Wolves take toll on cattle during study
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.
In 2009, 15 wolves were killed on the OX Ranch.
“It’s basically Idaho’s wolf plan that is going to be initiated in Washington, and the same thing is happening in Oregon,” he said. “Initially we would have 15 breeding pairs and 150 wolves in Idaho before being removed from endangered species list.”
Now, he said, there are over 100 breeding pairs, and about 1,500 wolves.
“If they would have been removed and numbers controlled at the proper level we wouldn’t be seeing the losses we have,” Anderson said.
About 250 people, many of them ranchers apprehensive about what the future may hold for their livestock operations in the face of a growing population of wolves, attended the May 22 forum.
“Where we are at, this is just the beginning in Oregon, with one confirmed pack of 10 or 12 wolves,” said Bill Hoyt, president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, which sponsored the forum along with the Eastern Oregon University Range Club.
The forum was especially timely in view of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s current five-year review of Oregon’s Wolf Conservation and Management Plan. The ODFW is accepting public comments through June 30.
Jim Beers, former chief of national wildlife refuge operations for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, spoke about the politics of the wolf introduction and offered some perspective on what it is like for livestock producers to live with large numbers of wolves, both historically and today in various parts of the world.
“How do they grow livestock in Europe and Asia? They have a lot of wolves there, a higher density in Central Asia than in western Montana. They don’t have big herds or big flocks. In northern Italy, every flock I saw had a shepherd with an old World War I Enfield over their shoulders, they were out there with the animals all day,” Beers said.
In Siberia, annual loses of domestic reindeer to wolves range from 30 to 40 percent, Beers said. He went on to emphasize numerous diseases they can be carried and spread by wolves, including tapeworm, rabies, brucellosis, anthrax and chronic wasting disease.
“I’m not a vet, I’m just saying these things should be looked into and discussed. If wolves are vectors, do we want them and where?” Beers said.