I have a thing about wolves - I like them. I can relate to the whole "wolf thing". There a sort of touchstone for me, a totem animal. It truly upset me when they were removed from the endangered species list. People had hunted them to near extinction for all sorts of reasons. I don't want to get into that debate other than to say that every living, breathing creature needs to eat to survive. Nobody eats a wolf. There's a big difference between hunting for game and hunting for sport. Hunting for protection is a whole other matter. To kill an animal because it just might do something in their nature bothers me. More so from a helicopter.
I live in a big city - by the water front. There's a big wildlife ecosystem here. I've seen snakes, mice, rats, squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, opossums, bats, geese, ducks, herons, falcons, hawks and, occasionally swans. I've heard of foxes and coyotes coming 'round for a visit although I haven't seen any yet. Add in the endless stray cats, a few stray dogs and every kind of small bird. I'm sure there's more. Overall, it's nice. Sometimes they can be a nuisance but it's not that big a deal. When I travel to more remote regions I've come across bears, deer and raccoons, opossums, badgers, coyotes, foxes and even more chipmunks and snakes. That's nature.
The greater point here is that nature is all around us. It's here to stay. Build all you want but, when you're on another animal's territory you're going to end up co-existing. Or not. When you tip an ecosystem there are risks. So let's be sensible here. Life without animals (and we're in that classification) would be pretty dull.
Gray wolf back on protect list in Montana and Idaho
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