*Wolves are doctors of the land. Today, in America these doctors are being decimated at an accelerated rate.

This is a heartbreaking bloodbath. What man does to the wolves, he does to himself.

No wolves. No forests. No life.

These admirable four-legged doctors maintain biological diversity (including foxes, beavers, otters, songbirds, ravens, raptors and so many other creatures) within the web of forested life. It’s the seal of Nature’s rich pageantry.

Wolves do this by keeping populations of their prey (deer, sheep, caribou, moose) in-check. That is, they cull the old, the weak and the sick from the herd thereby enhancing its fitness.

The presence of these awesome doctors protects streamside vegetation (and millions of tree roots, and trillions of fungi, bacteria, microbes, soil fauna and flora) from overgrazing by large herbivores, or, plant eaters. Wolves safeguard the freshwater by ensuring that healthy riparian, or, riverbank, soils intercept any man-made poisons and protect the waterways. It’s Nature’s perfect filtration system.

By protecting the vegetation from overgrazing these doctors of the land even help guide the meandering course of rivers. We know this from the reintroduction, in 1995, of wolves into Wyoming’s breathtaking Yellowstone National Park.

1995 reintroduction of wolves into Wyoming’s breathtaking Yellowstone National Park.”

Before I was born, man callously used steel-jawed leg traps, helicopters, snowmobiles and high-powered sniper rifles to exterminate all wolves. The late conservationist and animal kingdom superhero Farley Mowat best explained man’s deranged slaughter of these glorious masterpieces in his 1963 classic book “Never Cry Wolf.”

“We have doomed the wolf not for what 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 the reflected image of ourselves. We have made it the scapegoat for our sins.”

Beginning in 1973, wolves in America were rescued from the brink of extinction by the Endangered Species Act. Populations began to slowly rebound.

In 2011, the federal government began handing the states the responsibility of protecting the wolves. All hell has subsequently broken loose.

Since then, conservationists from Predator Defense reported that more than 5,000 wolves have been annihilated in seven of the lower 48 states.

Infuriatingly, the lust for canine blood is far worse in Alaska. Each year since 2012, the state of Alaska’s intensive “management” plans massacred 1,450 masterpieces for a total of 8,700 wolves.

Hideous.

The loss of one breeding wolf can decimate a pack. No denning or pupping nor dispersing, instead the population quickly crashes. In addition, the loss of an alpha female means her ecological wisdom is forgone unless she successfully taught her juveniles.

For example, in Alaska’s magnificent Denali National Park, the Toklet pack learned to hunt the agile Dall’s sheep on steep rocky terrain by cutting off their escape route. These clever doctors would wait for a couple days on the steep slopes to ambush their prey.

In the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, the alpha Toklet male, female and her two adult daughters were brutally snared. The remaining juveniles were incapable of killing the Dall’s because they were too young, lacking the survival skills and wisdom of the elders.

That localized ecological Toklet wisdom was lost forever. Knowingly dismantling the web of life is evil.

Recently, Washington State issued a death notice for the Profanity Peak wolfpack because they fed upon cattle. Utter madness.

The Trump administration has greenlighted murdering Alaskan bear cubs in their dens. Shooting caribou whilst swimming and slaying denning wolves and their pups as well as “sportsmen hunting” using airplanes, helicopters and snowmobiles.

In reality, there are just not enough living masterpieces left in the midst of this accelerated man-driven Sixth Mass Extinction to appease the sanctimonious, power-crazed, psychopathic “sportsmen” planet-killers.

What we are witnessing is a disgusting reminder of perverse corruption with an insatiable appetite for living creatures. There is no logical justification whatsoever for the destruction of our priceless brothers and sisters in the animal kingdom. Nothing survives from impoverishment.

Real men make time and spend the effort of being in Nature, leaving no footprints, getting up close with living creatures and taking a picture. If they feel the need for prowess then they can procure a billboard to post their stunning masterpiece and share it with others.

Support the important conservation work of Predator Defense because they are protecting the doctors of the land, the wolves.

It’s high time for everyone to consume less and love our mother, Nature, more. We need the wolves; the wolves do not need us. Wake-up America, 13,700 wolves were massacred in just six years. Insanity!

#FightForThePlanet

# Resist

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Dr Reese Halter is an award-winning broadcaster, distinguished conservation biologist and author.

Dr Reese Halter’s latest book is

Love! Nature

Tweet @RelentlessReese

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