Let’s say a ranch hand makes about $30,000 a year, which is $2,500 a month. Let’s also assume a calf is worth about $1,250. If wolves, bears or mountain lions kill a calf, that’s half a month’s salary. Twenty-four calves are a salary for a year. Loss of livestock has real consequences for real people.
Wolves, bears and lions do kill cattle, sheep and other livestock, along with big game like elk (see WLJ, April 19, 2021). Wolves have begun to recolonize Colorado and are killing cattle there (see WLJ, March 28, 2022). The state of Colorado plans to deliberately bring more wolves into Colorado, which is of serious concern to stockmen, outfitters and hunters. Wolves are now a federal endangered species in Colorado, so preventing them from killing livestock will probably be prohibited or severely restricted, and stockmen will lose cattle, sheep and money.
Wolves are not an endangered species in Montana (as part of the Northern Rocky Mountain population), and the state has had wolf hunting and trapping seasons since 2009 after wolves were removed from the endangered species list. This has stabilized wolf numbers and reduced predation on livestock. The 2020 state population estimate was 1,177 wolves, and a total of 138 wolves were harvested during the spring, and 167 wolves were harvested during the fall, for a total of 305 wolves killed by hunters and trappers. That’s about 25 percent of the population harvested in a year.
2019
2020
2021
Average killed per year
Cattle
Sheep
Cattle
Sheep
Cattle
Sheep
Cattle
Sheep
Grizzly bear
96
67
92
15
152
27
113
36
Wolf
56
21
60
49
64
15
60
28
Mountain lion
3
86
3
32
1
107
2
75
Total
155
174
155
96
217
149
175
139
In 2019, 2020 and 2021, an average of 113 cattle and 36 sheep were killed by grizzly bears per year; 60 cattle and 28 sheep were killed by wolves per year; and two cattle and 75 sheep were killed by lions per year. As noted above, these numbers are underestimated because they are only the losses reported and verified. Also, livestock losses are concentrated in some of Montana’s 56 counties. In 2020 for example, of the 60 cattle killed by wolves, 24 head (40 percent) were in two counties (Lewis and Clark County and Madison County). Grizzly bears killed the most cattle—grizzlies do not currently occur in Colorado—and lions killed the most sheep.
I think the most important insight from this Montana data is that managing wolves with hunting, trapping and government-sanctioned removal of wolves that kill livestock can reduce livestock losses. Nonlethal deterrents, such as guard dogs, burros and hazing, might also help. See the allowable deterrents for grizzly bears from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. However, serious, professional management is needed to regulate wolf numbers and distribution and to protect livestock. All emotion aside, it’s basic ecology and wildlife management that wolf populations will go up and down in number, and wolves die naturally from starvation, disease and conflicts with other wolves. Hunting, trapping and population control are other sources of mortality, which are fully justified to manage populations. Thinking that killing wolves is bad but letting them die naturally is good is irrational.
There is a lot of public support for wolves, and the Endangered Species Act includes strict regulations about dealing with wolves. Preventing their spread may be impossible in many areas, such as Colorado, and they will have to be dealt with. In this regard, limiting wolves’ impact on livestock is an obvious objective that should be demanded by politicians and implemented by state and federal livestock and wildlife agencies. Stockmen, like loggers, miners, oilmen and farmers working on the land, deal with nature’s droughts, floods, blizzards and wildlife impacting crops and livestock every day. They should be allowed to manage these forces with assistance from the government to whom they pay taxes. — Dr. Matt Cronin
(Matthew Cronin was a research professor at the University of Alaska and is now a scientist at Northwest Biology Company LLC in Bozeman, MT. He can be reached at croninm@aol.com. A full list of references can be found at wlj.net.)
Inman, B., et al. 2020. Montana Gray Wolf Conservation and Management 2020 Annual Report. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Helena, Montana.
Montana Department of LivestockLivestock Loss Statistics 2020 (mt.gov)
April 19, 2021 WLJResource Science: An assessment of wolf numbers, predation in CO | Top Headlines | wlj.net
April 8 2020 WLJ Resource Science: Livestock losses to wolves | Resource Science | wlj.net
March 28, 2022 WLJCO turns to burros to prevent wolf depredations | Top Headlines | wlj.net
News article on wolf predation on cattleWolves In Colorado: North Park Rancher Loses 2 Cows In 2 Days, Says His ‘Hands Are Tied’ – CBS Denver (cbslocal.com)
Grizzly bear deterrence methodsMicrosoft Word – Grizzly Bear Deterrence Techniques_August 2017 (mt.gov)
