Wild cards
What we’re really doing by reintroducing wolves
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These facts amaze me—that we have instant access to information about hundreds of wolves being tracked all over the Rockies. It makes me wonder again what we are doing as we allegedly “re-wild” the West. Officially, we’re reintroducing wolves where we’d wiped them out. Polls have indicated that three-fourths of Americans favor bringing back the wolves. But that might be a “Sure, why not” majority, while the Americans who oppose it are pretty fierce about why not.
[image1] Washington state is currently going through this debate, though it isn’t trying to reintroduce the wolf; the wolves have already restored themselves—much like SW341F wandering into Colorado. So now, Washington’s wildlife officials are trying to figure out how many wolves constitute enough so they can take them off the endangered species list.
This is proving to be difficult, for as one frazzled wildlife official noted, “The 80 percent of the people in this state who are supposedly for the wolves coming back are not the ones coming to the meetings.” The people showing up are mostly the grandchildren of those who eradicated the wolf from the West 70 years ago.
What’s resulting is a propaganda war. One side employs the Little Red Riding Hood propaganda machine, portraying the wolf as a vicious man-eater—a term actually used in some of Washington’s hearings. The other side is what could be called the ecosystem managers’ machine, a growing stream of scientific articles, coffee-table books and documentaries portraying wolves as intelligent, playful and living in close extended families that are now “working” to shape up otherwise lazy elk herds and take down the weak and sick elk.
Where does the truth lie? There is very little evidence to support the man-eater thesis, though livestock-eater is a different matter. In any case, that doesn’t seem to matter. The Little Red Riding Hood machine tells us wolves were eradicated because they were fearsome bloodthirsty creatures, but it’s probably closer to the truth to say they were made out to be fearsome creatures so we could get on with their eradication, because they were another well-organized carnivore species that, once upon a prehistoric time, competed with us for food.
There is more evidence to support the thesis that elk get lazy and reproduce too much without large predators harassing them, although the elk probably have their own unsolicited opinions on that. But despite siding with the pro-wolf propaganda machine, I have lately become more than a little uneasy with what we are trying to tell ourselves about this so-called reintroduction. Turning several hundred large carnivores loose in the Rockies to play their historic role as managers of the elk herds—admittedly something we need help on—is a creative act that reflects well on our expanding awareness of how the world might work better. But is it really “bringing back the wolf” when the wolves wear radio collars and generate better genealogical records than most humans do, and when their whereabouts at any time can be ascertained with GIS coordinates?
These large carnivores we’re putting back in the woods are so thoroughly managed that the question arises: Are they still really wild wolves? How long will it be before technology reaches the point at which it will be possible to administer “behavior modification” through the collar when one like SW266M gets a hankering for the wrong slow herbivore?
This reintroduction might be better described as a creative expansion of the original contract between humans and wolves, when some of the more intelligent wolves decided to collaborate with some of the more intelligent humans rather than compete. And I think that could be a good thing; I had that basic contract with a border collie once, and she made me a better human.
But let’s be clear about what we are doing. We aren’t just reintroducing wolves. We are attempting a higher level of engagement in our relationship with a difficult fellow species, and it will require at least as much behavior modification from us as from the wolves.
George Sibley is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (hcn.org). He writes about the West in Gunnison, Colo.
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three fourths of americans are in favor of bringing the wolves back? If thats the case then why dont we ship all the wolves to where those people live? Lazy elk herds? Hmmm well the wolves seem to have done a great job of eradicating the elk this year, I have covered hundreds of miles in the mountains and am not seeing any animal tracks at all= except wolves. Being a person who depends on wild game to sustain me year to year, I can tell you that I will engage in the three S's if i see a wolf:
Shoot
Shovel
Shut Up.
girleyelkhuntr has it absolutly right. part of the extended problem is it is not only the wolves that have been introduced, but the fact that they were introduced in an area that already has a major keystone preditor in place, namly the grizzly. between the two, an elk calf does not have a chance when he is preyed on the second he hits the ground. we personally observed 15 elk calves killed out of a herd of 22 pregnant cows in the clarks fork drainage.
it doesn't take a biologist to figure out that this is a slaughter, when the wolves and griz target a calving bed, their is little hope for the elk.
as far as 3/4ths of americans being in favor of bringing the wolves back, thats not what we are finding to be the truth. we did a grass roots survey in the north east wyoming area of tourists heading to and from yellowstone national park. these were not locals and they were picked at random to get a greater spread of the united states as a whole.
the results were surprising to say the least, almost all thought that wolf reintroduction should have been a state issue, and left to the surrounding communities as a whole to decide on their own ( sort of a good neighbor policy) 22% actually thought that in todays society and times that it would be a good idea, and then only if they could be kept in the park boundries ( obviously there is no chance that will happen) and only 3 % thought that wolves should be reintroduced regaurdless of the anyone thought. but they also thought that they should not be brought to their state and reintroduced.
funny how as long as it's someone elses backyard it's ok
this site shows how bad it has become
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/msu-gye071709.php
the local wolf savers i am sure will try to discredit this, and i can't say as i blame them. it pretty well shows what they may have overlooked.
wyowildman
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