By MARK HEINZ
Amid ongoing controversy and fascination, wolves are coming into long-term equilibrium with their prey and habitat here, an expert on the predators said.
Meanwhile, the trend of wolves moving out of Yellowstone Park might be reversing itself, at least in the northern part of the park, said Douglas Smith, the head of Yellowstone’s Gray Wolf Restoration Project.
Smith, himself a hunter, said he takes a “moderate” position regarding wolf management, and doesn’t think a single policy will work in all areas.
“There are areas where wolves could be hunted heavily, and others where they don’t need to be,” he said.
While also noting that killing more wolves can result in more elk, Smith said he’s not sure that’s what he always wants as a hunter, because it’s more akin to “agriculture” than wildlife management.
Wolves are already hunted in Montana and Idaho.
After a deal struck by Gov. Matt Mead and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar paved the way for delisting wolves here, Wyoming wolf hunts are expected to open in October.
That would include limited quotas in some hunt areas near Cody.
Smith, who has previously spoken about wolves in Cody, gave a presentation Aug. 2 at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.
The “first phase” of wolf restoration has ended, he said, and the area is starting to see more permanent trends in terms of wolves and their effect on the surrounding environment, Smith said.
The time from when the first reintroduced wolves were set free in 1995 until about 2010 saw an adjustment period, often marked by dramatic increases in the wolf population, he said.
Since then, the wolf population has adjusted itself to the environment through such factors as a thinning prey base in some areas, disease, wolf migration and wolves killing one another in competition, Smith said.
Typically, the greatest concentration of wolves in Yellowstone has been in the northern part of the park, Smith said.
That’s where their numbers thinned out in recent years, and some wolves are now apparently migrating back into that part of Yellowstone, he said.
Within the park, packs tend to be larger, Smith said.
Packs outside the park are smaller primarily because of human-caused mortality, such as wolves being shot for threatening cattle, or stuck by vehicles, he said.
Along with biology and ecology, social changes have shaped the fate of wolves and other predators in the greater Yellowstone area, Smith noted.
The 19th and early 20th centuries saw unmitigated killing of virtually all predator – wolves were eliminated from YNP by 1926, he said.
The only reason bears were spared is they apparently caught the fancy of some park administrators at the time, Smith said.
Since then, social and scientific views have broadened, to include more tolerance of wolves, cougars and other predators, Smith said.
That has led to a generally healthier ecosystem, with a full range of top-tier predators stalking the Yellowstone area, he said.
In turn, that’s prompted speculation about whether an ecosystem’s health comes from the “bottom up,” with plants thriving after getting a break from an over-abundance of grazing and browsing ungulates, Smith said.
Other experts have argued it’s more of a “top down” phenomena, resting upon the presence of apex predators.
“It might work both ways,” Smith said.
He also doesn’t put stock in the idea that the reintroduced wolves are essentially a “non-native” subspecies, and therefore might have a greater effect on game herds.
There are some variations in wolf sub-populations, such as relative size, but those are far less relevant than territorial adaptations in species such as mice, which can’t cross natural barriers like rivers.
“There’s not a river or mountain range in the world that will stop a wolf,” and wolves will travel vast distances in search of a mate or new territory, Smith said.
“A wolf is a wolf is a wolf,” he said.