Defenders of Wildlife Blog

(Editor’s Note: This post was originally scheduled for Friday, March 30, but our blog has been down. Sorry for the delay!)

Elk, elk and more elk – It was a big week in the press for elk, wolves and their perennially strained public relationship. First, the Associated Press reported that the legendary elk herd of northern Yellowstone continues to decline in size. However, veteran Yellowstone biologist Doug Smith was quick to point out that the herd is still healthy and strong. “That’s some bad news, a 25 percent decline last year and 10 percent this year. But the elk are looking really good,” Smith said. “This was one of the hardest winters we’ve had in decades … We’ve got a leaner, meaner elk herd.” Smith also says that the herd is now more in line with historic levels, down from a high of almost 20,000 in 1992 when an absence of wolves and other predators allowed the population to balloon well beyond the ecosystem’s carrying capacity. A combination of liberal hunts designed to reduce the elk overpopulation, bad winters, drought, and predation by cougars, bears and wolves has brought the herd down to a more manageable level. Notably, the wolf population in the area has also declined by 60 percent in the last five years, suggesting that a more natural balance between elk and their various predators is still being established.

Then yesterday, Nick Gevock at the Montana Standard took on the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for exploiting wolves to line their pockets. Most recently, RMEF offered the state $50,000 to support more wolf-killing by federal agents with Wildlife Services, and they’re looking to raise more money to kill other predators as well. Gevock argues that anti-wolf groups continue to foment wolf hysteria by exaggerating the influence that wolves have on game species. Yet the best available data show that elk populations are still strong, with an estimated 1.2 million elk nationwide and about 150,000 elk in Montana alone. Hopefully Montanans recognize that their state is big enough and wild enough to support healthy populations of predator and prey.

Will Montana’s next governor undo wolf recovery? – Leading Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Hill is no friend of wolves. While out campaigning this week, he announced his wolf management plan, which would allow trapping and a year-round hunting season. Hill also wants to encourage counties to adopt wolf bounties. The possibility of a governor like Mr. Hill taking control of wolf management in Montana is one reason we worked so hard in and out of the courts to get a stronger Endangered Species Act delisting rule for wolves, one that required more than 100 – 150 wolves per state. As you probably know, Congress overturned our successful litigation so the fate of wolves in Montana above 150 will be in the hands of the next governor.  We’ll certainly be very sad to see the current Montana Governor, Brian Schweitzer. go next year if this is the alternative.

Caught on camera – Check out this clip of a gray wolf in Washington from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife:

And just for fun, here’s a clip of a wolverine using the exact same area!

Wolves, like this on in the Cascade Mountains, are receiving the ire of the Yakima County Farm Bureau even though only one livestock loss has been attributed to wolves in Washington in more than five years.

Tempers flare in Pacific Northwest – Though there are fewer than 30 wolves in Washington, and the state’s wolf management plan has only recently been approved, wolf opponents are already pushing for more aggressive control actions. Legislators are proposing a significant decrease in the fine for illegally killing wolves from $4,000 to $1,000 and relisting wolves as a “game” animal instead of endangered. The Yakima County Farm Bureau is opposing the state’s wolf plan outright. Some of their members want all wolves to be eliminated, even though there has only been one confirmed livestock loss to wolves since they returned to Washington more than five years ago.

At least some landowners are taking a more measured approach. Dan Studley, quoted in the Yakima Herald, says he’s not too concerned about wolves:

As the story points out, Defenders has already chipped in $15,000 in start-up funds to help Washington get a compensation program off the ground. We are also organizing another series of workshops to help local, state, federal and tribal wildlife managers enhance their skills in field investigations and nonlethal deterrents.

Montana county considers wolf bounty – This week, anti-wolf zealots in Jefferson County, Montana are pushing to reinstate a wolf bounty program that would pay people for killing wolves. Only three cattle were lost to wolves in Jefferson County in 2011 according to state compensation payment records, but rather than taking steps to learn to live with wolves, county commissioners are considering a bounty to encourage all wolves to be killed. But not all residents of Jefferson County are on board with the proposed bounty. One hunter, quoted in the local paper, said that the state should be given a chance to manage wolves responsibly before counties take more aggressive action. Another person suggested that cougars and coyotes are likely taking more elk calves and fawns than wolves are, and another said bounties often amount to legalized fraud. Read more in the Helena Independent Record.

Wood River overseas – This summer we were lucky enough to have Pete Haswell, a young biologist from the UK Wolf Conservation Trust, volunteering on the Wood River Wolf Project. He spent his days and nights with our field team tracking wolves and sheep through the central Idaho wilderness, and when he returned, he had some great stories to tell. One night he came within 60 feet of a wolf in the Phantom Hill pack and exchanged late night howls with other packs as well. More importantly, he got to learn first-hand about the nonlethal tools we use to deter wolf attacks, which he hopes to utilize in his work in Eastern Europe. Pete also created an interactive map to keep track of known wolf locations in relation to grazing bands of sheep. Read more about Pete’s adventures in Idaho in the latest issue of Wolf Print, the quarterly magazine of UKWCT (see pg. 14). Pete also wrote a blog post for Defenders during Wolf Awareness Week.

Video of OR7 in his Oregon days – While OR7 remains in northern California in the shadows of Mt. Lassen, his legend continues to spread. This week a video surfaced of the lone male wolf from his Oregon days. The goal of the group named “Oregon Wolf Education” that sponsored the video is “to educate people on how the recent invasion of the Canadian gray wolf is affecting our lives.” But the video also tells a different story of a lone wolf that repeatedly moved through cattle pastures without causing trouble, due at least in part to the effective use of a range rider. Decide for yourself whether the short video portrays OR7 as a serious threat or just another wild animal sharing the landscape:

OR-7 from Pahsimeroi Pictures on Vimeo.

And in case you missed it, OR7 has also made news in the New York Times and TIME magazine!

What does the data show? – Understanding wolf behavior and their interactions with both wild ungulates and livestock isn’t easy. Wolves share the landscape with other animals that target the same prey, so it takes some careful analysis to determine the impact of any one species on another. That’s why Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is leading an in-depth study of predator-prey interactions in the Bitterroot Valley, where elk herds have declined in recent years. There are two years remaining in the study, but so far state biologists are learning that cougars in the area may be having a bigger impact on elk populations than wolves (last year, cougars killed 13 tagged elk calves and wolves killed three). The results of the study should yield important information about the relative impact of wolves on elk. Read more in this feature story from the Missoula Independent.