4 ms·

Study finds Montanans are increasingly OK with wolves

26 points by Jun8 3y ago

client4 3y ago
From Montana, and the bumper sticker has a picture of a wolf and the words "Shoot, Shovel, Shut Up". Perhaps the study was done exclusively in Missoula.
- defrost 3y ago
  "Increasingly OK with" does not mean absence of wolf shooting truck nut hanging bumper sticker politics. > Perhaps the study was ... Three-quarters of surveyed residents now self-describe as tolerant, up from half in 2017. ... researchers sent a survey to 10,000 Montana residents who were separated into four categories: * the general population, * landowners with more than 160 acres of land, * wolf hunting license holders, and * deer and elk license holders. > done exclusively in Missoula. No. It was not. The eight page study summary has the responses over three years broken down by the four groups in Figure 1, Page 2: https://fwp.mt.gov/binaries/content/assets/fwp/conservation/wolf/final-hd-research-summary-no-56-wolves.pdf https://fwp.mt.gov/binaries/content/assets/fwp/conservation/... The only group that didn't change their stance of the years were wolf hunting licence holders; land owners and deer|elk hunters became increasingly in favour of wolves, the general population concurred.
  - client4 3y ago
    My "perhaps ..." comment was a joking nod to the fact Missoula is described as "the Berkeley of the West". I do appreciate you spending so much time on your Internet comments though.
    - defrost 3y ago
      > so much time on your Internet comments though. ?? How much time do you think that comment took? I type fast and I research fast - decades ago I spun up a mineral intelligence company that condensed tens of thousands of (power law distro) terse to quite dense documents per diem. Extracting the guts from a primary source and countering a bit of lazy snark took seconds.
      - client4 3y ago
        Again, I am impressed by your magnificent intellect. Thank you for sharing a little history of how your acquired it.
jan3024 3y ago
[dead]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
COGlory 3y ago
I've still yet to see any in Montana, despite lots of traipsing around. Grizzly bears are still a more common site, here. They've definitely had an impact on the deer and elk populations, though, and one great thing about wolves is that they can pressure herds even when they're on private land.
sethammons 3y ago
I was talking with some local Montana hunters and they did not like the wolf presence. Not only do wolves tend to skip out on the ample deer population and focus on elk and moose (thus reducing the availability of the prized game meat), but also that the introduction of the wolves also introduced wasting disease. Wasting disease is awful and you do not want to eat affected animals. The disease requires both ungulates and the wolves as the parasite lives out part of its life in each. https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/people-predators/wolves-and-disease-8-006/ https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/people-predators... I think it would be expected that any group with increased contact would support additional wolf hunting. The general population dropping in support is likely due to the large population growth and not being familiar with the issue and simply not liking the idea of majestic wolves being killed. Edit: Looks like I was mixing CWD with the tapeworm parasites and CWD is related to prions
- xyzwave 3y ago
  > the introduction of the wolves also introduced wasting disease. Doesn't look like it, from the CDC: > CWD was first identified in captive deer in a Colorado research facility in the late 1960s, and in wild deer in 1981. https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/occurrence.html https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/occurrence.html
  - sethammons 3y ago
    I should rephrase: introduced to Montana. When there were no wolves in Montana, there was no waiting disease in the local deer, moose, and elk population; at least not enough to matter. Now many hunters wont touch meat with their bare skin until it has been tested.
    - bjtitus 3y ago
      It's simply false that wasting disease "requires wolves" to propagate. This has been known and studied for many years [0][1]. It's been a large problem here in Colorado for decades despite no wolf population (up until the last few months). If you would like to learn more, I'd encourage you to read Colorado Parks & Wildlife's management report [2] which includes a lot of good sources and background about its history, epidemiology, and current mitigation plans. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2691594/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2691594/ [1] https://meridian.allenpress.com/jwd/article/34/3/532/122239/EPIDEMIOLOGY-OF-CHRONIC-WASTING-DISEASE-IN-CAPTIVE https://meridian.allenpress.com/jwd/article/34/3/532/122239/... [2] https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/CWD/PDF/ColoradoChronicWastingDiseaseResponsePlan.pdf https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/CWD/PDF/Co...
rasz 3y ago
Just wait till politician loses a pony https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/27/a-wolf-killed-the-eu-presidents-precious-pony-then-the-fight-to-catch-the-predator-began https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/27/a-wolf-k... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39154949 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39154949

