Bobcat can be devastating on deer. Early Idaho F&G records are replete with recommendations to hammer them. I myself have seen a bobcat wrestling with a deer in the middle of a highway a few years ago...grip on its throat just like the picture above. Here they are well known as deer killers. As with all the larger predators, they are really hard on fawns.

Wolf populations are far beyond being signficiantly reduced with a mere hunting season.

Snaring is not an option in deer country, and trapping requires expensive traps. A smallish wolf setup will cost at least $5,000 and then you'd have to be able to make some money on them, which here...they are worth nothing.

Just now, home for lunch, I am back from checking snares. 8 coyotes killed in darn hard work in the timber, skiing trails and snowshoeing the setups since December, and somebody yesterday followed my track in and destroyed my sets and stole some of my snares. I'm done now in that country, done because of a trash lover. Now that the snow is melting, they could make the trip mostly on a 4 wheeler, and they only had to make the hike once. Think I'm pissed???

At $125 per trap, you think somebody is going to leave a whole bunch of wolf traps in the woods here? That's what good wolf traps cost. Cheap ones are $60 a pop.

People are more and more changing their minds, getting to realize we have to do something, but even the F&G departments have no idea how to do it and don't want to anyway since it requires hard work and killing something, which more and more the sissified western F&G Dept's don't want to do.

Look but don't touch. That's their motto.

Here's a recent yote on the leash waiting for the end. This setup cannot be used for wolves because of the snare loop height, yet our F&G people still stroll around telling everyone someday snaring will take care of the problem. I'm sick of know-nothing F&G personnel who have no idea what a hike in the woods feels like...

The only answer is toxicants. Applied in snowmobile and 4 wheeler tracks and aerially applied in yarding areas. We have closely studied the 1915-1930 methods and the concepts, but not the materials can be accomplished again.

And we have two potentially useful toxicants for application here.

We need the laws changed to allow controlled reduction.

Application of toxicants needs not be heltersketer, broad spectrum or irresponsible. In fact, it is the only answer to expanding wolf populations. Shooting, snaring and trapping will NOT reduce wolf populations adequately to meet original recovery goals and to right the wrongs imposed on the people of this state by the terrorist act of dumping them on top of us.

Toxicants must be approved by the USDA and registered for use on wolves. The exact methods and materials used to reduce wolf populations in the 1915-1930 time period are outdated and environmentally unacceptable, as well as being operationally obsolete. We have studied that history and methods extensively and while those old methods were effective at reducing coyote and wolf populations, they were also not species-specific and did cause negative impact to non-target species.

Also, there is no way a sufficient number of bait stations using large animal carcasses could be established today {or in the future}. Those methods, once they were discovered and refined, after much time, effort and study, made for relatively fast and efficient elimination of wolves and coyotes but would not be acceptable today. But the concepts can be used for future canid population reduction.

Today, an inexpensive, grain-based product, using animal fat for leavening and with the addition of a blood extract such as Plantskydd {a tree treatment to discourage ungulate brousing} to isolate species should be tested by USDA first on coyotes, then on wolves when wolves are delisted. In side-to-side tests, theobromine/caffeine and Xylitol {approximately 15 grams/biscuit or "muffin"} should be tested both for lethality, humaneness and in the product described, species-specificity.

Application in snowmobile and ATV tracks and/or by aerial drop means could be accomplished relatively cheaply and efficiently, depending on road and trail access to the target areas. This application could be accomplished during mid-late winter during the time when ungulate populations are concentrated in low-country valleys and drainages. This and at fawning and calving time are the worst time periods for wolf depredation.

In addition, the late winter season is the time period of denning activity for both coyotes and wolves and represents the most efficient time period for canid population reduction/control. Application period or "season" would thus be quite short, probably not exceeding one month per year. Due to the existence of known trails and ungulate yarding areas, impact should be excellent and cessation of application immediate when reduction quota is attained.

"Extinction" of wolves is not a threat. Elimination of wolves from the landscape of Idaho or the West will not occur.

Toxicant application is the most efficient and safe method to reduce wolf populations back to the recovery goals and is, in fact, the only method that will do it. Any "expert" who promotes delisting and wolf population reduction and yet rejects toxicant application and promotes other methods as having the prospect of successful wolf population reduction is speaking disingenuously or from a simple lack of knowledge on the subject.

A product as described would have a short "life" in the open. Breakdown of the product in weather would be fast, its impact on the environment nil.

Though theobromine/caffeine is currently being tested for coyote control, my bet is on Xylitol, ultimately. Xylitol is a sweetener; it is highly palatable to canids as has been described in the veterinary literature. It is already approved as a food product, safe for human consumption and in fact is already used for as a sweetener throughout Europe and by many diabetics and diet conscious people, and as a toxicant for canid control appears very effective. Its impact on species could very likely be easily controlled by delivery system/recipe refinement. The actual, final toxicant product itself could be so safe to humans that a child could eat it and suffer no more trouble than if they ate a few too many Oreo cookies.

The fact is, wolves are devastating to Idaho's wild game and livestock and to rural economies and businesses. The cost of their existence in the populations that exist today is staggering.

Simply said; We need their populations reduced, and regulated toxicant application is the only method that will do it. USDA approved, legal and regulated application is the method that must be pursued.

Lobby your state and Federal Congressment to delist wolves and lobby them to authorize USDA to begin study of canid toxicants for the eventual approval of a product effective at reduction of wolf populations.

Support current Congressional bills to delist wolves.

Call your Congressmen!