[xyzwave]

> the introduction of the wolves also introduced wasting disease.

Doesn't look like it, from the CDC:

> CWD was first identified in captive deer in a Colorado research facility in the late 1960s, and in wild deer in 1981.

https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/occurrence.html

[COGlory]

CWD is not a parasite and wolves don't carry it. You might have it mixed up with worms.

[sethammons]

I should rephrase: introduced to Montana. When there were no wolves in Montana, there was no waiting disease in the local deer, moose, and elk population; at least not enough to matter. Now many hunters wont touch meat with their bare skin until it has been tested.

[bjtitus]

It's simply false that wasting disease "requires wolves" to propagate. This has been known and studied for many years [0][1]. It's been a large problem here in Colorado for decades despite no wolf population (up until the last few months).

If you would like to learn more, I'd encourage you to read Colorado Parks & Wildlife's management report [2] which includes a lot of good sources and background about its history, epidemiology, and current mitigation plans.

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2691594/

[1] https://meridian.allenpress.com/jwd/article/34/3/532/122239/...

[2] https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Hunting/BigGame/CWD/PDF/Co...