Wolves have made an astounding comeback in the last decade. From 66 wolves reintroduced, there are now over 1200 wolves running through the Rockies.  There are more than 4000 living in the Great Lakes region. Wolves are smart and when given the opportunity to survive, they thrive. However, people living in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming aren't thrilled with this comeback and are already presenting plans on hunting and controlling the wolf population once they are removed from the endangered species list.   

I find this whole situation very interesting. Wolves were almost driven to extinction along with the American Bison at the turn of the century.  Now we have brought them back from the brink, just as we brought back the Bison. Bison has become a favored meat. Wolves...there are still a lot of high emotions about the existence of wolves. Farmers don't like them because they claim they kill their cows. Hunters don't like them because they claim they kill off the elk.  While wolves are hunters, they don't kill everything they see. They lose out when they hunt more often than they are successful.  They help cull out the old, the sick and the weak. This is the way nature was designed.

Here in Virginia, we killed off the predators and we have to hunt now to keep the deer population in check or else they come into the town areas looking for food and destroy gardens, landscaping efforts and increase the number of car accidents.  But how do you keep a balance? Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana all have plans to try to do this. I wish them much success. We have changed the natural balance of our world simply by our presence. It is an honorable thing to want to try to restore it. For more information, here is the link to the rest of the article.

If you are reading a historical fiction book about the feelings regarding wolves and how they have been hunted, I recommend The Loop by Nicholas Evans. I am about 1/4 of the way into it and it makes for fascinating reading.