Is it true that wolves tend to kill mainly the old, young, sick, and weak deer?
It is well documented that wolves tend to take mainly deer that are old, young, fat-depleted, starving, debilitated or injured. That is why they kill so many more deer during hard winters. • Are wolves harmful to deer hunting? Potentially they can be, but generally they are not. When deer in low densities are hindered by severe winters, wolves can help seriously reduce deer numbers. Otherwise, they have little effect on deer harvest rates. • What kind of evidence is there that wolves generally do not harm deer hunting? The best evidence is the continued high and increasing deer harvest in wolf range ever since wolves were protected and began increasing since the early 1970’s and throughout the 1980’s. • If wolves are killed, won’t this disrupt their genetic viability? Minnesota’s wolves are part of the massive Canadian population of about 35,000 – 60,000 wolves, and freely interchange breeders with that population. Even Isle Royale’s totally inbred population of 12-50 wolves has thrive
