Are wolves to blame for the deer decline in Northern Minnesota
This story first aired on WDIO News on December 21, 2023
The Minnesota deer harvest was down across the state during the 2023 season, especially in the Northeast region.
“This last season, we had about 25,000 deer killed by hunters, and that’s 21% down from the previous year and 37% below the five year average,” said Minnesota DNR Large Carnivore Specialist Dan Stark.
The lower success rate has resulted in some frustrated hunters.
“We hear a lot of reports of deer camps that have been around for generations that just don’t exist anymore. Just people are unfortunately throwing in the towel on this great tradition that we have in the state,” said Minnesota Deer Hunters Association Executive Director Jared Mazurek.
In September, the Sturgeon River Chapter of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association (MDHA) put up a billboard that placed the blame on the wolf population, stating that wolves devour over 54,000 fawns a year.
This claim has been disputed by multiple sources, including the Voyageurs Wolf Project.
“It’s not very clear where that number came from,” Voyageurs Wolf Project Project Lead Tom Gable said. “There’s very little research done on wolf predation on deer farms, and to our knowledge, there’s really no scientific peer reviewed studies that have described the number of fawns a typical wolf kills during the summer or throughout the whole year. So how an organization could reach a number that’s supposed to represent the state sort of statewide, Wolf population is perplexing.”
The billboard was not approved by the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association due to the lack of proof behind the number. The MDHA does, however, support the intent behind the billboard.
“We need wolf management. We need management of all species for the benefit of all species,” said Mazurek. “We support the message. We want to see wolf management in the state, but we don’t know how many fawns are killed each year by wolves.”
The billboard was taken down, but the public debate continues.
Federal law currently prohibits wolves from being hunted, but the legal status of hunting wolves has changed many times.
The Minnesota DNR administered two wolf hunting and trapping seasons in 2012-2014. The decision on whether to have a wolf hunt again will not be made until the species is delisted.
Both the DNR and Voyageurs Wolf Project believe there has not been a significant population increase as hunters claim.
“There’s wolf research going back to the 1970s and 1980s, and basically all the research that’s occurred, including our own, suggests that the area has sustained sort of a dense, stable wolf population for several decades,” explained Gable. “And stable doesn’t mean that there’s not changes through time, but it means that there’s not sort of an increasing or decreasing trend over time.
Wolves do not occur across the state. An estimated 2700 wolves occupy around 31 counties in northern Minnesota.
“The largest or highest number we ever estimated was about 3020, and that was in the early 2000s, about the same time that we had a higher, higher deer population and higher hunter success,” explained Stark.
Gable added that if the wolves were eating too many deer, it would be unlikely to see the population hold steady or increase.
“No animal can continue to persist at the same level while their food source is just plummeting. It just doesn’t happen,” Gable explained. “And they don’t just eat deer. They eat rabbits and everything else. In the summer in particular, their diets are very varied. Just because there’s a lot of different food sources, then in the wintertime, their diets get a bit narrower because they’re really going after deer at that time.”
According to the DNR, wintertime may be the most to blame for the decline in deer populations- over wolves or other predators.
The past couple of winters saw extreme snowfall, even setting a record last year. As the Winter Severity Index (WSI) shows, the Arrowhead region had the most severe winter in the area. It was also the region with the greatest decline in hunters’ deer kills this past hunting season.
For the full story, please visit www.wdio.com/weather-news/are...
Пікірлер: 45
Why spend all that money on hunting deer if there are no deer. Everyone loses.
@stevenmiddagh6265
5 ай бұрын
Yup, I gave it up two years ago in Minnesota. Now I go to Montana every year.
Steve Porter is no whitetail deer expert. He's a deer farmer who thinks CWD is fake and actively ignores guidlines for it. I would value his word on wolf managment as much as my dogs waste.
@dhand34
5 ай бұрын
Yeah he’s a Bubba
Get video close to town showing them go into the woods with peoples pets.
@beccagirly9397
5 ай бұрын
Don't leave you pets outside in an unsafe area where wolves can get them. Humans have gotta way to comfortable at the cost of predators' lives. It nature, take precautions.
So just WHY is there the tolerance of wolves WHY Duh to the Federal Government ??
@markpiersall9815
15 күн бұрын
It is a multi-billion dollar livestock insurance industry scam. In 1995 Livestock Insurance was zip, in 2023 it was $3 billion and expected to exceed $6 billion by 2030. Gray Wolves are known Man-eaters.
MN can keep the wolves!
@BigOlSmokey
5 ай бұрын
To bad they have taken over in wisconsin aswell
Umm .. duh. Way, way too many wolves.
