The Billings Gazette
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Wolf recovery big success, officials say

By JEFF TOLLEFSON
December 11, 2000

Five years ago, the federal government didn’t know if a wolf recovery program would work: Would the wolves survive, adapt and breed after being dropped into unfamiliar territory?

Today, the answer is evident, according to Mike Jimenez, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s coordinator for the wolf recovery program in Wyoming.

“Can you reintroduce wolves? The answer is yes. Emphatically, yes,” Jimenez told a crowd gathered for the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance’s annual meeting this week.

The original population of 31 wolves released in Yellowstone National Park has increased to as many as 185 wolves, including 11, and maybe 12, breeding packs, Jimenez said. In Idaho, 35 wolves were released, and that population now stands at close to 200, he said.

He said the Lamar Valley’s Druid Pack in Yellowstone had three litters and 21 pups this year, shattering the common belief that wolf packs tend to produce only one litter each year – that of the alpha male and female.

Having proven themselves in Yellowstone National Park, the wolf packs are quickly moving into areas outside the park, which is where the inevitable conflicts with people, notably their pets and livestock, occur.

“Enter Phase 2 of the recovery,” he said. “If you are really going to have recovery, parks are not big enough.”

While the problem wolves amount to a few bad apples, Jimenez said, they cannot be ignored or allowed to teach a new generation bad habits. Asking an environmentally minded crowd to put itself in the shoes of people who see the effects of wolf recovery in their back yards, Jimenez showed several pictures of bloody dogs, former pets, that had been killed by wolves. Other images showed cow skeletons and a horse.

“If you don’t deal with that, wolves move from being this really great animal that we’ve recovered to nuisances,” he said. “When wolves kill livestock, you hear it real loud.”

Fish and Wildlife this year has confirmed wolves as culprits in the deaths of 4 cows, 46 sheep, 5 dogs and three horses, he said. But even though those figures are almost certainly low because of the difficulty of confirming what killed some carcasses, Jimenez said the total wolf population in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming is estimated at 435 to 500 wolves.

Looking at the larger picture, he said, “Wolves have not been that big of a problem.” He said the vast majority of wolves prefer eating big game, and said some will stroll past livestock, which would seem to be an easier prey, on their way to hunt elk.

But there will always be problem wolves, he said, so Fish and Wildlife’s obligation, and the obligation of state wildlife agencies if wolves are eventually delisted, is to ensure that wolf conflicts are resolved. Wolves have already proven that they can survive, which means the program’s success is up to people, he said.

“Wolves are very tolerant of people,” he said. “Wolves are wolves. ... They are not that complicated. It’s often about people and their perception of wolves.”

Each of the populations in Montana, Idaho and Yellowstone must have at least 10 breeding pairs for three consecutive years before Fish and Wildlife can delist the wolf. Jimenez said the agency would also require that states have in place a satisfactory management plan, which could include hunting or other means of controlling the population and nuisance animals.

The Yellowstone population has achieved more than 10 breeding pairs but must continue that trend for two more years, he said. Populations in Montana and Idaho have not quite achieved 10 breeding pairs, he said.