Bingo. The world doesn't like to admit those traits but the ARA poster Children...Wolves, Orca's & seals all kill for pleasure if the opportunity arises.

Ha I just read about a mt lion attacking the guy in Cali, was that before or after all the tree Huggers were trying to get the f&g biologist fired for going on a lion hunt in Idaho?

Regarding the question of why they kill and not consume. I have a in a couple cases seen where the kill was done for what I think was a training exercise for the younger members of the pack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=tMC7aZNXnL8#t=31s

Here is a video of a wolf pack in Denali killing a moose calf in the water despite the cow's best efforts to defend it.

That may well be UB, but in reality I think the education of the
younger wolves is constant and ongoing. Every kill is a training session so to speak. The older adults get in there and show the
younger ones how to rip and slash and the best angles to work it to avoid getting stomped.

That's Kind of funny to me as a Maine biologist at a December meeting on predation (coyotes and deer)said that coyotes sence the sick ones and go after those and not the healthy ones!--This guy is a protectionist to the max.

Okay, Let's not go to the other extreme and project human attributes to wildlife. Wolves surplus kill because it is a survival trait that has allowed the species to survive for thousands of years. Better to have too much food on the ground then not enough.

Most of us have likely seen evidence of "excess killing" by wolves. My take on it is that some behavior of the target trips a trigger in the wolf that puts them into that hunt/kill mode whether they are hungry or not. We may never understand it. We of course don't like it but we shouldn't, IMO, condem the wolves for doing what comes naturally. Probably the best way to influence that behavior is to control numbers of both wolves and prey species.

If we point the finger at the wolf and lay blame, we are guilty of imparting conscious decision making ability to them. I think instinct rules, rather than reasoning ability.


I also believe that any objective observer knows that wolves target whichever animal that presents the right situation to kill. To believe they single out the sick, lame, and lazy is absurd. If that was true, we would need to conclude that most or all of the moose/caribou etc, were somehow sick or disabled when they were killed.

Wolves are smart, they don't just chase animals that are sick or disabled, they herd them and tire them out then go for the kill, especially when the temperatures are low, animals usually freeze their lungs well trying to run away. I have seen a wolf chase a caribou then another one came out and took over the chase and let the other one rest. I tried reaching them but they made it to the trees before I reached them. Fortunately for the caribou, it got to see another day, I came across it the day after and harvested it.

Killbilly, never heard an offical IFG statement saying that. If a loose cannon CO said that it wouldn't surprise me. very ignorant statement.

Actually if wolves were really smart they would bury their kills to protect them from scavengers. Not smart IMO.

bury them would be a waste of energy no guarantee that other animals wont dig them up and eat them

I'm thinking in terms of 6 bald eagles and 25 ravens and 13 magpies and 4 gray jays.

Haven't many eagles around winter time here, ravens don't really eat too much of the kills i have found, no magpies around either, and gray jays don't seem to leave the trees onto the open country to eat carcasses of caribou here

Oh brother.

Where ar't thou...

Dirt makes a good point.
The same point was made by Rick Sinnot's predecessor Dave Harkness. A woman expressed distress over the incidental take of 'highly intelligent' porpoise in tuna seines. Harkness asked her why the porpoise don't just jump out of the net if they are so intelligent. I miss that guy...

sounds like an awesome guy goot sense of humor

He was being serious.

All photos taken in Idaho in the winter of 2006-7. I got these in an e-mail that was being circulated to expose just what was happening to the elk. Excerpt from the e-mail: The large cavities on the rear of the cow elk are where the fetus was removed. The photographer found and documented that the wolf always ate the fetus first and sometimes the cow was still found alive after the fetus was removed and eaten.
The photographer also found that many elk were killed in surplus, or "Sport Killed", and left to rot. During the winter when the elk are driven down low and concentrated along the river, they are easy prey and the wolves just keep killing both old and young.













to be continued.....

and continuing along....












to be continued