× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

Editor:

There has been much publicity recently about 19 elk (17 were calves from 2015) killed in a single night by wolves at the McNeel feedground near Bondurant. This publicity has been accompanied by considerable hand wringing, teeth gnashing and crocodile tears from state wildlife officials and outfitters over the wolves killing for "sport" and not even eating their kills. It should be made clear that wolves do not kill for "sport." Human hunters kill for "sport", not wolves. Wolves may make "surplus" kills being opportunistic carnivores, if prey species are by geography, age groups, or behavior placed in vulnerable positions (such as artificial concentrations at feedgrounds).

However wolves have no intention of not consuming these kills. Unless displaced from such a surplus kill site, they will return again and again until the prey species are completely consumed.

Even if wolves are completely driven from the area, the carcasses, if left in place, will eventually be consumed by other predators, scavengers, microorganisms, etc. and these deaths will be reincorporated into the fertility of the ecosystem.