mquail stated...
The photo is real and was taken by Chadden Hunter in Canada's Wood Buffalo National Park
http://www.wildlifeartjournal.com/bl...ack-train.html
So I am curious. How is it that the wolves in the OP image are any threat to elk in Wyoming some 1100 miles away? It would appear that the entire basis of this thread is centered around incorrect information - using a misattributed image of a large wolf pack that isn't even the same subspecies about which folks are complaining.
I am pretty sure that the elk populations are not what they were in the early 1800's before man moved into their territory.
In North America, 'man' has been in elk territory for at least the last 12,000 years or so. Those involved in the largely anglo-oriented 1800s Manifest Destiny were not the first humans into the elk territory and not even the first westerners there. Historically, elk had a near bi-coastal distribution and were encountered by early French and Spanish explorers in Georgia, Louisiana, New Mexico, and California (and probably in several other states as well). Many of these explorations were soon followed by settlements in elk territory well prior to the 1800s.
and I cant believe the level of ignorance here. the indigenious wolves of the contiguous US are red wolves. lone hunters, high infant mortality rates, a good 30-50 pounds lighter than gray wolves and they didn't carry disease. they were little more than coyotes.
Well that makes two of us given that your statement about red wolves is incorrect. Gray wolves are here naturally, entering the New World near the end of the Pleistocene along with a variety of other animals that are considered indigenous to North America. Red wolves never roamed the contiguous US, but were largely limited to the easter portion of the US and up into Canada. Red wolves are not special or magical in any way when it comes to disease. They suffer pretty much the full range of diseases common to many mammals and in particular to canids.
You are right in that red wolves are one of the smaller varieties and they often do hunting singly. This is because their primary prey are smaller animals such as rabbits and rodents. They also pair hunt and they will pack hunt, however, when trying to take larger prey such as deer.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/red-wolf-facts.html
http://library.fws.gov/Pubs4/endangered_red_wolves.pdf
http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/redwolf.htm
If by your what you said you are suggesting that gray wolves are not indigenous to the United States because they originated in the Old World and came to the New World at the end of the Pleistocene, hence the gray wolves don't belong here, then neither do the elk that are the focus of the OP. Elk also entered the New World along with Gray Wolves at the end of the Pleistocene.
pictures of the old timers with wolves are pictures of red wolves, not gray wolves. if they weren't in black and white then maybe some people could open their eyes to the stupidity that was the introduction of gray wolves to the US.
You know, there were a lot of biologists and naturalists documenting North American wildlife back at least as far as the 1700s and before photography, and there are no red wolf records from the western US, but there were plenty of gray wolves. See...
http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/3747/0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_wolf#Fossil_and_historic_record
Also see...
Hall and Kelson's
Mammals of North America which is a compendium of traits, documented ranges, and marginal records as well.
http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/VHAYSSEN/msi/pdf/i0076-3519-022-01-0001.pdf
http://www.science.smith.edu/msi/pdf/i0076-3519-037-01-0001.pdf