A Project of Sage Steppe Wild
Alan Gregory covers the $150 bounty put on wolves in Alaska. Historically, bounties have always been controversial, and almost never worked as intended, even if you grant the legitimacy of their intent.
Alaska puts a bounty on wolves. Alan Gregory’s Conservation News.
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Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time 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.
Comments
thats more than the $25 they pay us for coyote ears.
This story is sad.
Why did they even do the Wolf reintroduction program if they were just going to kill them off in other areas?
It’s not a bounty, its an “incentive” 🙂
Elkhunter – am curious about the $25 for coyote ears. Please enlighten … thought this program had gone the way of shooting buffalo from trains.
Jordan,
When you shoot one, you cut off the ears and the state gives you $25. We killed about 75 last year I think. They are easy to get early in the fall, when the pups leave on their own, but after Christmas it is near impossible, they get very wise to calls and hunters. They just sit and bark at you. Would a wolf come to a distress call? I have never heard that they do, they mostly hunt them over baits I think. But coyotes are very smart animals, not like buffalo that just sit and stare, that could be the difference. You need to ask Ralph about how well coyotes survive. It is basically impossible to wipe out coyotes. They have tried forever, they keep surviving. But they are so fun to hunt, you should give it a try. In UT we hunt the crap out of them, have contests, shoot them on sight, and every year it seems like there are more than the year before. One of my most favorite animals to hunt the ole coyote!
Elkhunter
I do not think the majority of the public even in AK would buy off on wolf hunting, coyote hunting etc to fill someones “fun factor” Most hunters I respect eat what they kill.
It seems like in AK there is a strong group who now run the state game board and have the “ear” of the governor. They blatantly misinform the general public, ignore science, and get around previous laws that were voted in by the majority of Alaskans. I fly, I fish, and I used to hunt but people like Elk Hunter and the AK Game Board seem to represent the majority of hunters which I think are bad news.
Dave, you are way off in the night, you want to judge me because I hunt coyotes. We hunt them at the times the Fish and Game tells us willl benefit the proghorn fawns, and deer fawns. How is that giving hunters a bad name? I also eat what I kill. Though I dont eat a coyote. But I will shoot one on sight of course. You are entitled to your opinion, I think it is a little skewed, as you probably think that mine is skewed. In no way does the hunting of coyotes effect their populations where I live. They have been trying to exterminate them for decades with no luck. Read somethin about it. okay