YES
So how did we have 6000 in 2012?
Make sure they understand your money spent will go to other states and your sLes taxes are gone.
According to 1 study done by state of Montana that 1 wolf needs about 20 deer per year to flourish. The state of Mn has more wolves than any other state in the lower 48. We did have 3 severe winters but there’s has to be managed
@ivangranger8494
5 ай бұрын
That was weather warfare. That, plus all the wolves has done damage. I don’t walk my roads anymore. Deer kills, regularly. Now it looks like someone lost a dog, as piles of excrement with either animal sweater or leash/harness in the piles. The name of the road should be named wolf excrement, Drive.
@yougonnaeatthat9889
5 ай бұрын
It's actually 40-45 large game animals per year per Apex predator to survive. Montana estimates 1500 wolves currently and 60,000 prey taken by them per year. This doesn't include predation by coyotes bobcats or bears.
@WarrenDay-we9do
2 ай бұрын
20 deer a year compared to 147 deer a year killed by hunters? Wolf packs eat one kill per week. That's their god-given right. What right does egoistic man have to interfere upon nature just to hunt for sport?
@ivangranger8494
2 ай бұрын
@@WarrenDay-we9do They are eating pets and live stock, and becoming unafraid of humans. Do you live in Minnesota? Will you donate your body to the ripping apart by wolves so a study can be done on it? I’m sick of my roads being blanketed in wolf excrement. Do you have that all over your street or road? Can you go for a walk or run freely without the fear of wolves shredding you in seconds? As the Senator in Wyoming questioned, “WHO decided there should be thousands of wolves in an area, the size of Minnesota? The wolf packs are so big a deer a week or more are being killed just here. Multiply that be wolf packs seen with 17 in the pack. We are going into spring with three surviving ( in this second) deer, yearlings. The rest were eaten at birth last summer, and continuously up to now. Every doe killed now, is two to three deer at one time depending on how many fawns she is carrying, or already lost to excrement roads.
We have had the same problem in Wisconsin for years,less deer and deer hunters
When they don't have a collar, they look like healthy coyotes to me!
Listen to Deer Talk Now Podcast#86 Where are all the deer. A good starting point.
Yes absolutely
Weather does not need cloud seeding as I see nearly, everyday.
We see the dead deer everywhere and we see more wolves than ever and they are not afraid of us.
Duh!
It isn't just wolves it's coyote, bobcat taking fawn and full grown deer.
I’ll answer for you. Yes.
Nobody is stupid enough to listen to the joke called the dnr
They're devouring the Denver Nuggets lol. 🏀
So if there is no recocnishen by the state they are no season so get thermal and clean up the problem before they can keep you from takeing care of your lively hood i stead of the tree huggers trying to reconstruct the area as a wild life unit with people moved into it.
People bitching about wolves affecting hunting also probably never heard the study that deer and elk move to lands that aren't hunted during the season and stay put. You can't kill off the dumbest in a population and then be surprised that 100 years later you're stuck with really smart prey...plus those deer camps probably made hunting tough for the locals and they stopped. In my experience that's why my family stopped hunting. We only had access to land after the landowners from WI went through and hunted. We would be spotting before they drove up and would see a bunch of deer, then after the party went through and drank and missed shots like crazy, we wouldn't see a deer there for weeks. Hunting isn't meant to bring money into an area, it's meant for people to fill their freezer with cheap meat. The industry is now commercialized and sucks for middle wage hunters. Nothing is because of the wolves except lowered coyote numbers
@rweisele
5 ай бұрын
Another drip that isn't willing to open his eyes that wolves kill deer where ever they live, and they kill them in such huge numbers that the deer population is soon decimated. The western states will tell you that fact, here in Wyoming the wolves have removed all the elk and deer from some units entirely. Hunting has had nothing to do with it, the tags for those units are unavailable.
Between coyotes and wolves hear in the UP of Michigan we have the same problem, my solution quit buying hunting licence and the DNR will do something! It's all about the money folks!!!
@yougonnaeatthat9889
5 ай бұрын
Actually your playing into the antihunters hand. They want you to quit so their wolves and bears have food. They would ban hunting for everything right now if they could so you quitting is one less person they gotta worry about.
@WarrenDay-we9do
2 ай бұрын
@@yougonnaeatthat9889 bears and wolves have a right to food in the wild more so than greedy hunters do!
Wolf populations haven't changed for 20 some years by any substantial amount. Complaining about animals hunting animals while you're hunting animals is ridiculous.
Gable was the only expert and he has the credentials. The deer guy is a clown
SAME IN THE U,P. MICH.