Wolves take toll on cattle during study

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...more