Mosbach, October
2nd, 2001
Dear Mr. Krause,
we – four students of a German bilingual
biology class – are working on a project on the reintroduction of the gray
wolves in Yellowstone National Park. We have read your statement concerning the
Yellowstone Wolves Conflict and we have got further information on this topic
from different sources. After a long period of investigation, we decided to
state our opinion in this e-mail.
From the point of view of a farmer your arguments are quite convincing, but by studying your problems, we have found a lot of possibilities to refute them. There´s a great variety of ways to protect the livestock from wolves attacks. The most important step is to minimize situations that attract wolves to ranches. For example, when an animal dies, the carcass should be buried or burnt immediately to avoid the attraction of wolves. Farmers should also confine pregnant animals to areas close to occupied buildings during calving and lambing season.
By the way, cattle used to aggressiveness and good
mothering skills are better able to defend their babies against predators and if
cattle and sheep are pastured together, the sheep are offered some protection by
the cattle against predators. In areas where there´s a high density of wolves,
ranchers should keep closer tabs on livestock by patrolling their pastures more
often. A combination of guardian dogs and special fences could offer a higher
rate of safety.
All ranchers assume a certain level of risk that they
will lose livestock to illness, extreme weather conditions and predators. In the
rare cases, where wolves kill livestock, government agencies normally remove the
wolves and ranchers are reimbursed for their losses by a compensation fund. (In
northwestern Montana wolves were responsible for less than 0.0004% of all losses
caused by predators).
Before the wolves were released into Yellowstone
National Park they were acclimatized, which means they were kept in pens for
weeks, so they will claim the new area as their territory and are less likely to
stray from the park. Out of the wolves`fur birds build nests and wolves`dens are
used by further animals. Raven, foxes and many other animals eat the remains of
animals killed by wolves.
But the most important fact for us is the preservation
of the ecosystems. Where large predators are present, ecosystems are healthier,
more resilient, simply more complete. A perfect example of an out-of-balance
ecosystem was the Yellowstone National Park before the reintroduction of wolves
when huge populations of elk, deer and bison had caused dramatic changes in the
park´s vegetation. A minor important fact would also be the rising tourist
attraction in the Yellowstone National Park.
Although there would be a great amount of other points
to mention, we think that these are the most convincing to state our opinion.
With regard to these arguments you could perhaps re-think your judgement.
We are of the opinion that it is more important to
think about nature than about one´s personal concerns.
We will follow the developments in the Yellostone
Wolves Conflict further on.
Sincerely yours,
Kathrin, Julia, Tobias and Florian