Wolf Notes SY2022
The Natural Range of the Northern Gray Wolf used to stretch from the artic to the tropics.
Both man and wolf survived the last ice age and use the same tactics; social organization and sophisticated
communication with tight nit groups working in unison toward a common goal.
Domestication of animals put man and wolves in direct competition for resources.
Though legends abound about wolves killing humans, there is no documentation of a healthy wild wolf ever
killing a human. ***
Between 1883 and 1919 80 thousand wolf bounties were collected in the United States.
Yellowstone National Park the Organic Act and the threatened and Endangered Species Act require an interest
in maintenance of all species that originally existed with in the park. Yellowstone was established in 1872 as
the World’s first National Park.
Yet from 1914 to 1936 government agents killed 136 wolves (including 80 pups) completely removing the wolf
from Yellowstone’s boundaries.
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 required by law the interest in the preservation of those species deemed
endangered of extinction either by number of individuals or lack of viable habitat. At the time of its writing,
that would include the Gray Wolf.
In 1995 more than 60 year after the removal of wolves from Yellowstone National Park wolves were
reintroduced. These wolves were wild trapped from Jasper Park in western Alberta Canada.
Mike “Doug” Smith is the Biologist in charge of the “Wolf Reintroduction Project” which returned several wild
caught packs (from Jasper National Park, Canada) to the Yellowstone ecosystem in July of 1996.
Yellowstone is surround by “Public Land” (owned, like the park, by all people of the nation) the majority of this
land is leased, by the federal government, to private individuals for logging and livestock grazing. This area
while publicly owned is less protected by law than the land within the national park boundaries.
The endangered species act has been amended allowing the destruction of wolves that depredate (kill)
livestock.
Canis Lupus (the Gray Wolf) packs exist und the strict hierarchy of wolf social lives; with an Alpha pair (the only
breeding individuals in the pack), Beta – Second in command, and the Omega – the lowest ranking member of
the pack (other than pups). The Omega wolf serves an important function within the pack as the scapegoat or
stress reliever. Both in the format of initiating play with in the pack as well as receiving the blunt of pack
aggression. Named for the geologic feature in the area where the pack, featured in this video, established
their territory, the Druid Peak Pack in which the Alpha female and the Beta wolf are sisters.
Wolves as individuals or pairs have a hard time bringing down the large animals on which they prey. It takes a
pack to create a viable population of wolves.
Less than one percent of wildlands now exists in the lower 48 states. The questions lies: What is to become of
the species that man has pushed out environmentally, if we are not willing to share the only suitable
environment remaining? Less than one percent of the original population of Grey Wolves now exist in the
lower 48 United States. We need to ask ourselves if the needs of one species out weighs the needs of another, and
what our roll as a species is in nature.
Since the wolves return to Yellowstone there has been a decline of nearly half of the coyote population.
However, with the adult coyote population down, the availability of food has increased and coyote pup
survival rate is up.
Though wolves are noted for their hunting prowess, on average only one in four hunts in Yellowstone are
successful.
Other species within the park have seen an up tic in numbers due to the availability of carcasses left by the wolf. Those
species include: Bear (both Black and Grizzly), Fox, Eagle, Hawks, Magpie, Raven, Antelope, Big Horned Sheep.
Biological study of wolf kills revile that the carcass of the animals were old, injured, diseased or otherwise
unhealthy. This fact speaks to the theory that wolves help keep the herds healthy. As humans (hunters and
managers) we are very poor wolves.
Wolves like all species have evolved over thousands of years with the natural environment and have a purpose, a niche,
in that environment. What science has learned from this experiment has change the way we look at the necessity of
every species at every tropic level with in a functioning biome. On a “Ecological Energy Pyramid” the wolf fills the roll of
the Tertiary Consumer.