Wolves: Helping Put The Hunt Back Into Hunting

An overabundance of elk and deer has negative consequences to the habitat that sustains elk, deer and other wildlife. Herds kept in check by wild predators are healthier herds.

Everything hunters claim to love about elk and deer -- their speed, their agility, their intelligence, their wariness -- came about through co-adaptation and co-evolution with predators. Wolves helped make elk and deer what they are. You can't love elk and deer without loving wolves.You can't love the wilds while hating a critical component of the wilds -- a wild animal that is the very essence of wildness.

The return of wolves has brought wildness back in elk and deer, and wild elk and deer are difficult to hunt; it takes knowledge, skill and effort -- traits sadly lacking in most modern-day hunters. Most hunters have no clue how to hunt. Instead of trying to learn, they blame wolves for their lack of skill, knowledge and effort.

Most hunters are obsessed with the latest gadgets and technology -- rifles, bows, scopes, ballistics, camouflage patterns, scents, calls, trail-cameras, ATVs and so on -- and forget that hunting equipment is meant to compliment skill and knowledge, not replace it. They seem to know little about the wildlife and wild places they hunt. They seem to lack respect for the wildlife and wild places they hunt. They think they are hunters.

We need more hunters, and less ignorant people walking around the woods with bows and rifles. We need to put hunters and the hunt back into hunting.

Instead of persecuting wild wolves, let's be grateful for wild wolves for helping to put the hunt back into hunting.