"research indicated that wolves were just another predator on wild ungulates, neither much less nor much more effective than other native predators, such as mountain lions, black and grizzly bears, or coyotes. Wild predators typically killed different types of ungulates (injured, sick, or very young and very old individuals) than did human hunters."(39)

"Wolf predation in combination with other factors such as winter weather, human hunting, other predators, and habitat conditions, contributed to a decline in white-tailed deer and elk in the North Fork of the Flathead river. As a result of that prey decline, wolf numbers in that area dramatically declined, from nearly 30 wolves in three packs during the most intensive research in the early 1990’s to a current estimate of about five individuals that did not even produce pups in 1999."(39-40)

"While wolves displaced lions and coyotes from ungulate carcasses, wolf kills were often taken over by grizzly bears."(40)

"Research indicated that wolves often lived near livestock (primarily cattle) and other domestic animals but conflicts were rare. Wolves commonly fed on carrion of both livestock (bone yards) and wild ungulates (road and train kills, unretrieved hunter-killed deer and gut piles). Abundance of natural prey and vulnerability of livestock affected how often wolves attempted to attack livestock."(40)

Preliminary findings suggest that, "elk are 90% of wolf prey in Yellowstone and kill rates are about 15 elk/per wolf/per year. In Idaho, wolves also preyed mainly on elk but wolves there killed a higher proportion of mule deer. Wolf kills were more likely to be in open habitats and scattered than lion kills, which were covered and in thick cover. This gave a visual impression that wolves killed more deer and elk than mountain lions, but actually on average lions kill more ungulates per individual per year than do wolves."(40)

"Both wolves and lions tended to prey on the most vulnerable wild ungulates such as the very young, very old, injured, or sick individuals."(40)

"The EIS predicted that a recovered wolf population (a minimum of 10 breeding pairs, estimated to be about 100 adult-sized wolves) in the Yellowstone area would kill an average of 19 cattle and 68 sheep and up to 1,200 ungulates (primarily elk) annually. This would not affect hunter harvests of male ungulates but may reduce hunter harvests of female elk, deer and moose in some herds."(41)

"At wolf recovery, annual economic losses were estiamted to be $187,000-$465,000 in hunter benefits (what hunters said hunting female elk was worth to them), $207,000-$414,000 in potential reduced hunter expenditures (what hunters of female elk said they would have spent hunting), and $1,888-$30,470 in potential livestock losses. Annual increased visitor expenditures were estimated at $23,000,000 and the existence value of wolves was estimated at $8,300,000 (what people believed having wolves in the Yellowstone area was worth to them)."(41)

"Minimum confirmed livestock losses have annually averaged about 2 cattle, 19 sheep, and 2 dogs in the Yellowstone area and 7 cattle, 23 sheep, and 2 dogs in central Idaho."(42)

"Over 85% of all known wolf mortalities are caused by people and the majority of those are a result of agency wolf control actions."(43)