Mange keeps Minnesota wolf complaints down
WOLVES:Trappers in Wisconsin killed 17 wolves near livestock attacks in 2003 while, in Minnesota, attacks declined as mange cut into the wolf herd.
BY JOHN MYERS
NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Federal trappers in Minnesota killed only 125 wolves in 2003, down substantially from the average of about 175 in recent years, apparently because a skin malady has cut into the wolf population.
Complaints of wolves attacking livestock and pets have been dropping and have been nearly nonexistent in recent months, and it appears the state’s wolf herd may be declining a bit after years of growth.
The decline in complaints has been dramatic, said Bill Paul, who heads the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s wildlife service’s program in northern Minnesota.
Paul believes mange, a skin problem that causes animals to die from exposure, may be reducing overall wolf numbers in the Minnesota.
“We aren’t getting the calls we usually do. We haven’t had any calls of pet attacks at all in the past few months,” he said. “There are a lot of deer out there for them to eat, which helps keeps them away from livestock. But I think the big thing is that we’ve seen a lot of wolves with mange in recent years.”
Mange starts when a parasitic mite burrows into the skin. The animal scratches so much that it removes enough hair to become vulnerable to cold, wet weather. Mange spreads between animals easily.
A 1998 survey by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources counted about 2,450 wolves, up from fewer than 1,000 30 years earlier. Their numbers likely continued to grow until the last few years, when they have stabilized or even declined some, Paul said.
The DNR currently is conducting another comprehensive wolf study, with results expected later this year.
“We were doing our surveying this winter, and we weren’t seeing wolves,” said Tom Rusch, area wildlife supervisor in Tower. “My gut feeling is that the mange got a lot of wolves over the past few years.”
Rusch said mange is a tough way for animals to die.
“You’d see the wolf, and it would look like a toy poodle — with a puff of fur on the tip of the tail and nothing else. You wouldn’t want to wish that on any critter, going through a Minnesota winter with no coat on,” Rusch said.
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, federal trappers killed 17 problem wolves in 2003, the first year that lethal wolf control was allowed. The Wisconsin DNR reported Wednesday that 20 cattle and 24 sheep were reported killed by wolves, along with one deer on a deer farm and six hunting dogs, mostly hounds turned loose to hunt bear.
The killing of wolves near areas where livestock attacks have occurred in Wisconsin has been allowed only since last April, when the federal government upgraded the wolf’s status in Wisconsin, Michigan, the Dakotas and other states from endangered to threatened.
Earlier, problem wolves in Wisconsin were trapped and relocated within the state. Lethal control has been allowed in Minnesota since 1978.
The change in wolf status in Wisconsin recently has been challenged in federal courts, and it’s not clear whether wolf trapping will be allowed to continue in Wisconsin and other states.
That lawsuit also has delayed additional federal action to remove wolves from federal protections altogether across most of the U.S.
That de-listing already has been delayed more than five years.
“For us to say we’ve reached recovery and to propose de-listing while the courts are considering what recovery is may seem contemptuous,” said Ron Refsnider of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “De-listing could be delayed for quite some time while this case goes on.”
Removing wolves from federal protections would allow states to take control of wolf management, including hunting and trapping seasons, something Minnesota and Wisconsin wildlife managers have sought for years.
Surveys estimate more than 335 wolves in 94 packs in Wisconsin. Wolf population growth has slowed significantly, officials say, in part because of mange.
Livestock were killed on 13 farms in Ashland, Barron, Bayfield, Burnett, Chippewa, Forest, Price, Rusk and Taylor counties, the DNR said.