Wolves decline in Yellowstone
chatnoir
headline:
Wolves decline in Yellowstone
By Janice Lloyd
USA TODAY
Population falls as animals lose protection, kill each other in battle
for food
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — A dozen tourists in parkas huddle
around wolf researcher Colby Anton in the northern range of the park,
an area famous for gray wolves, to catch a glimpse of images on his
digital camera.
The wolf watchers have become a familiar scene since the animals were
reintroduced into the park in 1995 after being gone for nearly 70
years. The wolves have fueled a $35 million-a-year industry as cars
full of tourists spend dawn to dusk looking for wolves and trading
tales.
Now the tales are changing.
The image on Anton's camera is of a dead wolf he discovered on an 18-
mile hike in the high country of the park. "We found it partially
buried under the snow, did a necropsy and concluded a wolf from
another pack killed the wolf," he says.
The gray wolf population is declining, says Doug Smith, the
coordinator of the reintroduction efforts and leader of the
Yellowstone Wolf Project that studies and manages the wolves. Wolves
are killing each other at a higher frequency to compete for elk, their
primary food source, which is less abundant now, he says.
"The good times are over," Smith says. His annual census of the park's
wolf population is expected to be the lowest in 10 years, he said.
Smith is still gathering data but says the number of gray wolves in
the park will be 116, a 33% drop from 2003, when the population was at
an all-time high of 174.
While parvovirus and mange continue to reduce the population, part of
this year's decline can be traced to the fact that in 2008, wolves
lost protection in the Northern Rockies under the Endangered Species
Act. Wolves, like all wildlife, are protected inside the park, but
when they roam beyond the borders, they fall into the state's wildlife
management practices. Idaho and Montana, which border Yellowstone,
permitted hunting of wolves this fall. Idaho recently extended its
hunt until March.
The Yellowstone pack hardest hit by the hunt is nicknamed Cottonwood.
Hunters killed four members of the pack, including the breeding
female, her mate and her daughter in a Montana wilderness area
bordering the park.
"The wolves have it hard enough inside the park," says Rolf Peterson,
a wildlife biologist at Michigan Technological University. "The
Yellowstone wolves should be treated like national treasures and
protected." ... (cont)