9-20 SS Ted Cougars Kill more elk

Retired US Fish and Wildlife biologist Ted Kuch told me a fascinating story about elk hunting. A buddy and I loved to go elk hunting and so we go out every September and we had a spot.

It was just thick with elk. In fact, the elk would winter at a hot spring. They wouldn’t even migrate anymore. And so they'd only go a mile up the mountain for summer range. And it was like elk hunting utopia. Well, shortly after we reintroduced wolves, the first place in this basin where a wolf pack established itself was a half a mile from our hunting camp. And it changed elk hunting. There are still lots of elk around, but they behave differently once we start chasing them. Now, I could have rued the fact that wolves came back in. The first place they pack was my honey hole. Frankly, I took it as a compliment, right? It validated our skill as elk hunters to find, you know, a great elk hunting spot. Right? So these wolves came in. And by that time we decided we want to try a different place to hunt anyway. And we moved on so I could have chosen to interpret that more negatively and say, well wolves suck. Well, I couldn't say that, you know, the elk because we still saw lots of elk. It was just they used to be lazy and now they were hard to find. And, you know, when they call, they would move. You know, it's just a different experience, that's all after wolves showed up. So I understand why people feel that way. Statistically, it's really not. In fact, just yesterday I read a news story out of the spokesman review, newly released Idaho Fish and Game’s study showing cougars eat more elk than wolves.

We'll follow that up in another episode.