Wolves find a home in Yellowstone
By Dan Vergano
USA Today
The death last month of two wolf sisters, the last
of the Canadian wolves transplanted to Yellowstone National Park
eight years ago, closed an era in the successful, and contentious,
effort to re-establish wolves there, biologists say.
The pair were released in the 2,219,791-acre park,
which spans parts of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, in 1995-96, joining 29 other wolves in an effort to reintroduce a predator
wiped out in the 1930s. More than 300 wolves live in and around the
park today.
“Now none of the original ones are left,” says
Yellowstone Wolf Project chief Doug Smith of the National Park
Service. “And how these ones died is indicative how wolves are
typically killed — by other wolves and by people.”
One sister, dubbed 42F but known as “Cinderella,”
was killed Feb. 2 by a rival wolf pack. Her sister, 41F, died 10
days later, ill with mange and limping from an injured leg. Game
officials shot her after she killed a newborn calf.
Cinderella earned her nickname four years ago after
helping to kill a third sister, 40F, after suffering years of
domination.
But rather than indicating disaster, the deaths
point to success in the program to bring wolves back to
Yellowstone, Smith says. Wolves there are expanding their domains
and getting into fights with greater frequency as things get
crowded.
“It’s all about politics with wolves now; it’s not
biology,” says longtime wolf watcher Ralph Maughan of Pocatello,
Idaho. As territories shift in the park, deaths such as 42F’s are
“like something out of Shakespeare,” Maughan says.
Like Macbeth without his Lady, 42F’s partner, the
park-born male wolf dubbed 21M, is left to hold together his Druid
Peak wolf pack against other packs. Female and male alpha wolves,
such as 42F and 21M, typically dominate their pack, acting as the
sole breeding pair and leading the others on hunts. “The female
alpha is usually the glue that holds the pack together,” Maughan
says.
After spending several days howling for his mate,
21M picked a new alpha female. So far the pack is holding together,
Smith says.
The death of 41F death illustrates a source of
contention in human politics over wolves. Wolves kill livestock —
less often than was first predicted a decade ago, says Smith — but
some ranchers say they aren’t fairly compensated for such losses.
In January, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
announced plans to “delist” the wolf from endangered to
“threatened” status in Western states, citing the existence of more
than 600 wolves total in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. The move would
allow ranchers to kill wolves caught preying on livestock without calling in federal officials.