Letter based on myths and fears

I am writing in response to the letter from Jim Hollingsworth (Sept. 7, Daily Bee) asking for the eradication of all wolves from Idaho.

First of all, I have never seen Mother Goose used as a reference but there’s your first clue that the rest of the letter is based on myths and fear; not facts. 

Wildlife biologists have closely followed the lives of the wolves reintroduced into Yellowstone and were no less than amazed at all the beneficial effects the wolves had on their environment and to their fellow wildlife. The first 10 years of those studies were chronicled in “Decade of the Wolf; Returning the Wild to Yellowstone” by Douglas Smith & Gary Ferguson.

Man absolutely cannot replace wolves in an ecosystem; human hunters do not seek out the weakest animals because the stronger ones put them at too much risk for injury. Men are not out there 24/7, 352 days a year, keeping ungulates on the move so they don’t overgraze or overbrowse their own habitat, and they do not leave the same leftovers for other species that a wolf would. Are they a thrill to catch a glimpse of, and awesome to listen to howling at night? Well, that at least could be up for debate.

As for danger to humans; in all of North America, only two people have been killed by wolves in the last 100-plus years. Can you say that about any other predator? Or big game animal? Even moose, elk and deer have killed more people!

ANN SYDOW

Athol