This is from Alan Gregory’s Conservation News Blog. Why is Butch [Otter] afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He has been a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and also its President. For many years he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
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Just my guess. But Clement (his real name) went to parochial school when he was growing up and that theology has often equated the wolf with the devil over its history. Coupled with being nick named Clem Kadiddlehopper in school, and picked on by the school bullies I can see how Clem could form a subconscious correlation to bullies, big bad wolves, evil, and him, in his fantasy world, being the next Saint George the dragon (wolf) slayer. On the other hand maybe I’m just reading too many press releases from Wyoming’s legislature.
Butch had some good points. People who have never hunted before cant really speculate how much pressure predators put on elk and deer. There are alot of reasons Idaho’s elk herds are struggling. And wolves are one of the main reasons. Not only through eating them but they also interfere with the breeding season. I have hunted elk for nearly 15 years and the Rut is a huge factor to the health of a elk herd. They need to be able to breed with as little interference as possible. The bulls bugle during the rut. Which you can hear for miles. Which attracts wolves. Which in turn chase them around as prey. If that continually happens throughout the rut then you will have late births in the spring which will mean high calf mortalitys in the fall. I believe that wolves have a place in the wild. But they need to be managed just like every other predator. Just like cougars, bears, coyotes everything.
I believe Jeff E may be onto something here.
THEN, just imagine what Clement, err … Butch … Otter had to do (over-react even more) when he reached late adolescence and found out that being “Butch” had yet another nuanced meaning in another sub-culture … and since he likely reviled THAT sub-culture … only further manly exhibitionism could save him from being thought a “sissy .
Poor Butch, only by blasting away at wild animals can he deal with these male ego insecurity problems …
OR……. What did the sisters know when the attached that moniker to Clem that they thought made it apropos