Seven wolves posing threat to human safety euthanized in Price County
Endangered status limits DNR wolf population control
Deborah Bedolla
Reporter/Photographer
Since August, seven wolves have been euthanized by the Department of Natural Resources on a farm on Hicks Landing Road in Price County.
The decision to use lethal control methods came after attempts were made over several months to put an end to the wolf depredations with less drastic interventions.
In the spring, a male wolf was captured and tagged with a radio collar which would activate scare devices placed around the farm. When this was unsuccessful, special deterrent flagging material was placed around the farm, also to no effect.
When the wolves showed signs of habituation to humans, the DNR decided the potential for a wolf attacking a person, though still low, was enough to warrant euthanasia.
The case in Price County is one of two in the state in which the DNR has chosen to manage wolves with lethal controls.
Wolf depredations at a cranberry bog in central Wisconsin resulted in the deaths of multiple guard dogs and, when neighboring dogs also became prey for the wolves, the DNR decided to put those wolves down. The wolves are euthanized by being captured in a foot trap and shot.
Debate over endangered status
Animal welfare and environmentalist groups have repeatedly been at odds with the DNR over the classification of wolves as endangered animals.
According to Adrian Wydeven, a mammalian ecologist and conservation biologist with the DNR Bureau of Endangered Resources, the DNR does not have enough flexibility to handle the wolf population when they are listed as endangered.
They have been delisted to “threatened” status on numerous occasions in the past, but their current endangered listing, along with the revocation in 2005 of special permits for lethal controls granted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, means that the DNR can only use lethal controls in cases of a demonstrable threat to human safety.
According to Wydeven, wolf euthanizings were a regular occurrence when wolves were considered threatened rather than endangered, with 30-40 wolves removed annually in the state.
The endangered designation exists because the wolf population has been assessed over such a large area – from the Dakotas to the Atlantic coast most recently. Part of the push by the DNR to have wolves delisted is an attempt to have the state’s wolf population considered a distinct population segment for the purposes of status evaluations.
Wolves in Wisconsin are flourishing, with an estimated 700 wolves. This estimate by the DNR puts the population at more than double the management goal set by the DNR-issued Wisconsin wolf management plan.
Wolf population tracking is not a simple affair, and is mostly done through intensive track surveys every winter. A group of 10-12 DNR specialists, along with 150-175 volunteers are trained to recognize fresh tracks and to know the area a particular pack covers to ensure that counts exclude redundancies and are as accurate as possible.
The fact that wolf packs are territorial and do not typically cross each other’s boundaries facilitates the surveys.
In a press release about the DNR petition to Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, requesting that wolves be de-listed as endangered, DNR secretary Matt Frank is quoted as saying, “We have a healthy and growing wolf population. Restoration of this majestic wild animal is a great success story, an indicator of our state’s quality wild land habitat, and our dedication to wolf management in Wisconsin.”
This Tuesday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that there is significant information included in petitions from Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin that would warrant the removal of gray wolves from protection of the Endangered Species Act.
But until the DNR is granted permits for lethal controls or the wolf’s endangered status changes, the only reason for euthanizing wolves will be threats to human safety; though no wolf attacks on humans have been reported in the state.
Nevertheless, DNR biologists remain alert.
“Wolf attacks are rare, but at the same time we don’t want to sit on a situation where they might occur,” Wydeven said.