wolf hunt

The wolf  is a predator of primarily moose, elk, and deer. All biological and social aspects of the wolf make it adapted for this role.  In general, wolves depend upon large mammals for food year round. They have, however, been known to eat almost every available type of small prey, including small mammals, birds, snakes and lizards, fish, and even insects and earthworms. Grass and berries too are sometimes eaten but none of these items can be regarded as making a significant contribution to the diet. In northern Minnesota that means deer.   Smaller mammals can be an important alternative in the snow-free months. These small mammals include beaver, marmots, ground squirrels, snowshoe hare, pocket gophers, and voles. 
  On an average, wolves eat 9 pounds of meat per wolf per day during winter. Although the wolf is capable of eating large quantities of food in a short time, such quantities are not always available. Thus, wolves may have to go for several days at a time without eating. Wolves probably could fast for periods of two weeks or more while searching for vulnerable prey. When food is available, wolves can replenish themselves to prepare for another period of fasting. With its large stomach capacity, the wolf seems well adapted for this cycle of feasting and extended fasting.

The frequency of kills by a wolf pack varies tremendously, depending on many factors including pack size, diversity, density, and vulnerability of prey, snow conditions, and degree of utilization of the carcasses. Because the wolf's prey varies in size from small mammals to beaver to bison, the kill rate of each species varies according to the amount of food each provides. In Minnesota, where wolves eat white-tailed deer almost exclusively, estimated kill rates range from 15-19 deer per wolf per year. 400 x 19 = 7600 deer a year. 

This year Minnesota established a licensed wolf hunt.  There is an ongoing debate about whether wolves deplete deer populations in a significant manner, enough to keep humans from getting their hunting share. This belief has resulted in much "wolf control" throughout the decades.This is what I found on the internet about this subject.  Read and judge for yourself.   What kills most deer is winter itself (winter-kill). Humans also kill more deer, and are more likely to deplete populations, than wolves do. Why are humans more likely to deplete populations than wolves? To answer this question I'll examine a basic ecological principle which distinguishes modern humans from other animals. This principle states that any predator has a prey image, or images, in mind during a hunt, and as a particular prey declines due to continued hunting, the predator switches prey images to hunt a more abundant prey. This period gives prey time to "bounce back", increasing their numbers, at which time the predator may switch back to the original prey image. Likewise, wolves are more likely to turn to a more plentiful food source and might even starve before they would deplete deer populations to dangerously low levels. Early humans probably also hunted in this manner. Unfortunately, modern humans continue to target a depleted animal, either for sport, for tradition, for economic gain (often the rarer the animal becomes the greater the financial reward), or to feed ever increasing human populations until it becomes threatened, endangered, or extinct.

While wolf predation is one component of total annual mortality in many deer populations, and they may keep some prey species at a low level if they are already low and other limiting factors exist, wolf predation of larger deer populations usually results in smaller fluctuations in deer numbers over the years. Wolves and deer have survived over millions of years in a balance, and through all their prey-predator interactions, they have made each other stronger and better adapted to their environments.

I'll have to stop in at Gander Mountain to see and hear how the hunt is going.