LETTER: Misleading factless, senseless

Jim Hollingsworth's wolf eradication letter, Sept. 8, is misleading, factless, senseless and ignorant.

Hollingsworth - People/Wolves don't mix. Wolves will kill people. Fact - Last 100 years one person killed by wolves due to habituation; Paul Paquet, Wolf Biologist, University of Calgary.

Less than 20 people attacked by wolves; Doug Smith PHD, Head Yellowstone Wolf Recovery Project. Person in wolf country, greater chance being hit by lightning, dying of bee sting than injured by wolf; IDFG News Release, Jim Lukens, April 6.

Hollingsworth - Wolves add nothing to ecosystem. John Varley PHD, Director Yellowstone Center for Resources - Ecologically wolf reintroduction most exciting thing in parks history.

Wolves may prove as fundamental to Yellowstone life as water to Everglades. Biologists - Wolves play important role in nature, presence enhances biodiversity, healthy ecosystems.

Sources - Smith, Peterson, Houston, Bioscience 55 (4); Ripple, Beschta, Forest Ecology & Management 200; Curlee, Minta, Kareiva, Carnivores in Ecosystems.

Hollingsworth - Wolves kill all deer, elk then starve. Fact - Wolves, deer, elk co-existed thousands of years before human intervention. John Varley - Wolf kills generally well consumed. Sometimes wolves surplus kill more than consume.

If undisturbed, driven off, by humans have seen wolves return to kill two/three times, feeding, up to three weeks. Scott Creel, Biologist, Montana State University - Given time predator/prey populations stabilize. Change most dramatic in beginning then numbers settle. No predator has ever eliminated its food.

Enough said!

PHIL POUTRE

Cocolalla