Letter to the Editor: Dead wolves don’t learn

Source: Alaska Highway News

March 8, 2016 

Thank you for publishing the letter ‘Wolf cull a good idea’ (Alaska Highway News, March 3, 2016). I can only imagine how unnerving it would be to have an animal as powerful as a wolf stride out to watch me at a work place.
But I question whether a cull is the way to stay safe. Dead wolves, of course, don’t learn. And unless the remaining pack mates connect the agent of destruction of their family member (helicopter, high powered rifle) with humans, there wouldn’t be any learning at all.
It is important to keep wolves wild, and apprehensive or afraid of humans. But we don’t need to fragment packs and cause suffering to do so.
To stay safe in wolf country: make noise, travel in groups when possible, don’t draw wolves in by baiting deer and other prey, shoot over them if you are armed. They can learn if they’re alive.
 
Chris Albert, Lebanon Junction, Kentucky

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