Idaho Wolf Hunting Plan

Meetings are scheduled around Idaho over the next two weeks to hear the public comments on the Idaho’s wolf hunting plan. The plan’s main aim is to reduce the Idaho wolf population by 39%.  Currently, they are estimating that 328 of the wolves will be killed this year (from all causes) to meet their objective. The meetings are being held by Idaho Fish and Game department to get public input on the wolf hunting rules and regulations, or so it says. The fact that there is no meeting scheduled in Boise, the state’s capital, shows that the Fish and Game department seem to be trying to avoid the public at all costs, and are only holding meetings in areas where anti-wolf sentiments run high.

The plan allows for the removal of 328 wolves, which is a very high number of wolves, especially as the estimated population was 732 at the end of 2007. It is too early to have a hunting season, and these high wolf hunting numbers show that the state wolf plans are more a population reduction plan than any meaningful wolf management plan.

Wolves can  also be killed by state or federal agencies, or by legal take under the new Idaho Senate Bill No. 1374, signed by Idaho Governor Butch Otter the day of delisting, which allows for wolves to be killed for…“annoying, disturbing or persecuting, especially with hostile intent or injurious effect, or chasing, driving, flushing, worrying, following after or on the trail of, or stalking or lying in wait for, livestock or domestic animals.” Obviously this law is impossible to enforce and would allow anyone to shot a wolf if it was anywhere near livestock or a pet. The combined effect of heavy hunting pressure and nearly unlimited authority to kill wolves will be a lot for the Idaho wolf population to bear. 

Some good news out of Idaho...

Finally, something to celebrate. I am extremely relieved to find out that there were not 45,000 Idaho citizens ignorant enough to sign onto Ron Gillett's Ballot Initiative that sought to remove all wolves from the state of Idaho. Although -- it is more than a little disturbing that it got as many signatures as it did!

Non-Lethal Deterrents: Part III

Well the snow is starting to melt here in the west, and the cattle are slowly being put out to pasture. The winter has lasted a few weeks longer than usual this year and so the ranchers have had to supplement the cattle’s feed with hay, but now things are warming up and the first new grasses are starting to appear. This is also the time when we start our range rider projects across the Northern Rockies.

In partnership with livestock producers - mainly cattlemen - we help share the cost of paying a rider whose job it is to keep an eye on the cattle and watch out for any signs of wolves. If the cattle are bunched together or are acting nervous, it could be because wolves are in the area, or have just passed through.

The rider also looks out for wolf signs such as tracks and scat, or wolf hairs in the fence. The rider can also look out for sick or dead cattle, and move these off the range and nearer the ranch. Sick cattle and carcasses act as attractants for a variety of predators including wolves, bears, coyotes and eagles, and they should be brought nearer the ranch for doctoring . Dead cattle shoud be placed in a well-fenced, deep carcass pit.  These range riders are also armed with cracker shells. These are non-lethal ammunition that acts like a bottle-rocket and helps to scare away the wolves. The life of a rider involves getting up well before first light, and being out in the early evenings; this is because dawn and dusk are the times when wolves are most active.

This month we will have a range rider project in Philipsburg, MT, and another just outside of Cody, WY. We will keep you up-to-date on these projects throughout the summer.

In the News

It's heartening to witness the outpour of support we've received since the filing of our lawsuit. Our regional and national offices have received calls and emails from around the country - and even the world - expressing concern, outrage, dismay and most importantly - hope.

A recent editorial in the Los Angeles Times did a good job at explaining why such legal action is justified and necessary for the long term survival of the Northern Rockies wolf.

Fingers Crossed...

Yesterday we - along with 11 other conservation groups -  filed a federal court lawsuit challenging the federal government’s decision to remove the northern Rockies gray wolf population from the list of endangered species. We also filed a  request for a preliminary injunction in order to reinstate Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves until the  court issues a final decision on the merits of this case.

We maintain that wolves should not have been stripped of federal protections so soon because they are not yet recovered in the Northern Rockies region and the state management plans currently in place are woefully inadequate, not based on current science, and do not ensure the long term survival of the Northern Rockies gray wolf.

