Issues

No other animal says northern wilderness like the gray wolf. The distant piercing howl of a wolf pack can send shivers up the spine of almost every vertebrate, including humans. In appearance and behavior wolves remind us of man’s best friend, the dog, as they should; dogs are descendants of wolves. However, in the wild, wolves are a far cry from the domestic dog. Wolves are surrounded by myths and legends, most of them dark, forbidding -- scary. Whether their frightening reputation fits the facts...that’s been a subject of controversy, probably since the dawn of human time.

The opportunity to see wolves is like so many other things: a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Wolf packs tend to follow the elk herds; elk herds move around during the year. During late fall, winter, and spring (roughly November through early June) the larger herds are in or near the major valleys: Lamar …

Seen as a circle of snarling, long-fanged killers closing in on the prey; or as a curious, dog-like face with fluffy white rimmed fur -- either way, wolves get our attention. Wolves are smart. They are persistent and fierce predators. They hunt in groups, as a pack. Pack hunting by wolves stimulates fear in the human imagination almost more than any other large predator, excepting the great cats (tigers, lions, cougars). Wherever wolves exist, they become the subject of mythology, and the present day is not excluded (think werewolf).  Wherever there are wolves, there are people who fear them, hate them, respect them, and venerate them. This is another way of expressing that wherever there are wolves and people, there is potential for conflict and controversy.

Like almost everything about wolf behavior, wolf attacks on humans are a matter of controversy. Movies and television routinely show people attacked by wolves, which leaves the impression that wolves are extremely dangerous. Then there is Kevin Costner doing the twist with ‘Two Socks’ in the movie Dances with Wolves. Many studies on wolf attacks have been done over the …

For starters: There is no such thing as a completely accurate map of wolf packs. Packs break up and form all the time, and they can change location. Most recent data is from 2007, so it’s already many months old, but the map can still provide a reasonable overview of the dispersal of wolves in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

 Wolves Leave Endangered Species List  A current controversy involving wolves is their delisting as an endangered species in the reintroduction areas of Yellowstone and Central Idaho. The officially adopted recovery plan stipulated that when the reintroduction locations reached at least 10 wolf packs of at least 10 members, the wolf would be down-listed from endangered species and potentially regulated hunting of …

The "wolf wars" are back in federal court. This time it is a coalition of environmental and animal rights groups seeking to reverse the recent delisting of the gray wolf as an endangered species in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, and to halt state management of wolves. The argument over delisting wolves goes back years, but legal action waited until the delisting was implemented (rescinded, then re-instated...) and wolves were being killed as a result of delisting. This promises to be not just a war of words, but a legal battle of scientific data -- who's got the most persuasive science. 

[Thursday February 22, 2008] In a news announcement today (Thursday 2/21/08) the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has decided to remove the gray wolf in the Northern Rockies from the list of endangered species. The formal statement in the Federal Register will be issued within in a couple of weeks and will take effect 30 days after that. It was …