Map used to predict where wolves prey
BY ROBERT IMRIE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WAUSAU, Wis. – Scientists from a New York-based wildlife group and researchers from Wisconsin say they have developed a high-tech way to predict where wolves might prey on livestock, perhaps allowing farmers to prevent the attacks.
Timber wolves killed 20 cattle and 24 sheep on more than a dozen farms across northern Wisconsin last year.
The Wildlife Conservation Society said using geographic information system mapping, it developed maps of Wisconsin and Minnesota suggesting problem spots for wolves.
Adrian Treves, a scientist for the group, said he was optimistic the maps can be used to reduce conflict between wolves and people, so that wolves won’t be needlessly killed to solve the problem.
But John Erb, a wolf biologist for the state Department of Natural Resources in Minnesota, was more cautious about the practical value of the mapping. Minnesota has a population of about 2,450 timber wolves.
He said the maps will be useful in looking at the growth of wolf populations and trying to predict the factors associated with where they will cause problems.
The timber wolf is a native species that was wiped out in Wisconsin by the late 1950s after decades of bounty hunting.
Since the animal was granted protection as an endangered species in the mid-1970s, wolves migrated into the state from Minnesota and their numbers have been growing ever since.
The most recent count indicated 335 wolves roamed in Wisconsin, mainly in the north. That probably is the most since the 1800s.
Minnesota’s wolf population, concentrated in the northern half of the state, has remained steady for years, Minnesota DNR wildlife research manager Mike DonCarlos said.
Each year, 100 to 200 wolves in Minnesota are destroyed because they killed domestic animals, such as cattle, sheep, horses, turkeys, ducks and dogs, he said.
In Wisconsin, 17 wolves were euthanized last year after being trapped near five farms where they were killing domestic animals.