Iam fortunate enough to have hunted elk in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Colorado has the highest elk numbers of any state and I observed the huge herds regularly as a resident for seven years. They screamed their autumn bugles from the mountainsides. They gathered in vast herds in the lower flats when winter brought snow too deep for them to scratch down to where the nutritious dry grass waited quite unattainably. They crossed the highway in your headlights, surprising you that they were moving from one vast landscape of nothing but sagebrush to another seemingly identical one.

    Likewise, I found thriving herds in northern New Mexico and northeastern Utah. As in Colorado, autumn and early winter saw herds of 20 or 30 moving single file down sometimes snowy slopes to streams or ponds and lush grass that grew there on soils that had sifted down from the mountains for centuries and settled in the lowest spots. They fed and watered all night. Before dawn, the lead cow sensed impending daylight and led her group upslope, ever upward, their bellies now filled. They bedded in high thickets, the bulls at the lowest edge of the group because they had been last in line during the climb.

    This same ritual occurred of course in the other regions where elk lived.

    Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are popular elk hunting states where reintroduced wolves have sparked serious controversy; those who want widespread wolf numbers versus those who want protection from wolves for large game animals and livestock.

    A U.S. Government study shows one wolf will kill an average of two elk each month for food and two elk for unknown reason(s). One official states “We are losing 24,000 to 48,000 animals (elk) each year.” The cow elk to calf ratio is at its lowest in history, perhaps reflective of the wolf’s preference for newborn and unborn elk calves. Of course many grown elk, including large bulls, are killed by packs of wolves routinely. Video evidence can be found on Youtube. Some narration points out that wolves help the elk population by taking out the old and weakest animals. They do take the easiest to kill. But they also take far more healthy animals than weak ones, else how could they kill 24,000 elk each year?

    Wolves, like other carnivore predators, must kill in order to exist. Elk are relatively easy prey. They must kill high numbers in order to increase their own numbers. And this is what is happening in the northern Rocky Mountains. My last elk hunt was in west central Wyoming. My nephew and I hunted with a local man who had hunted the mountainous area for many years. He was used to collecting an elk regularly until wolves were reintroduced nearby. The three of us never got a shot during our hunt. I hunted many more days than the others who had to work part of the time. We glassed elk over a mile away a couple of times, a prohibitive distance because of deep snow.

    I found very few elk tracks and one wolf track. The hunt area was on the southern edge of the known wolf habitat where serious wolf predation would not normally be expected. We heard of several elk being taken by hunters nearby when a migration of a herd happened on one day. But we did not see it because we were hunting another ridge that day.

    Of course one season’s hunt by the three of us is not a credible study. But when you know the elk population has been widely affected by wolves, the many hundreds of dollars spent to get there and get licensed only adds to the disappointment. Sitting in snow until dark in below freezing temperatures, watching a meadow where elk formerly gathered late in the day to feed, and evening after evening seeing only a couple of those jays we call camp robbers is paying a high price with no return.

    I like wolves. Their evening howls are one of natures wild and exciting sounds. But the facts are clear; you can’t have a lot of wolves and a lot of elk in the same area. The answer is obvious; apply proper management actions to each, which includes controlling wolf numbers.