Wolf protections restored in US
Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2022 8:22 pm
An NPR article says that federal protections for the gray wolf have been reinstated, curtailing recent hunting in northern states that threatened their population.
Is it a gray wolf if it's American born, and grey for everywhere else?
I suppose the fact that we haven't had them around lately means that I have a limited understanding of the dangers of wolves, or why we got rid of them in the first place. Apparently they originally killed them off to help protect livestock, which I suppose is understandable, but now that most ranching is done on an industrial scale, and we've invented so many ways to protect them, I'm not sure how much of a problem this would be today.
That said, in Texas, we now do have a wild hog problem, which is purported to have been influenced by the loss of the gray wolf, one of their few natural predators. Hogs are large, tough, destructive, breed rapidly, and have less fear of humans than we would like. We still have coyotes to try to keep them in check, but those are a weak substitute for true wolves, like off-brand 'toasted oats' instead of Cheerios. If bringing some wolves back would cut down on the quantity of hogs we have, I suspect we could live with the consequences of that.
This action isn't 'bringing wolves back to Texas', but I'm sympathetic towards keeping these useful predators around the places they're at, so I think I'm in favor of it.
Is it a gray wolf if it's American born, and grey for everywhere else?
I suppose the fact that we haven't had them around lately means that I have a limited understanding of the dangers of wolves, or why we got rid of them in the first place. Apparently they originally killed them off to help protect livestock, which I suppose is understandable, but now that most ranching is done on an industrial scale, and we've invented so many ways to protect them, I'm not sure how much of a problem this would be today.
That said, in Texas, we now do have a wild hog problem, which is purported to have been influenced by the loss of the gray wolf, one of their few natural predators. Hogs are large, tough, destructive, breed rapidly, and have less fear of humans than we would like. We still have coyotes to try to keep them in check, but those are a weak substitute for true wolves, like off-brand 'toasted oats' instead of Cheerios. If bringing some wolves back would cut down on the quantity of hogs we have, I suspect we could live with the consequences of that.
This action isn't 'bringing wolves back to Texas', but I'm sympathetic towards keeping these useful predators around the places they're at, so I think I'm in favor of it.