This is evident by the recent rash of indiscriminate killings that have gone on - most notably in Wyoming's shoot-on-site zone - in the short amount of time that wolves have been without protection. To quote from our injunction papers: "Since delisting, a spate of wolf killings by a variety of methods—pursuing wolves long distances with snowmobiles, shooting wolves from the roadside, and lying in wait for wolves at state-run elk feedgrounds—demonstrates the need now, as much as ever, to protect wolves under the Endangered Species Act."

Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana have all refused to make enforceable commitments to maintain viable  and sustainable wolf populations within their borders. The states have neglected to secure funding for essential monitoring and conservation efforts.

We will keep you updated with any and all developments in this case, and we appreciate all the support that so many people have given during this important case that will decide the future of this iconic species. 

Earthjustice filed the lawsuit on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, The Humane Society of the United States, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Friends of the Clearwater, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands Project, Western Watersheds Project, and Wildlands Project.

Fact or Fiction

Even though Ron’s testimony is so illogical and inaccurate that it’s hardly worth a response, we could not resist dispproving some of his “facts” with truths.

"Each Canadian wolf is going to kill from 16-24 ungulates per year, per wolf...then in the spring they're going to follow the elk herds around and kill the calves as fast as they're born. That's called sport reflex kills. So we've got the number that the wolves kill to eat, the number that they binge kill, and the number that they sport kill"

Yes, it is true that wolves do kill and eat ungulates (elk, deer etc.) and that these animals are the main food source for the gray wolf. Many other predators such as Mountain Lion, Black and Grizzly Bear, coyotes also feed on ungulates. It is also important to note that wolves tend to prey on the most vulnerable elk and deer (1), which includes weak, diseased, injured, very young calves or older adult cow elk that are beyond their reproductive prime. So the animals that are most commonly killed by wolves would have died from disease, bad weather or starvation due to being the least fit of the population and it appears to be largely compensatory as overall elk calf survival has remained steady

In Yellowstone a 2003 study of elk calf mortality showed wolves were responsible for about 12% of predator losses. Elk and deer populations are controlled by many variables, of which predation may be only a minor contribution and wolf predation even less given the small numbers of wolves in the state compared to other predator populations. Big game managers agree that the greatest influences on elk, and all big game populations, are summer precipitation, winter severity, and hunter harvest (2).

(1) Source: Wright, Peterson, Smith and Lemke. August 2006. The Journal of Wildlife Management 70. 4.
(2) Wyoming Game & Fish PDF File

"the problem with that is every female in the pack is having a litter. And some of them are having two litters!.. the wolves are dogs."

My pet dog breeds year round, so why can’t wolves? Although dogs are derived from wolves, they share a different breeding cycle. Pet dogs have food all through the year so can breed in any season, wolves have to have their nutritional needs coincide with food availability and so they typically produce pups in April when prey is abundant, and the weather is warm. Because of their dependence on food availability, wolves breed only once a year. In the majority of wolf packs, it is only the alpha female that has a litter. Under some situations, such as such as when food is very plentiful, a second female may also breed (3).

(3) Mech and Boitani, Wolves: Behavior, Ecology and Conservation. University of Chicago Press 2003.

"They are the most cruel, vicious predator in North America... after they have killed a prey, then they star on the other predators. They'll kill foxes, they'll kill coyotes, they kill bears, they kill mountain lions. You know, I didn't know this until I started on this research, but a pack of wolves will dig in and kill a hibernating bear. It doesn't matter if it's a black bear or a grizzly."

Wolves do kill foxes and coyotes. This is not because there is nothing left to eat, but because these two smaller species are canids that are invading the wolves’ territory and competing for food.

The typical situation during which wolves have conflicts with bears is over carcasses, which both species like to scavenge. Although in the past there have been incidences of wolves killing bears, and bears killing wolves, these incidents are rare and most reported interactions involve non-violent stand-offs over food. In fact during poor food years, grizzly bears turn to wolf kills to survive, helping more bears to survive. In bear-wolf confrontations, the larger carnivore almost always wins (4).

Note: There has been some evidence of wolves digging out black bear cubs in Canada, but not grizzly cubs.

