Posted on 04/14/2007 7:32:16 PM PDT by george76
There are now at least 1,300 wolves prowling Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, far more than anyone imagined when the species was reintroduced in the Northern Rockies 12 years ago.
The wolf population has, on average, grown by about 26 percent a year for the past decade. The latest estimates, which summarize counts completed at the end of 2006, show they aren't slowing down.
"I keep thinking we're at the top end of the bubble," said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "I can't see that there's room for any more, but we'll see."
As the wolf population has grown, so have the reports of cattle, sheep and other livestock being killed...
It's no surprise that wolves are thriving following reintroduction in 1995 and 1996 in Yellowstone National Park and in central Idaho. Wolves are skilled predators, fast breeders and able to live in different environments.
The fastest-growing area for wolves last year was in Wyoming outside Yellowstone National Park. The number of wolves jumped by 31 percent...
With that increase, 123 cattle were reportedly killed by wolves, more than has ever been recorded in Wyoming since the reintroduction...
In Montana, the number of wolves grew by 19 percent...
The number of elk, which are wolves' primary winter prey, has declined 50 percent in the area since 1995...
The Fish and Wildlife Service said the wolf population has, for seven years, met basic recovery goals of 30 breeding pairs distributed across Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.
The agency has recommended removing wolves from the endangered species list. But the process has become mired in a conflict between the federal government and the state of Wyoming.
(Excerpt) Read more at casperstartribune.net ...
Horse sh**! Anyone with a brain knew it would get to this point. Consequently, the only elk I've seen in the last two years are the ones on elk farms.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
A while back I read that wolves and coyotes were cross breeding in the eastern US. At the time, this impressed me as creating an extremely intelligent and dangerous animal.
But I haven’t seen anything since about it.
For those of you not familiar with the behavior of either, wolves have about the same intelligence as a 5-year-old, but with advanced social skills; and coyotes are excellent tacticians, developing, communicating with each other, and executing complex schemes.
In some Native American traditions, wolves are placed about on par with humans, and coyotes are synonymous with tricksters, both crafty and ingenious.
A mix of those two animals might be something incredible.
I’ve seen a number of elk herds in SW MT over the last 12 mo.
You’re the closest to the actual issue.
Can’t wait to see a couple pick of some kids camping at Yellowstone.
Well since they can interbreed and have offspring that aren’t sterile, they should be classified as the same species. As currently classified, gray wolves are Canis Lupus and coyotes are Canis Latrans. I’m not a biologist, so I can’t tell you why that is the case.
Anyways, it is possible that different genes give wolves their intelligence and coyotes their tactical senses. If that is the case then you fall into the two intelligent parents trap where the offspring is rarely as smart as either of the parents. Then again, it might be the same genes that are responsible for both behaviors in which case their location and lifestyles cause those specific traits to be expressed.
Actually, it seems to have turned out great for the wolves.
Please let me know how it goes.
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “put wolves in Yellowstone Park” and created a recovery area 300 miles around the park, then “tied all the dollars to Yellowstone and openly admitted they knew wolves would leave.
There are also wolf dogs that are half wolf too.
After the family ranchers go broke...Ted Turner and his friends will buy up the ranch for santuary for their Hollywood friends and for ‘gentlemen’ ranching ...
My dog was acquired from a newspaper ad in the Seattle, WA area when I lived in Federal Way, WA. Wolf crosses are fairly common in the area.
Wolves will ravage the "coyote problem".
When the wolf population reaches a critical mass, folks are going to find out why there are so many tales about big, bad wolves.
Sure, they seem shy now. Wouldn’t you be, after being hunted nearly to extinction?
But wait until they expand their population base. We may find out that all those old tales were based on fact.
The enviro-whacko syndrome is an urban affliction. Thus the whelps of the enviro-whacko bunch will be a no risk of wolf appetitive behavior.
Repeal ESA!
“‘They’ would love to spend our tax money on another program.”
That IS their job description, isn’t it?
;-)
The worst part is that aspen are an ice age relect species, unable to reproduce by seed under present conditions. Therefore, aspen in Yellowstone reproduce via runners. What seems like a mountainside of aspen is actually ONE huge tree, all linked by underground runners.
If ParcMan’s bureau-scientists allowed the elk to eat to destruction all aspen in an area, no seeds will blow in.
Unfortunately, ParcMan so did.
When will the aspen return?
Probably, when the next ice age arrives.
If you have any sources about such cross bred animals, please let me know. Thanks.
In a Canadian park, a wolf tried to drag a child out of the tent where the family was sleeping.
The parents fortunately woke up and decided to administer a good rib kicking to the Big Bad Wolf. The wolf eventually dropped it’s face bite on the five year old boy and left.
I find it interesting that ParcMan and the enviro-whackos have not posted signs “interpreting” wolf behavior.
I would suspect that the well observed “hybred vigor” might just produce a smarter pest animal in the case of a wolf/coyote mating.
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