The carnivores’ planned release in Colorado, voted for in a 2020 ballot measure, has sharpened divides between rural and urban residents.

Somewhere on a remote mountainside in Colorado’s Rockies, a latch flipped on a crate and a wolf bounded out, heading toward the tree line. Then it stopped short.

For a moment, the young female looked back at its audience of roughly 45 people who stared on in reverential silence. Then she disappeared into the forest.

She was one of five gray wolves wildlife officials released in a remote part of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains on Monday to kick off a voter-approved reintroduction program that was embraced in the state’s mostly Democratic urban corridor but staunchly opposed in conservative rural areas where ranchers worry about attacks on livestock.

…

It marked the start of the most ambitious wolf reintroduction effort in the U.S. in almost three decades and a sharp departure from aggressive efforts by Republican-led states to cull wolf packs. A judge on Friday night had denied a request from the state’s cattle industry for a temporary delay to the release.

  • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    413·
    11 months ago

    I can’t help but laugh because apparently Democrats have voted to release large predators into the parts of the state where Republicans live.

    • Neato@kbin.social
      332·
      11 months ago

      There’s risks to choosing to live away from other humans. North America is rampant with large predators: wolves, bears and lions. Humans banned together millennia ago for such protection. If you wish to live a dozen miles from more than 2 other people, that’s a risk you take.

      Reintroducing wolves is fixing the mistake we made in killing them all; which is causing more problems than it solved.

        • Beetschnapps@lemmy.worldEnglish
          191·
          11 months ago

          No that’s not really the cause. This is a known thing and reintroduction is common. For example:

          https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolf-restoration.htm

          TLDR: Cause: “ In the 1800s, westward expansion brought settlers and their livestock into direct contact with native predator and prey species. Much of the wolves’ prey base was destroyed as agriculture flourished. With the prey base removed, wolves began to prey on domestic stock, which resulted in humans eliminating wolves”

          Effect of reintroduction: “Preliminary data from studies indicate that wolf recovery will likely lead to greater biodiversity throughout the GYE. Wolves have preyed primarily on elk, and these carcasses have provided food to a wide variety of other animals, especially scavenging species. Wolves are increasingly preying on bison, especially in late winter. However, most bison biomass consumed by wolves is through scavenging bison dying from other natural causes. Grizzly bears have usurped wolf kills almost at will, contrary to predictions and observations from other areas where the two species occur. Wolf kills, then, provide an important resource for bears in low-food years. Aggression toward coyotes initially decreased the number of coyotes inside wolf territories, which may have benefited other smaller predators, rodents, and birds of prey.”

    • Jaderick@lemmy.worldEnglish
      83·
      11 months ago

      Edit: I was wrong about ranchers getting a lot of subsidies, it’s the crop farmers that receive a disproportionate amount of subsidies.

      https://thecowdocs.wordpress.com/2017/02/28/do-cattle-ranchers-and-farmers-get-government-subsidies/

      Be prepared to see a lot of trash people claiming wolves killed their livestock because there is a government subsidy fund for livestock killed by wolves but not other predators like bears, cougars, coyotes etc. instated when wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone

      From this book: The Killing of Wolf number Ten