Farmers vs. Wolves

So there is this long long conflict about wolves eating livestock and farmers going on raids to eradicate whole packs that way they will not lose livestock for food and/or money. There have been many debates on how to handle the situation, and even though wolves are protected in some areas, it is both a concern to both ecologists, and farmers alike. For one wolves are needed to balance the ecosystem out so that grazing animals don't over graze, or over populate. But farm livestock are needed for money, clothing, and for feeding the general public. Both are trying to figure out ways to solve this problem, so far here were some of the ideas they came up with I learned in my science class:

- Use rubber bullets so that wolves will be frightened enough to not return, and it won't kill them.

- Put something on a dead piece of livestock and throw the livestock near the border so that the wolf will feel nauseous from eating it, and stay away from it never eating it again. (( Kinda like how you eat lobster too many times, so every time you eat it you feel sick, so you never touch it again...))

- Put shock collars on a certain wolf pack, and every time a wolf goes near livestock they get shocked. Once released from the program, the wolves would split up and teach other wolves not to go near livestock.

- Relocate wolves to Oregon out into the wild far away from most livestock.

If there are more ways to solve this problem you can post them below:

[Tobi]

How about the howling recordings that Shaun Ellis devised? They worked well. The recordings of howling are played and neighbouring wolf packs interpret the howls as signs a pack already occupies that territory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_E...olf_researcher)

Putting Ipecac on the carcasse of a sheep or other livestock animal is another method, as this definitely puts wolves off. It makes them vomit, but does them no real harm, and they remember well, and don't wish to repeat the incident.

Originally Posted by Tobi

How about the howling recordings that Shaun Ellis devised? They worked well. The recordings of howling are played and neighbouring wolf packs interpret the howls as signs a pack already occupies that territory.

That could help with some of the problems, but some farmers have lived on their land for generations and have nowhere else to go. Also some wolves travel to and from national parks onto farming territories and move near them. So this could help in places that farmers have not set up farmlands yet.

[norseman]

Wolves actually improve the herds by culling the old and weak. True, they do take young too. But more than that, the wolves keep down other predators as was found in Yellowstone Park when the wolves were all killed off. This led to foxes, various cannines breeding unchecked and so the wolf had to be re-introduced but ranchers still kill them.

I make no secret about my desire to see the wolf back in Britain - we have lots of open, rough, wild country for them and farmers could be compensated for any domesticated animals taken but, at the moment, deer are breeding unchecked and have become a nuisance. Foxes would also be cut-back. The wolf, like the fox and badger, are ancient inhabitants of these Isles. They have spread across Europe from the Balkans and Italy and have been noted in countries bordering the English Channel, so one last obstacle to go. Note - there are wolves in Scotland kept in enclosures.

[WhiteWarrior]

I am afraid that neither science nor innovation play much of a role in this, because rational thinking ignores three major factors: greed, hatred and class anger. Here in Norway at least, the farmers earn as much if not more on a sheep or raindeer reported killed by predators as they do on the market. Which explains how a dozen wolves, 30 bears and some EAGLES 'reportedly killed about a 100.000 sheep.... Hatred comes partially from the farmers now and then finding an animal of theirs that actually HAVE been eaten on by predators. Those are interestingly enough very few. But the class anger, if I am choosing the right word, is because we have a large number of people who are against hunting of the few predators we have left and the farmers who are a smaller group hate these 'urban yuppies' with a passion you cannot believe. Why you can't find the pro-predators in the rural area? Oooh, for the same reason you can't find out-of-the-closet gays or people who vote for the non-farmer parties or people who choose other alternative lifestyles or people of other colors than bleak white.... And the funny things is that the farmers also keep complaining that the young ones keep moving away from the rural areas.

I would say something positive here to even out things a bit, but there isn't anything.

Well, then most of you should do some research into how many animals your country kills through guns and bait traps strictly to protect the crops/livestock.

Roughly 2 million starlings were killed by bait traps alone in the US in 2009. 1.5 million red winged black birds. Killing animals in agro land also bypasses all protection acts on all animals, so even proteted species liek eagles, hawks owls and wolves are killed.

This is the way I see it. Your a pack of wolves. You have been on the scent of a deer for days. All of a sudden you smell a large pack of animals - fairly rare in the UK now a days besides farms. You follow the scent only to find sheep, in a larged fenced in area, with no protection. Most predators go for the easier kill. Having animals penned up is asking for them to be eaten. Even having free range sheep, they are still confined to the farm, and are kept in wide open pastures.

The same goes for food. You have 100 acres of corn, with no trees to hide them, no predators to keep pests away, and no ther plants to distract pests/predators, what do you think is going to happen? It was easier when we had more small farms, because you could actually take care of it all. These days you have one farmer for like 100 acres of land, and a family usually has thousands of acres.....

Deforestation due to farms and logging doesnt help at all either. Generally speaking, if they had habitat and food they shouldnt come to the farms to eat, unless they end up like bears here, and learn its much easier to get food in town...

[norseman]

We have two re-introduced raptors [ Thank you, Norway for those], Red Kite and the Sea Eagle.
Gamekeepers are putting out poisoned carcasses to poison the Red Kite despite that they are protected. Why ? - you might ask. The kite takes some grouse which are bred to be released so that rich fat fools can shoot them and make the landowner a bundle of money. Likewise the Sea Eagle - they take the occasional lamb.. The hen harrier is almost wiped out - once again, the guilty party being gamekeepers.

In Africa they feed hyenas scraps so they don't kill the people or the livestock, and it works. Why don't the farmers just throw the meat away from their ranches, like the stuff they do not use for eating, unless it goes to our school lunch tomorrow (blech) XD.

But I would not blame the farmers for killing the wolves nor the wolves for killing the livestock. Both wolves and people need the livestock (food,clothing, etc.) for good reasons and it is in both of our bloods to do what we must do to survive. This post was not about fighting with one another about the situation, simply find an outcome that could solve both the wolves and farmers from both having conflict with one another. Farmers are needed to produce food for us, and Wolves are needed to balance the eco system out. Yes it is true that wolves mostly eat the old, ill, and weak but every piece of livestock counts as a big amount of money. Also wolves are good at keeping coyotes and foxes at bay which are mostly a bigger threat to livestock. So how do we get wolves not to eat the livestock and only wild animals, and farmers not to kill wolves and find alternative methods for dealing with wolves without hurting them?

[hannah]

It's not the farmers or the wolves, it's the livestock we should think about and that's what farmers are worried about. I have seen an animal left partially eaten alive and it is not nice, no one wants to see the animals they put their lives into caring for being torn apart by wild animals.

[Tobi]

Originally Posted by hannah

It's not the farmers or the wolves, it's the livestock we should think about and that's what farmers are worried about. I have seen an animal left partially eaten alive and it is not nice, no one wants to see the animals they put their lives into caring for being torn apart by wild animals.

A kill like that would be unusual for a wolf as far as I know. They usually kill swiftly.