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10 years later, Yellowstone wolf packs flourishing
Population numbers far exceed those predicted a decade ago.
By Rebecca Huntington
Eight gray wolves, packed in steel crates, rolled into Yellowstone National Park on this day in January a decade ago to howling crowds, reporters and schoolchildren gathered to witness the historic moment.
But the return of the predator, absent from the park for 50 years, faltered even as a horse trailer pulling the crated animals passed through the park's North Gate at 8:36 a.m. that morning.
The night before, when the wolves were en route, a federal court ordered the Canadian transplants remain crated, pending a legal challenge from Wyoming ranchers. The order kept biologists from opening the doors to the 2-foot-wide, 3-foot-high and 4-foot-long shipping containers, even to release the wolves into a 1-acre pen inside the park.
For wolf opponents, those eight containers represented a Pandora's box about to be unleashed on the region. Ranchers, sportsmen and others had predicted the predators would wreak havoc on livestock and wild ungulate herds prized by hunters. Wyoming's governor at the time warned of potential attacks on humans.
Now more than a decade later, such dire predictions have not come to pass. No attacks on humans have been documented. Moreover, conservationists say wolves have behaved surprisingly well, causing fewer problems than expected.
"I find it amazing that wolves have behaved as well as they have because of all of the fear mongering that was going on and still continues to go on," said Franz Camenzind, of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance.
The federal government also made predictions in a plan signed April 14, 1994, which set reintroduction in motion. Fourteen wolves were released in Yellowstone in 1995; the first eight spent less than a day in the shipping containers as a result of the court order. In 1996, biologists brought another 17 wolves to the park from Canada.
At the time, government biologists predicted relatively modest livestock conflicts, some reductions in hunter opportunity and economic benefits to the region from visitors coming to see wolves.
Even critics agree those predictions, particularly livestock losses, have not been far off the mark.
Full story: http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/Environmental.html
Population numbers far exceed those predicted a decade ago.
By Rebecca Huntington
Eight gray wolves, packed in steel crates, rolled into Yellowstone National Park on this day in January a decade ago to howling crowds, reporters and schoolchildren gathered to witness the historic moment.
But the return of the predator, absent from the park for 50 years, faltered even as a horse trailer pulling the crated animals passed through the park's North Gate at 8:36 a.m. that morning.
The night before, when the wolves were en route, a federal court ordered the Canadian transplants remain crated, pending a legal challenge from Wyoming ranchers. The order kept biologists from opening the doors to the 2-foot-wide, 3-foot-high and 4-foot-long shipping containers, even to release the wolves into a 1-acre pen inside the park.
For wolf opponents, those eight containers represented a Pandora's box about to be unleashed on the region. Ranchers, sportsmen and others had predicted the predators would wreak havoc on livestock and wild ungulate herds prized by hunters. Wyoming's governor at the time warned of potential attacks on humans.
Now more than a decade later, such dire predictions have not come to pass. No attacks on humans have been documented. Moreover, conservationists say wolves have behaved surprisingly well, causing fewer problems than expected.
"I find it amazing that wolves have behaved as well as they have because of all of the fear mongering that was going on and still continues to go on," said Franz Camenzind, of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance.
The federal government also made predictions in a plan signed April 14, 1994, which set reintroduction in motion. Fourteen wolves were released in Yellowstone in 1995; the first eight spent less than a day in the shipping containers as a result of the court order. In 1996, biologists brought another 17 wolves to the park from Canada.
At the time, government biologists predicted relatively modest livestock conflicts, some reductions in hunter opportunity and economic benefits to the region from visitors coming to see wolves.
Even critics agree those predictions, particularly livestock losses, have not been far off the mark.
Full story: http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/Environmental.html
