Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Then, by fall, the pups are big enough to travel and hunt with the pack, and they're nearly full-grown
by the time they're a year old. Although they're capable of reproducing by age two, full sexual maturity
isn't achieved until age four or five.
Nowhere do the conflicting views of wolves display themselves more starkly than over the issue of
wolf reintroduction. Under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
held numerous public meetings and hearings in the West, and received testimony in various forms from
thousands of citizens. Although predictably polarized for and against wolf restoration, comments heav-
ily favored the former. As a result, the USFWS trapped wolves in Canada and released them at two
locations, Yellowstone National Park and the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area in
central Idaho.
Biologically, these transplants have been a howling success (pun intended). There are now more than
150 wolves in a number of packs in the central Idaho area, while the Yellowstone wolf population,
counting this year's crop of pups, stands at about 350. Alpha wolves have mated, and packs have
formed in normal fashion, fought over territory, killed each other in territorial battles, and otherwise
behaved in similar fashion to wolves in areas where they've existed for tens of thousands of years.
Politically, the road has been far rockier. To minimize the fears of ranchers that wolves spreading out
from these release sites would decimate their livestock, the USFWS declared these wolf reintroductions
“experimental populations.” Under the terms of the Endangered Species Act, this designation allows
the flexibility to remove or kill wolves that are preying on livestock and pets.
Two diametrically opposed groups then brought suit to halt and reverse the wolf reintroductions. On
the one hand was the American Farm Bureau, unalterably opposed to wolf reintroductions; on the other
was a consortium of groups so pro-wolf that they felt the experimental population designation didn't
give sufficient protection to wolves that might naturally disperse into these areas from Canada.
In December 1997 a federal district court judge ruled that the experimental-population designation
was illegal because it gave insufficient protection to wolves naturally dispersing into Yellowstone and
central Idaho. The judge ordered all reintroduced wolves
and their offspring
to be removed, then stayed
his order so that appeals could be filed.
After numerous delays, as of this writing the appeals have yet to be heard. Meanwhile, nearly two
years have passed and many more pups have added greatly to the wolf population in these two areas.
The judge's decision was based on what many observers regard as a bizarre interpretation of the En-
dangered Species Act. Under his interpretation, a dispersing wolf here and there constitutes a “popu-
lation,” a definition that few believe will be sustained on appeal. Further, the only way to get rid of
the several hundred wolves now present would be to kill them, since trying to trap and relocate them
would be an extraordinarily difficult task at this point. The likelihood that the American public at this
point would stand for the slaughter of all those wolves is about as great as the chances of that famous
proverbial snowball!
Depredation on livestock has been relatively light, and lower than projected by the USFWS. Most
such depredation remains inordinately controversial, however, because of the antipathy which some
