WERE 19 ELK REALLY KILLED BY WOLVES?

UPDATE on 4/16/16  Wolves Kill 19 SICK Elk

You have to be careful about what you see and then believe on social media, even National Geographic (presumably reliable) will post a photo and a snippet of information and leave the rest up to everyones imagination.

Over the last few days this photo has been making its way around the internet and with this title in big bold letters Wolf Pack Slaughters 19 Elk in Rare 'Surplus Killing'

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160325-wolf-pack-kills-19-wolves-surplus-killing-wyoming/

These elk were killed by wolves on the McNeel Elk Feedground near Bondurant, Wyoming.

As far as I know this picture is legit, wolves did kill these elk.  What the photo doesn't tell us is why.

Wildlife biologists have noted the rare occurrence of surplus killings by wolves and other predators in the past and of course that is something you'll read in the latest articles coming out about this incident, that surplus killing is RARE, but what you won't read is why they are rare and what causes it.

For starters, surplus killing simply means killing more than one needs.  It is killing in excess of what a predator will eat.  Sometimes the predator will return at a later time to consume what was not eaten and other times they just leave what they killed.  As for wolves this behavior, when it occurs, is nearly always around livestock.  There are a few theories as to why this happens, the most common being that when prey animals are huddled in a small space they tend to run in circles when afraid which triggers a prey response in wolves.  For an animal to defend itself against a wolf it would need to rely on its natural defenses which domesticated livestock tend to lack.  Wild elk should be able to defend themselves had they not been conditioned by humans to hang around a feedlot. Yes, the location of this kill is a winter feeding ground for elk.  These elk were killed on a feedlot.

Feedlots (where hay and alfalfa pellets are put out) are set up for wild elk all over the state of Wyoming.  Why would anyone do that you ask… because they want the elk to survive the winter so hunters can kill them come fall hunting season and it also keeps the elk off the land that livestock producers want for themselves and unlike your typical wild elk, those being fed on these lots have been conditioned to depend on humans for winter survival.  So instead of learning how to fend for themselves and use their natural instincts (being agile and alert) to avoid predators, they congregate unnaturally at these feedlots which makes them easy targets for wolves.

Here is what a feedlot looks like

If you want to survive being eaten by a predator you don't want to remain idle in a group.

Wolves are opportunistic hunters.  If you're going to make their meal easy to get, they'll take it.  You also have to remember that wolves are one of natures perfect creations, a keystone species necessary to maintain a balanced healthy ecosystem.  One way wolves maintain that balance is to manage the prey numbers.  They don't kill for sport, they kill to eat and a surplus killing is nothing more than a reaction to an imbalance in a natural environment. Elk huddled together not alert and reacting normally to the presence of a predator isn't typical so it elicits an unnatural response from the wolf.  So why is this newsworthy? It isn't.

Does the media tell us when zooplankton participates in a surplus killing? Did it make worldwide news when a fox in Australia killed eleven wallabies and 74 penguins, eating none? No.  Why then is the media running wild with this story if it is such a rare occurrence?  Because... there is a push once again to remove wolves from the Endangered Species List.  Ranchers, farmers, trophy hunters, and just very ignorant individuals are out for blood when it comes to the wolf.  The wolf is scapegoat for the idiocy of man.

A surplus kill nearly always happens when the prey are plentiful and easily accessible to the predator. Examples: hyenas on a goat farm, fox in a hen house,  cats near a bird feeder…

Who made the elk easy to to kill? Not the wolf.  Who conditioned the elk not to follow its wild instincts? Not the wolf.  Man caused the death you see in the photograph above but the wolf will take the fall for it.

“We have doomed the wolf not for what it is, but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be –the mythologized epitome of a savage ruthless killer – which is, in reality, no more than a reflected image of ourself.”

― Farley Mowat, Never Cry Wolf

The reality is surplus killing by predators; wolves, bears, hyenas, fox, orcas, spiders, lions, etc… is very rare but it does happen and the reasons cannot always be explained. This rarity doesn't put our prey animals at risk of extinction nor is it a concern for humans.  So next time you see this story shared on social media let people know it is a lame attempt by the anti-wolf crowd to turn people against the wolf so special interest groups and ignorant people get their way in removing legal protection for this majestic keystone species.

Truth About Wolf Surplus Killing