(4) Shelli Johnson, Yellowstone Journal

"They kill everything. They kill all of the prey first. Then after that, they hunt 365 days a year and they only eat red meat."

Wolves have been on this continent for millennia, and have evolved with their prey. If wolves had the ability to wipe out their prey base then they would have gone extinct long before man arrived on these shores. Wolves hunt in packs as they are not the most efficient predator around.  It takes a pack of wolves to bring down a large deer or elk, and usually involves a long chase as they must tire the animal out first. Research from Yellowstone Park shows that only one in five chases end in an ungulate being killed and eaten (5). Chasing and taking down a large elk is dangerous and uses up energy, wolves will often scavenge dead ungulates that may have been an old wolf kill, or may have just died of starvation.

(5) Mech et al. 2001 The Journal of Wildlife Management 64: 998-1003

"There are probably 3,000-3,500 wolves in this state"

According to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at the end of 2007 there were 732 wolves living in the state of Idaho (6). Although this is the minimum estimated population size, one must realize that the gray wolves in the northern Rockies are one of the most studied populations of wild animals throughout the country, and that although these numbers are an estimate, they are in all likelihood very close to the actual number.

(6) US Fish and Wildlife Service Website: Gray Wolves in the Northern Rockies

The Old Boy Who Cried Wolf

On April 2, 2008, Ron Gillette (the face of the Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition) spoke during a fund raiser in Idaho. The Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition is trying to build funds to pass a voter-initiative in the state in order to eradicate wolves from Idaho.

Here's just one quote from the speech:

"Theres three kinds of terrorists. Bin Laden and foreign terrorists, the Defenders of Wildlife and the Idaho Conservation League, domestic terrorists, and the wildlife terrorist is the Canadian wolf. That is what it is.  I am so sick of hearing biology and science and all that and I’m sure you probably are too."

An edited version is posted below. Warning: The below video contains derogatory language aimed at wolf-advocates and wolves.

Read the full transcript after the jump...

Non-Lethal Deterrents: Part II

After the excellent Wolf Conference ended I jumped in a car and headed West, to Philipsburg Montana to visit one of our proactive project partners. So far they have had a successful calving season, and the wolves have been keeping out of the calving corrals. The ranch manager and other ranch hands have been using the telemetry equipment that Defenders helped buy, to keep track of the movements of the wolves. The cow/calf pairs are ready to go out to pasture, and they were still waiting for the snow in the fields to melt when I arrived.

They have a couple of grazing allotments that they will be using this year, and as the range rider will not be able to be at both places at once, we decided that the use of a Radio Activated Guard (RAG) box would help out in this situation. The RAG box is a device that was thought up by a rancher, who wondered how the signal emitted by the wolves' collars could be used to set off rockets or gunfire so as to scare the wolves away. What was eventually developed was the RAG box, which has a strobe light on top, a pair of speakers, and an internal computer. When a collared wolf comes within range of the RAG box, the signal coming from it's collar sets off the computer which in turn activates the strobe light, and the cassette player, which plays a tape of loud noises, which includes gunshots, the clatter of horses hooves, and helicopters. The flashing lights and loud sounds scare off the wolves and reduce the predators’ desires to enter or remain in the area where the livestock are located. Information collected by the RAG box’s computer includes the number of times the wolf approached the area during a set time interval and range.

We will keep you updated on this proactive project throughout spring and summer.

Economic Argument for Wolves

Todd Tanner - an outdoors writer who hunts and fishes all over western Montana - makes a compelling economic argument in today's guest opinion piece in the Missoulian. He urges Montana to hold-off on a wolf hunt and exercise some common sense.

Insights from an Insider

Carl Swoboda, Director of Safari Yellowstone
Take a look at Carl's Photo Gallery

After the field trip I had time to ask Carl Swoboda - a professional naturalist for over 20 years, former operations director for one of the largest photo safari companies in the Serengeti National Park of Tanzania, Africa, and former smoke jumper for the Forest Service some questions about his time researching and observing the Yellowstone wolves:

Me: How long have you worked with the wolves in Yellowstone OR How many consecutive days have you been following the wolves in Yellowstone?

