The Wolf At The Door! - Conclusion

The gray wolf is the new "poster-child" of many animal advocacy groups. You can read a fine example of this campaign for the wolf at Encyclopedia Britannica's Advocacy Blog. They also promote the cause for the re-introduction of the mountain lion.

I have real issues with the talking points that the blog author, Gregory McNamee uses as facts in his post.

"A similar number of residents (70%) of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, many of whom identified themselves as sport hunters, supported returning the wolf to the wild." .

I'd like to know who these people are? I don't recall any survey of any type taken in Michigan's EUP about the re-introduction of the gray wolf.

"Similar rhetoric has resounded in recent years, issued by anti-reintroduction groups like the deceptively named Abundant Wildlife Society of North America. But it is false. Wolves are not cannibalistic, and they prefer ungulates—a reindeer herd in Lapland, say, or deer in North America—to cows and sheep. Numerous studies show that where canid predators have attacked livestock, the culprits are almost always feral dogs, and not wolves, although reintroduced wolves have indeed attacked livestock at Yellowstone."

Wrong again! A sheep farmer in Rudyard, Michigan lost an average of seventy lambs a year until he bought several Great Pyrenees dogs who live with the sheep and are big enough to fight off the wolves. He hasn't lost more than one or two lambs since he got the dogs. This is a true story and has been documented by our local paper.

Another myth perpetrated by the groups that support wolf re-introduction is that wolves are shy, elusive creatures who avoid human contact.

Again, we have found this to be untrue in the EUP. My friend, Arlene, her son-in-law, Dan and I have seen a total of six wolves in close proximity to ourselves or our camp. Dan had a wolf come within twelve feet of him while he was in a ground blind and the wolf knew he was there. Our experiences have taught us that these wolves aren't one bit afraid of us.

In his blog post, even Gregory McNamee points out that "Valerius Geist, a respected Canadian animal behaviorist ..., says it’s time to end the ‘harmless-wolf myth’. Geist says North American wolves had grown ‘extremely shy’ of people, after decades of being poisoned and shot and trapped. Now, however, they’re less afraid, and more likely to attack. Geist says he had to shoot a couple of wolves a few years ago in self-defense. Wolves kill people in places like Russia, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, Geist adds; why should we expect to fare differently?”"

I truly believe it is only a matter of time before someone is attacked by a wolf in this area.

You may think from the tone of my posts on the re-introduction of the gray wolf, that I hate wolves. You would be wrong.

I think that wolves are one of the Creator's most interesting and beautiful creatures. We humans have much in common with the gray wolf. We are both hunters who love and spoil our children and protect our family group.

My problem with re-introduction is that we are putting the wolf on a collision course with humans to satisfy our own agendas.

Even the blog author, Gregory McNamee agrees on this point: "Is reintroducing Canis lupus truly to the benefit of the creature itself? Or does it instead only satisfy our own aesthetic pleasure, assuage the dreams of guilt-laden urban environmentalists? Is bringing back a species from the brink of extinction akin morally to keeping a brain-dead patient alive on a respirator, hoping against hope?"

As more and more wild places disappear each day, can we really hope that the wolf will survive?

As wolf populations grow, younger wolves are kicked out of their family groups and move off to colonize new territory. What happens after the wolves have established territories all through Michigan's U.P.? They will move on, eventually crossing the Straits of Mackinac in the winter when the Straits are frozen solid with ice and move into the upper Lower Peninsula.

The Lower Peninsula has forest areas too, but is much more densely populated than the Upper Peninsula. Eventually, the wolf will again be in conflict with humans and those encounters could end tragically for either the wolf or the human.

It is only a matter of time.

Many people believe that it would be "really cool" to hear a gray wolf howl again in the wild but when that wolf is howling less than 40 yards from your cabin door, it sort of takes the "romance" out of it.


See you Around The Campfire next week, when we learn about Becoming an Outdoors Woman - The B.O.W. Program.