"Departing"

The large predators living in the East Kootenays (bears, cougars, wolves and coyotes) often get blamed for declines in the area's elk and other ungulate populations.  Hunters in the field report seeing evidence of more animal kills and ask for a culling of predators.  Ironically,  the decline in prey animal numbers is a cause of  seemingly more predators, as kills become more concentrated on a smaller number of elk.  A better approach than killing the predators is to grow the herds of elk with more stringent "harvesting" , massive habitat protection, wildlife fencing (safe crossings) and more habitat restoration.   Let's not add the  East Kootenay's large predators to our growing list of declining wildlife! - Grant Smith