The science behind Wolf hunting

To hunt or not to hunt... Wolves that is. There's always been a very nice relationship between the hunting community and the ranching community whether it be beef cattle, sheep etc. It isn't just a friendly relationship but symbiotic. Ranchers often let hunters onto their spreads so that hunters can hunt whatever native wildlife it is that they are going after. Often times, ranchers receive monetary benefits for their hosting. But there is another two-way. Hunters often take out wildlife that preys on their livestock, i.e., coyotes, bears and wolves. A natural assumption is take out a predator and that is one less predator to depredate the herd. Well a new study from a journal called Plos One claims to have taken a scientific look at that assumption. They found that for every wolf killed in Idaho, Montana or Wyoming over the past 25 years, there was a 5% increase in the cattle and sheep that were killed the next year. Livestock predations only started decreasing after wolf numbers were reduced by more than 25%. I picked this up on national public radio. "Lead author Rob Wielgus, professor of wildlife ecology says killing the alpha male or female in a pack, frees the other wolves to start breeding. Breeding pairs trying to feed pups are more likely to kill livestock than individual wolves are." That's the author's conclusion. Interesting subject matter but I don't know if we can substantiate his claims.