| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 2/20/05 |
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| The
Wolf Effect
By Becky Bohrer, Associated Press Writer
2/20/05
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YELLOWSTONE
NATIONAL PARK — Hunters and outfitters
blamed wolves when they began seeing fewer elk in areas
near the park in the decade after gray wolves returned.
But some researchers say drought and even years of great
hunting played an important role, too, and the wolves
themselves seem to be paying a price.
"To a degree, people are crying wolf way too soon,"
said Yellowstone wolf biologist Doug Smith.
Smith and others concede that wolves have contributed
to declining elk numbers near Yellowstone, particularly
in the northern range herd that migrates into Montana
in winter. But there is intense debate over how great
their role has been — and whether it has been necessarily
bad.
To outfitters like James Hubbard, the wolves' effect has
been huge, and they point to the case of the northern
range herd — for years, a rich source of winter
hunting near Gardiner — to make their point. The
herd, as recently as 1994, had 19,000 elk. The most recent
count last month put the population at only 9,545.
That's not just coincidence, Hubbard said: Wolves, reintroduced
to the region in 1995, are "killing the industry."
"Hunters come out and don't see near the elk,"
the Gardiner-area rancher and outfitter said. "They
used to see so many it was unreal."
But J. Christopher Haney, a senior conservation scientist
for Defenders of Wildlife, said wolves are being made
a scapegoat. Elk numbers in parts of the West, including
the northern range herd, were very high for a number of
years, he said, but much of the area has also experienced
extended drought, which can further stress range conditions.
"Hunters have had it good for a long time,"
he said. "When you have these high numbers, it gets
in people's heads, 'This is natural, this is what it should
be,' when nature is always changing," he said.
The population of the herd grew dramatically after federal
officials stopped trying to regulate elk numbers in the
park in the 1960s.
Elk leaving the park have been hunted in Montana since
the 1970s. But Kurt Alt, a state wildlife manager, said
that since 2000, the population has steadily declined.
He said there is concern whether the population can sustain
itself with the number of calves — among the more
vulnerable animals in the herd — withstanding predators,
including bears and wolves, to survive a year.
Hunting permits in the area have been scaled back to see
if that might help stabilize the elk population, he said.
But Alt said he believes the weight of evidence has shown
adding wolves to the mix has been the "major factor"
in the herd's decline. Before the federal wolf reintroduction
in and around Yellowstone in 1995, he said the herd was
able to maintain relatively high numbers and rebound fairly
quickly from natural events, such as major fires or drought.
"One thing that has changed is the addition of wolves
to the system," Alt said. "We're seeing a decline
in the population with the addition of that extra mouth."
Ed Bangs, a federal wolf manager, said wolves, mountain
lions and other predators may speed up declines in game
populations caused by other factors, such as hunting,
changes in habitat conditions and harsh weather. When
elk populations are at such highs, there's "no way
to sustain that, and when numbers go down, people are
always looking for something to blame," he said.
"You hear, 'Wolves are killing off all the elk,'
and none of that's true. Some people say they're not having
an effect and that's not true, either," he said,
adding: "What wolves do is cut out the highs and
lows."
There are places in the three-state region where wolves
are present and elk populations are thriving. A key difference
between those and Yellowstone is wolf densities, Smith
said.
The density drops sharply at Gardiner, near the park's
northern boundary. Wolves outside the park that get into
trouble, say for killing livestock, can themselves be
killed.
But there's new evidence suggesting wolf numbers inside
the park may now be leveling off, or even declining, he
said.
Smith, who has been studying the wolves here since their
return, said that in the past four years, as the number
of northern range elk has declined, there has been more
fighting among packs for food, scrawnier wolves and indication
their numbers may have peaked, at 174 wolves.
That does not mean wolves are eating themselves out of
house and home, though, Smith said. Instead, he believes
wolves and other predators have helped thin out the weaker,
more vulnerable elk, leaving a smaller population of stronger,
healthier animals.
Because wolves tend pick off prey least likely to put
up a big fight, they're having to work harder for a meal
— some, like the Mollie's pack, are taking on burly
bison in late winter — or go hungry, Smith believes.
In the past five years, he said, wolves in the park have
eaten less elk in late winter than before.
"I have seen wolves starve when there's adequate
numbers of prey out there," he said.
Some wolves now are in poor condition. Wolves overall
are lighter than they used to be, and fighting has picked
up between packs competing for carcasses, leading to far
more dead wolves a year now than in the first years after
reintroduction, he said.
Last year in Yellowstone, wolf numbers declined for only
the second time since reintroduction, to 171 animals.
In another decade or so, Smith guesses there could be
half the wolves there are now.
The big question is: How will wolves contend with declining
elk numbers? Either wolf numbers will fall off, too, or
wolves will augment their diets with bison, which is in
ample supply in Yellowstone but difficult for wolves to
kill, Smith said. He has known wolves to be gored and
even killed trying to take down a bison.
"It will be exciting to see what happens," he
said. "It will affect not only the wolves but the
elk."
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