Wolf Recovery: The Exploitation of a Species

[wolfbait]

Wolf Recovery: The Exploitation of a Species
T.R. Mader, Abundant Wildlife Society
"All we learn from history is that we don't learn from history," so goes a well-known saying. How true!

It's claimed the wolf's history is one of exploitation, readily condemned by the self-acclaimed saviors of the wolf. Those greedy ranchers, thinking only of dollars and personal gain, trapped, shot and poisoned wolves until they were no more. Thoughts of wildness, wilderness, ecosystems and ecological balance never once entered their minds.

Yet, in reality, little has changed. Today the wolf is used for such selfish desires as job security (federal biologists, radio collars, kennels, studies), emotional satisfaction (wolves are the symbols of wildness, aren't they?), and, yes, personal gain -- $$$$$$$$$$$$.

Wolf recovery is big money for both government and private organizations. The government has spent millions on wolf-related studies. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has radio-collared more than 500 wolves in Minnesota alone and that project is still on-going.

We've all received those tear-jerker letters on wolves, how we can save them from extinction, etc., etc. Pick up your local wildlife catalog and you'll find all kinds of wolfie gifts. There are paintings--the kind to show wolves' "gentle qualities," or as "wilderness guardians;" Knives with wolves etched on the sides; wolf blankets, rugs and doormats; ties with wolves; wolf jackets, sweaters, sweatshirts, T-shirts; wolf belt buckles; wolf lapel/blouse pins; wolf stamps for your letters; wolf stationary and notes; wolf shopping and tote bags; wolf mugs; wolf door chimes; wolf key rings; wolf bookends; stuffed wolf pups; even wolf furniture--coffee and end tables with wolves etched in glass. The selection seems endless. This writer counted 28 such items in one catalog.

What does all this mean? Dollars! Wolves sell! They make money. And they guarantee job security for federal biologists and similar ilk. They mean big dollars in the coffers of wolf promoters.

But we're saving the wolf, aren't we? No, we're not! We're simply exploiting them in a new politically correct way.

Wolves are not biologically endangered. They never have been, nor will they be in the foreseeable future. They are politically defined as endangered in the Endangered Species Act. (Politically defined as endangered: The government sets artificial standards by which they can term a species endangered.) Yes, it's true we drastically reduced wolves' range, but they are not endangered. Biologists estimate wolves number over 50,000 in North America.

Now look what we did to them in the Yellowstone Recovery!

First, we aerial gunned them with tranquilizer darts (we even killed one doing this) and kidnapped them from their native habitat in Canada. Second, we imprisoned them in steel cages. Third, we drew blood, eartagged, radio collared and vaccinated these wolves. Fourth, we transported them to foreign soil and placed them in kennels. (Eyewitnesses state many cages were bloody from the wolves attempting escape by the time they reached Yellowstone.) Fifth, we turned them loose in this foreign place where more than 3 million people visit, drive, hike, camp and who knows what else. Do we have the wolf's best interest in mind here?

We must also note this area of release, i.e. Yellowstone National Park, is surrounded on all sides by people who have adamantly voiced their opposition to wolves so strongly that even state legislatures went on record repeatedly opposing this program, an area where the three S's--shoot, shovel, and shut-up--have become sort of unwritten law. An area where wolves have been naturally migrating for 15 years and only number about 85 now, concentrated in and near a national park.

Example: The nine-mile pack (also known as the Tragic Pack) in Montana. The mother was illegally shot, the father killed by a vehicle. FWS kept the pups alive by artificial feeding. These pups killed some cattle. They were then harassed by helicopter until captured, undoubtedly scared out of their wits during this ordeal. They're relocated to unfamiliar country. They disperse--one heads for livestock country, is re-captured and permanently locked up in a sanctuary in Washington State. Two are illegally killed and the third is simply missing--later found shot, too.

We have insisted all along that if the pro-wolf/pro-recovery people bullied this recovery on the western states, it wouldn't work and the wolf will be the loser. We've been prophetic.

So exploitation continues. The wolf loses, but that really doesn't matter anymore since it isn't the greedy ranchers who profit.

T.R. Mader, who grew up on a ranch in Wyoming, is research director of Abundant Wildlife Society of North America, an international wildlife organization opposed to the exploitation of wolves through recovery.

http://outside.away.com/news/specialreport/wolf/mader.html

[Idabooner]

Interesting read. Maybe there's hope.

[Cougfan]

RMEF CEO  David Allen responded back in April to a letter from the Defenders of Wildlife letter. Both can be viewed at the rmef web site in the news releases section. I copied below some of the facts stated in his letter. I was blown away. Didn't know it was so bad.   




Factual examples cited in Allen’s recent letter:

The Northern Yellowstone elk herd trend count has dropped from some 19,000 elk in 1995 before the introduction of the Canadian Gray wolf to just over 6,000 elk in 2008. At the same time the wolf numbers in this same area are on a steady increase.
Yellowstone’s Madison Firehole elk herd trend count has fallen from 700 to 108.
The Gallatin Canyon elk herd trend count between Bozeman and Big Sky, Mont., has declined from 1,048 to 338.
Wolf numbers in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have far exceeded the original goals of 30 breeding pairs and 300 total wolves. Population estimates now exceed 1,700 wolves. And yet and others want to push the total up to 2,000 to 5,000 wolves.
Studies show that wolves kill up to 23 elk per wolf from November through April alone or up to 40,000 elk in just six months. A smaller but still significant number are killed from May through October; with total annual elk kills by wolves just for food potentially greater than 50,000 at the present level of wolf population. This accounts for only the elk needed for food, not surplus killing, which are elk killed by wolves and not eaten, which also occurs. The majority of all these kills are not elk that are sick or old.
Elk calf survival rates where wolves (and bears) are present are extremely low in specific herds, resulting in a survival rate of 10 percent or less—too low to sustain the herd over the long-term. RMEF points out this is a major issue as elk numbers going into the future, where wolves are concentrated, will suffer even greater losses and replacement becomes out of balance.
“Pro-wolf groups like to cite statewide elk numbers because it glosses over the ongoing annihilation of local elk herds,” said Allen. “They like to say that elk and wolves evolved together and would coexist now if man would just leave them alone, which completely ignores the fact that this is no longer the Old West and millions of us live here now. Habitat is shrinking at a rapid pace and the wildlife that lives here must be carefully managed. Man must manage wildlife and we have done so very successfully for over a century. We’re long past the day when wolf populations can be left unchecked. Right now this is simply a wolf amnesty program and the results are becoming alarming.”