Carl: We started doing wolf trips as soon as they arrived in the park (January 1995), but it tough in the beginning, since there were not a lot of wolves to view. It wasn't until 1997 that it really took off and we have not stopped promoting wolves as our main focus for wildlife viewing. We have viewed wolves for 1119 consecutive days. Every time we go looking for them, we have viewed them.

What is a typical day for the Yellowstone wolves?

Depending upon the time of year, they can be very active or very sleepy. With most packs hunting at night, a usual day of viewing is watching them feed, travel and bed down. If they have fed, then they will most likely sleep most of the day, with possible trips to a carcass. The older members of the pack seem to rest more than the younger members. They just have all this built up energy. If the weather is yucky to us, it is perfect for the wolves. The cooler the better and if there is no sun, they will spend more time being active. When the sun is out, regardless of the time of year, they tend to bed because of the intense nature of it. Early morning and late afternoon/early evening are the best times to view and observe wolf behavior.

What is your favorite animal/pack and why?

Wolves have become my favorite animal ever since they were brought back to Yellowstone. It used to be grizzly bears, but after watching wolves behave in Yellowstone and observing their family structure, they have bumped bears. They are exciting animals to watch and you never know what they are going to do. They might sleep, play, hunt, chase coyotes, interact with other packs, etc. You just don't know what they are going to do. Just when you think you can predict their movements or actions, they do something totally opposite. My favorite pack is the Leopold pack. They were the first pack to form naturally  (two members of the original three groups brought in in 1995 dispersed from their home packs and hooked up, forming the Leopold pack). I have experienced great pleasure watching them over the years and have on a couple of occasions run into them while out hiking. Viewing wolves away from the road systems is an awesome experience.

What's the most interesting thing you've ever seen in the park?

In 2005, watching the Slough Creek pack den in a very visible location was incredible. For 100 days we watched all aspects of denning, from digging to moving pups to feeding, etc. It was an incredible experience, with the knowledge that most wolf experts had never watched wolves den, and we were privileged to view them from a spot and they didn't care we were there. It was also the year that four females denned in the same den and communally raised four litters of pups.

Do you fear for the continued survival of the wolf outside the park, based on what you've observed inside it between the wolves? why?

I do feel that wolves will be persecuted outside the park. Montana I trust, their wildlife department is pretty good, though their bison management is not very good. Wyoming and Idaho have too many easy options for people to randomly shoot and kill wolves under their management plan. I do fear for some of the Yellowstone packs that occasionally venture outside the park's boundaries. It would be sad if these animals get killed just for leaving the park. I know that people are gearing up for the hunting season and to be able to kill wolves. The wolves that live outside the park will never again experience what being wild is. Once they are hunted and trapped, their behavior towards humans will change and their behavior will be be no different than those in Alaska and Canada. In Yellowstone, man is an inconvenience, we get in their way, take pictures, prevent them from crossing roads, etc, but they deal with it and it is not life threatening - except if they get hit by a vehicle. Outside the park, humans will soon become a major factor in the life of a wolf. The presence of humans will change wolf behavior and that will leave Yellowstone wolves to show us what wolves actually do when man is not a behavioral factor.

In what ways have you observed wolves benefiting the park since their reintroduction?

My business would not be in business had it not been for the wolves. Most of my trips revolve around wolves, whether we take people out to view them, or put on classes with wolf experts, like Doug Smith (Yellowstone wildlife biologist who was integral in the reintroduction of wolves). Park visitors are getting a rare chance to view wolves in the wild and to watch their behavior from hunting to denning and everything in between. The park benefits from having its top predator back in the mix and as a keystone species, everything benefits from its presence. The elk are acting like elk again, not sitting around without any worries. There are less elk, which wolves have contributed to, but are by no means totally responsible.  We have seen changes in how all residents of the park act. The bears are coming out of hibernation earlier than before to usurp bison and elk carcasses from wolves. We see less coyotes, which has benefited the small predators, like foxes, badgers, weasels, etc.

Anything else you'd like to add?

Wolves have become a huge part of my life as well as my family's. My closest friends, like Doug Smith and Rick McIntyre are those that I have met in the park viewing wolves or at conferences like the NA Interagency Wolf Conference. These friendships were first initiated because of wolves, but are now based on everything that doesn't include wolves.