Managing An Apex Predator

Several years back I spoke about the reintroduction of the gray wolf here in the Pacific Northwest and the turmoil it was creating between farmers and ranchers, and pro-wolf supporters. Rather than being rectified over the years, problems with gray wolves and their reintroduction into different regions of the Northwest have continued to escalate; resulting in a rapidly growing wolf population that has become more and more habituated to domestic animals and human activity. This means ranchers face mounting losses of livestock due to wolf depredation. While no one, and yes that includes most ranchers, wants to see the gray wolf completely disappear from the American landscape, to expect ranchers to “just learn to live with wolves” is like expecting people to ignore an angry pit bull on a playground. As I have said before, dealing with an apex predator is not akin to a Disney movie, “playing nice” and co-existing peacefully with wolves is just not practical or probable. As one local rancher recently stated, “state and federal entities need to spend time and energy educating the general public about what it really takes to manage and recover an apex predator.