26 points by Jun8 3y ago

From Montana, and the bumper sticker has a picture of a wolf and the words "Shoot, Shovel, Shut Up". Perhaps the study was done exclusively in Missoula.

defrost 3y ago
"Increasingly OK with" does not mean absence of wolf shooting truck nut hanging bumper sticker politics. > Perhaps the study was ... Three-quarters of surveyed residents now self-describe as tolerant, up from half in 2017. ... researchers sent a survey to 10,000 Montana residents who were separated into four categories: * the general population, * landowners with more than 160 acres of land, * wolf hunting license holders, and * deer and elk license holders. > done exclusively in Missoula. No. It was not. The eight page study summary has the responses over three years broken down by the four groups in Figure 1, Page 2: https://fwp.mt.gov/binaries/content/assets/fwp/conservation/wolf/final-hd-research-summary-no-56-wolves.pdf https://fwp.mt.gov/binaries/content/assets/fwp/conservation/... The only group that didn't change their stance of the years were wolf hunting licence holders; land owners and deer|elk hunters became increasingly in favour of wolves, the general population concurred.
- client4 3y ago
  My "perhaps ..." comment was a joking nod to the fact Missoula is described as "the Berkeley of the West". I do appreciate you spending so much time on your Internet comments though.
  - defrost 3y ago
    > so much time on your Internet comments though. ?? How much time do you think that comment took? I type fast and I research fast - decades ago I spun up a mineral intelligence company that condensed tens of thousands of (power law distro) terse to quite dense documents per diem. Extracting the guts from a primary source and countering a bit of lazy snark took seconds.
    - client4 3y ago
      Again, I am impressed by your magnificent intellect. Thank you for sharing a little history of how your acquired it.

jan3024 3y ago

[dead]

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

COGlory 3y ago

I've still yet to see any in Montana, despite lots of traipsing around. Grizzly bears are still a more common site, here. They've definitely had an impact on the deer and elk populations, though, and one great thing about wolves is that they can pressure herds even when they're on private land.

sethammons 3y ago

I was talking with some local Montana hunters and they did not like the wolf presence. Not only do wolves tend to skip out on the ample deer population and focus on elk and moose (thus reducing the availability of the prized game meat), but also that the introduction of the wolves also introduced wasting disease. Wasting disease is awful and you do not want to eat affected animals. The disease requires both ungulates and the wolves as the parasite lives out part of its life in each. https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/people-predators/wolves-and-disease-8-006/ https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/people-predators... I think it would be expected that any group with increased contact would support additional wolf hunting. The general population dropping in support is likely due to the large population growth and not being familiar with the issue and simply not liking the idea of majestic wolves being killed. Edit: Looks like I was mixing CWD with the tapeworm parasites and CWD is related to prions

xyzwave 3y ago
> the introduction of the wolves also introduced wasting disease. Doesn't look like it, from the CDC: > CWD was first identified in captive deer in a Colorado research facility in the late 1960s, and in wild deer in 1981. https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/occurrence.html https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/occurrence.html
- sethammons 3y ago
  I should rephrase: introduced to Montana. When there were no wolves in Montana, there was no waiting disease in the local deer, moose, and elk population; at least not enough to matter. Now many hunters wont touch meat with their bare skin until it has been tested.
  - bjtitus 3y ago
    It's simply false that wasting disease "requires wolves" to propagate. This has been known and studied for many years [0][1]. It's been a large problem here in Colorado for decades despite no wolf population (up until the last few months). If you would like to learn more, I'd encourage you to read Colorado Parks & Wildlife's management report [2] which includes a lot of good sources and background about its history, epidemiology, and current mitigation plans. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2691594/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2691594/ [1] https://meridian.allenpress.com/jwd/article/34/3/532/122239/EPIDEMIOLOGY-OF-CHRONIC-WASTING-DISEASE-IN-CAPTIVE https://meridian.allenpress.com/jwd/article/34/3/532/122239/... [2] https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/CWD/PDF/ColoradoChronicWastingDiseaseResponsePlan.pdf https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/CWD/PDF/Co...

rasz 3y ago

Just wait till politician loses a pony https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/27/a-wolf-killed-the-eu-presidents-precious-pony-then-the-fight-to-catch-the-predator-began https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/27/a-wolf-k... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39154949 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39154949