morning. This makes me ill.

She was hunted. See: Hunters Kill Another Radio-Collared Yellowstone National Park Wolf - ScienceInsider
She wasn't killed to protect livestock or because she was endangering anything -- this is sanctioned killing for sport.

There were a number of permits sold for wolves. 8 was the limit this year. 8 were killed. The fish and wildlife determine the number. Taking out some of the wolves means that the rest of the wolves will be better able to withstand the winter. It is population control. Without it, the wolves will range farther in search of game, and anything that they can catch and eat they will go after when they are hungry. So yes, it was to protect livestock and because the number of wolves are endangering the wolf population.

Good for the hunters. Good hunters are the best conservationists.

The Grand Canyon Kaibab Plateau, used to host and awesome herd of deer. Some people thought they were a national treasure and must be preserved. They stopped all hunting of the deer. They killed off the predators and the herd numbered a hundred thousand. This is back in the 1920s. Anyhow, in a few years the deer were starving and the overbrowsing by the deer damaged the land. Fish and wildlife have to carefully cull both the natural predators and the deer to keep things in balance.

If they said eight wolves should be removed, then that is what should have happened. Too bad, it was a wild critter. It was shot and killed. It could have lost its life through accident, starving, injury, illness, strike of lighting. I do see what the big fuss is.

[Magwart]

I just did some more digging, as I found it strange that so many of the kills in this first year of Wyoming "trophy hunting" were wolves wearing research collars. I've seen those collars from a field scope, and they are very big and obvious. You can't miss them. One would think any rational person would see the $4,000 research collar and leave it be.

In fact, the opposite apparently happened. There is some suspicion that some Wyoming hunters tracked the radio frequency used for the collars and specifically targeted the research wolves as soon as they left the park boundary. There are reportedly hunter facebook pages crowing about killing collared wolves. I hope it's not true, but it's sickening if it is.
.