The OX Ranch Wolf-Cattle Study
Reported last week in the Capital Press, and posted at W.I.S.E. Forest Fire, and Wildlife News [here] was an article about wolf-cattle interactions at the OX Ranch near Council, Idaho.
I have not be able to locate the actual study. If anybody reading this has a copy, please email it to me.
The news report is very revealing, however, if not shocking:
Livestock behavior changes as wolves move in to territory
By LEE FARREN, Capital Press, May 28, 2010 [here]
LA GRANDE, Ore. — Maintaining the wolf population at a level that prevents massive cattle predation is the key to allowing livestock and wolves to co-exist, an Idaho rancher says.
In Idaho, that hasn’t occurred, said Casey Anderson, manager of the OX Ranch near Council, Idaho.
He talked about his experience as 28 wolves took up residence near his ranch. Anderson and other ranchers in Idaho and Oregon took part in a two-year study that tracked cattle and wolf interactions with GPS data.
“The way it started for us is cattle behavior started changing, their habits were changing. I jumped on the bandwagon and agreed to participate in this study,” Anderson said.
Anderson documented the movements of 10 GPS-collared cows out of a herd of 450 and one collared wolf during the summer and fall of 2009.
“The researchers were thinking of those 10 collared cows, only two or three would come into contact with the collared wolf, but in fact all 10 cows came into contact with that wolf 784 times during that period,” Anderson said. “You can understand how many times all the cows in that herd are coming into contact with wolves, and why we are really noticing cattle behavior patterns and cattle distribution problems.”
In another herd of 317 mother cows, Anderson weaned only 255 calves in 2009. He attributes most of the missing calves to wolf predation. The ranch had 18 confirmed wolf kills last year, and lost at least 45 calves, five cows and two yearlings. …
Note that the expectation was that a few wolves might pester a few cattle once in awhile. The wolves are allegedly more concerned with wild prey and only trot by cattle herds on a casual, accidental basis.
That proved to be untrue. The wolves stalked the cattle constantly. Every cow encountered wolves. The wolves killed a substantial number of cows and calves. They focused in on cattle to the exclusion of other, more difficult prey. Wolves acted in an ecologically efficient manner, killing the easy prey first.
Whoda thunk it?
Well, for starters the advocates of wolf reintroduction. It is commonly assumed that wolf-lovers are primarily concerned with the “balance of nature” and the aesthetic beauty of wolf packs. That’s not the case. Wolves are a tool of land takeover. The ulterior motive for reintroducing wolves is to drive cattle, sheep, and ranchers off their properties.
It’s not about animal “rights”. Wolf reintroduction is about depriving human beings of their human rights.
Animals don’t have rights. A “right” is a privilege granted by contract. Animals cannot make or obey contracts or agreements. Only people can enter into contracts and agreements. Therefore, only people have rights. Rights are a legal concept. Animals don’t make or abide by laws.
It is often pointed out that wolf-lovers are concerned with the rights of wolves but not with the rights of elk or cattle. But that’s a specious argument because neither wolves, nor elk, nor cattle, nor any other animal has rights. Only people do.
And there is no such thing as the “balance of nature”. It’s kill or be killed and the survival of the fittest. Nature knows no balance.
The real motivation is land takeover. War, by definition, is the takeover of territory by force or threat of force, usually but not always by an armed militia. The people who reintroduced wolves are, in essence, waging war on the residents. Their goal is to wrest control (and title) of the land away from the current owners by force or threat of force.
Wolves are weapons of war.
It is time for peace talks. Waging war on people is a lousy way for society to behave. War is dangerous to children and other living things. Give peace a chance.
