Here’s some food for thought. (See what I did there?) It’s possible that encouraging large predator populations might help fight CWD . . .
Could wolves and other large predators be border guards in the fight against Chronic Wasting Disease? One biologist believes so, as CWD, an infectious neurological disease that affects deer, elk and moose populations, spreads in the Mountain West.
Biologist Gary Wolfe, a former Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks commissioner, says large predators such as wolves have an innate ability to sense disease in prey populations.
He says halting recreational hunting of large predators like cougars or wolves in areas with emerging CWD outbreaks could curb the disease.