Hidden Costs/Consequences of Wolves

Although there are state programs throughout the Northwest to compensate ranchers for cattle verified killed by wolves. That is only the most obvious loss ranchers have when their livestock are stalked by wolves.
Oregon Wolf Education Kerry Tienhaara shares some of are hidden costs to having cattle pasturing near wolf packs.
Tienhaara: “Well, I can speak from personal experience, we had a calf lost in a Canadian Gray wolf depredation then we also had another calf that was attacked but not killed. That calf’s mother -- her brain was gone. You couldn’t get within 600 feet of her. She’d see you enter the field and she’d take off. She was very difficult to be around. When we finally did get her up to the corral -- the decision being made that we couldn’t keep her. She is a danger. Shipping was hard.”
Addition to losing a productive but flighty cow, Tiehaara shares some of the other negative costs for ranchers.
Teinhaara: “Another thing that happens is low conception rates. When these cattle are harrassed by Canadian Gray wolves they get run to near exhaustion. If they are bred, they can very well abort their calf making them produce no calf that year or a very late calf if they do rebreed. They have significant weight loss -- not only to the cows but the calves that are on the ground that are suppose to be gaining weight to come in and be weaned in the fall.”