How healthy is Yellowstone National Park's wolf population? While wildlife biologists say the wolves overall are doing well and that the recovery program launched in 1995 has indeed succeeded, this past year was tough for the park's keystone predators.
Disease and infighting are being blamed for a drop of more than 25 percent in the numbers of wolves in Yellowstone. While the drop from 171 wolves in 2007 to 124 in 2008, or 27 percent, seems staggering, back in 2005 the numbers showed a slightly greater drop, from 171 wolves counted in 2004 to 118.
Plus, Yellowstone officials say last year's decline was the first drop in wolf numbers in the park in three years.
The greatest decline occurred on the northern range, the area with the greatest wolf population density. The wolf population there dropped 40 percent, from 94 to 56 wolves. The decline in the wolf population in the interior of the park was smaller. That population dipped from 77 to 68 animals, off 11 percent from the previous year.
The number of breeding pairs in the park also declined from 10 to six. This is the lowest number of breeding pairs recorded since 2000 when wolves first met the minimum population requirement for delisting.
Previous population declines in 1999 and 2005 were attributed to the impacts of disease, especially on wolf pups. This past year, distemper, mange, and wolves killing each other are the likely causes of the population decline.
Distemper is fairly common in wildlife and is believed to be the major contributor to the recent decline in the population of wolf pups in the park. The often fatal virus can be found in and readily transmitted between wolves and other animals such as coyotes, foxes, raccoons, and skunks.
Biologists will capture and sample wolves to confirm that distemper is indeed affecting wolves. In 1999 and 2005 distemper was found in both wolves and coyotes.
Mange is a parasitic infection of the skin. It can weaken the animal, making it susceptible to infections and other problems which can lead to death.
Finally, wolves often kill each other over competition for food or territory. Population density could contribute to an increase in wolf-on-wolf mortality.
Multi-year research projects are underway to help wildlife biologists better understand the impacts of disease and of animal social dynamics on wolf population changes.
Comments
Funny how I was reading this article and then received the following email from DOW:
https://secure.defenders.org/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&...
Strictly coincidence.
You mean like the State of Montana did with mange?
the way it sounds is that manly they are killing each other it is not our problem i mean we cant interfere it's there way of life i can understand why you are botherd but it is not our prblem people wake up and smell the coffee
This is our problem we need to get rid of the wolves they are out of control. The people that like them it's ok but they are becoming a huge problem. They need to go they're killing the elk and a lot of other animals. THEY NEED TO GO!!!
There are some wolfs getting out of the park and the people who live of the wiled the wolfs are killing there food we need to prevent this from doing this i agree with junior selby they NEED TO GO
No, we don't need to do anything about this. Drought, harsh winters, predation, and pressure from predators like wolves, and most CERTAINLY, high human harvest rates, lowered the elk population dramatically. The wolves in areas with lighter population densities were less affected, and that is as it should be. The severe reduction in wolves matches the severe reduction in elk. Nature has ALREADY fixed the problem, and all we need to do is stand back. Wolves are hardy animals, and we've already done what we needed to do--we put enough of them back for them to create a sustainable population. Now we have to leave them alone to find their balance, learn how to hunt bison and other animals in addition to elk, and populate the park more evenly. They're doing that. They do not need our help any longer, they only need our absence.
As for wolves killing livestock...buy a LGD, put up some speakers and play wolf howls, and use wolf urine to mark the outlines of your field. If that doesn't solve the problem, bean-bag shots will. Non-lethal predator training methods have proven time and again to work better than lethal methods, and they're especially effective on social species like wolves, where parents train offspring where and how to hunt for an extended period of time. Besides, ranchers who can prove a wolf kill are fully compensated for the loss of their livestock. What more do they want? They need to sit down and shut up. The ecosystem was being RUINED BY ELK. Now it isn't. That is all there is to it.