Defenders Magazine
Get Defenders Headlines
Get the latest wildlife conservation news and information... right when we post it online.
Defenders Magazine
Wildlife: As the Wolf's World Turns
Wolves by Numbers
As the battle over the Rocky Mountain wolf's protected status rages on in the courts, wolves in the wild continue down their own path. Here's an end-of-year roundup:
- -1,455 wolves roamed Montana, Idaho and Wyoming as of late 2008, down slightly from the 1,545 wolves estimated to be in the region at the same time in 2007. This suggests the wolf population in the region may be leveling off after 10 years of growth, according to Ed Bangs of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
-The number of wolf packs climbed from 179 to 197 packs by the end of 2008, but this is not considered a significant change.
-Idaho, Montana and Wyoming remain the only states with wolf packs in the northern Rocky Mountains wolf recovery zone—which also covers parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah. Genetic testing showed that the wolf pack found in north-central Washington last year likely migrated from British Columbia, not the Rockies.It may come as a surprise, but larger numbers of wolves in the greater Yellowstone region are helping pronghorn to thrive. That's because wolves are scaring off coyotes, which prey on pronghorn fawns, according to new research. In fact, pronghorn numbers have increased by 50 percent in Grand Teton National Park alone since 1995 and 1996, when wolves were reintroduced to the area.
"People tend to think that more wolves mean fewer prey," says Kim Berger, lead author of the Wildlife Conservation Society study. "But it's not true in this case." That's because wolves opt for larger prey like elk and generally don't bother pronghorn.
Got Salmon?
If so, the "fishing wolves" of British Columbia would like to know. Apparently they can't get enough. New research has found that when salmon is readily available, these wolves prefer it to anything else on the menu. In the spring and summer these coastal wolves mostly rely on deer, but come fall, migrating salmon are all the rage.
"Salmon continue to surprise us, showing us new ways in which their oceanic migrations eventually permeate entire terrestrial ecosystems," says co-author Thomas Reimchen of the University of Victoria in Canada. "In terms of providing food and nutrients to a whole food web, we like to think of them as North America's answer to the Serengeti's wildebeest."
Indeed, wolves and salmon once coexisted from California to Alaska, according to the journals of early North American naturalists. And if we're not careful, caution the researchers, this relic of a relationship between wolves and salmon in British Columbia may go down the same dead-end path—given all the threats that face salmon.
Learn more about wolves in the northern Rockies.
Visit Defenders’ wolf blog for the latest on wolves in the West:
www.myyellowstonewolves.typepad.com.
