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Wolf makes a comeback in France


Dunc

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France again. This is not new, I've heard this many times before. Swiss seems to have the same attitude.

Hunting an individual wolf is not going to teach the other wolves not to attack sheep :duh: In fact killing the wrong one (the alpha for example) _will_ make the rest leave the pack. The result is a bunch of lone wolves with no pack and will only be able to hunt and eat the easy prey. Guess what that is? Sheep.

On a brighter note, the wolf packs in Germany are also very interesting right now. Most of the packs are located near the east of Germany but some lone wolves have been spotted in other areas of Germany as well. Wolves can easily walk long distances in a single day. As a result a _possible_ wolf has been spotted here in the Netherlands last week. I say possible, it has not been confirmed, but many people have seen it and have made photos of it. It's still being investigated.

I'm not 100% sure about it myself yet. We once had a report of a puma running around here, and after weeks of searching it turned out just to be a big cat. And with the amount of people I got telling me I have pet wolves... Either way, it is entirely possible that a lone wolf was within borders of my country for at least a few hours, which would mean this was the first wolf in the Netherlands since *1897*! I'm exited.

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There was talk of re-introduce Wolves to northern Scottland, as Deer population is out of control, because they have no natural predators, sheep and cattle farmers were super strongly against it, but having wolves would benefit crop farmers as deers destroys thousands of pounds worth of crops every year.

unfortunatley they scrapped the idea :(, though apparently they are still considering introducing Lyxs ^_^

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  • 2 weeks later...

In fact killing the wrong one (the alpha for example) _will_ make the rest leave the pack.

Actually, that's not true.

A wild wolf pack is made up of family members. So you have the 'Alpha' male and the 'Alpha' female (the dominant male and dominant female), whom would be mates. Then you'd have their offspring from the current year's litter; there might be a couple surviving wolves from last year's litter that have not dispersed yet (wolves usually disperse at around 2 years of age) in the pack. If an 'Alpha' dies, the whole pack does not disperse - the remaining 'Alpha' will attempt to find another mate. Their offspring would not step up and take their father's/mother's former 'position' - that is against their instinct and rightfully so.

However, if both 'Alphas' die, then the whole pack will disperse and find mates of their own. (or join packs of their own - but outsiders are rarely accepted into packs (due to genetic competition) unless that pack is in need of a new 'Alpha' male or female. )

(Source: David L. Mech's published wolf books.)

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Actually, that's not true.

A wild wolf pack is made up of family members. So you have the 'Alpha' male and the 'Alpha' female (the dominant male and dominant female), whom would be mates. Then you'd have their offspring from the current year's litter; there might be a couple surviving wolves from last year's litter that have not dispersed yet (wolves usually disperse at around 2 years of age) in the pack. If an 'Alpha' dies, the whole pack does not disperse - the remaining 'Alpha' will attempt to find another mate. Their offspring would not step up and take their father's/mother's former 'position' - that is against their instinct and rightfully so.

However, if both 'Alphas' die, then the whole pack will disperse and find mates of their own. (or join packs of their own - but outsiders are rarely accepted into packs (due to genetic competition) unless that pack is in need of a new 'Alpha' male or female. )

I wish it was as easy as that :( I've read so many stories mainly from the US where it didn't went like that. The remaining alpha started seeking for a new mate and usually leaves the pack behind. Structure in the pack is important for the wolf. They need to know what their role is, and when a members disappears -especially the alpha- the wolves get confused. If there's no other leader left (not all have a clear second alpha in the pack!) there's no one left to keep them together and they start wandering on their own.

That's how many packs in the US have come to their end. Sheep has been found that has been killed, the local wolf pack gets suspected of killing them and it is decided to punish them by killing the alpha. Did I say that no one was even sure it where the wolves? Either way, alpha gets killed. The amount of dead sheep found increases, more wolves get shot and suddenly there's no pack left any more. People refuse to learn :(

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I wish it was as easy as that :( I've read so many stories mainly from the US where it didn't went like that. The remaining alpha started seeking for a new mate and usually leaves the pack behind. Structure in the pack is important for the wolf. They need to know what their role is, and when a members disappears -especially the alpha- the wolves get confused. If there's no other leader left (not all have a clear second alpha in the pack!) there's no one left to keep them together and they start wandering on their own.

That's how many packs in the US have come to their end. Sheep has been found that has been killed, the local wolf pack gets suspected of killing them and it is decided to punish them by killing the alpha. Did I say that no one was even sure it where the wolves? Either way, alpha gets killed. The amount of dead sheep found increases, more wolves get shot and suddenly there's no pack left any more. People refuse to learn :(

Haha - wolf pack dynamics always interests me. Of course, there are exceptions to what I posted above, but I was paraphrasing David L. Mech's observations. They are not my own.

People just still have the deep rooted fear of the wolf - although they need to wake up and realize there are non-violent ways they can go about it. Like sheep/shepherd dogs, for example. They were bred for a reason; use them.

To be sure it was wolves, they should do a DNA sample on the bites (saliva should be left over from a fresh bite.) or find wolf scat or fur by the scene that they can analyze. But, of course, they probably won't do that because it costs too much money.

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Haha - wolf pack dynamics always interests me. Of course, there are exceptions to what I posted above, but I was paraphrasing David L. Mech's observations. They are not my own.

People just still have the deep rooted fear of the wolf - although they need to wake up and realize there are non-violent ways they can go about it. Like sheep/shepherd dogs, for example. They were bred for a reason; use them.

To be sure it was wolves, they should do a DNA sample on the bites (saliva should be left over from a fresh bite.) or find wolf scat or fur by the scene that they can analyze. But, of course, they probably won't do that because it costs too much money.

I once read about a study that listed the most common reason of the death of livestock. Can't find it anymore but it showed that "Death by wolves" was one of the most uncommon causes. Other predators were more common. Most common cause was by disease if I recall correctly. I gotta find this study again..

And yet the people always point at the wolves when something happens. I even read about a story where wolves where put to blame because of a kill they made.... in a area where there wasn't a single wolf :S

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I once read about a study that listed the most common reason of the death of livestock. Can't find it anymore but it showed that "Death by wolves" was one of the most uncommon causes. Other predators were more common. Most common cause was by disease if I recall correctly. I gotta find this study again..

And yet the people always point at the wolves when something happens. I even read about a story where wolves where put to blame because of a kill they made.... in a area where there wasn't a single wolf :S

Yeah, I know. :(

David Mech explains this as well - that most livestock kills are not made by wolves. But people blame wolves anyways because of the long-rooted fear still in us.

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