Stop Crying Wolf Over Wolves

Probably no animal evokes stronger human emotions than the wolf. Little Red Riding Hood, Romulus and Remus, werewolves and sexual predators define historical images of the wolf, both dreaded as a vicious killer and revered in Indian lore as a fearless warrior.

These exaggerated images and misconceptions help explain the passionate debate over the reintroduction of gray wolves in the northern Rockies--nearly 70 years after the last wolf was exterminated in the conterminous 48 states. Federal wildlife officials plan to release 14 wolves imported from Canada into the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park next month. Already, 15 have been released in Idaho national forests. All were fitted with radio tracking collars.

This program is meant to remove wolves from the endangered species list. (They were extinguished in the lower 48 states but have since migrated back from Canada into Montana and Minnesota in small numbers.) However, ranchers in the Northwest fear the wolves will feast on sheep and cattle instead of deer and elk and thus have been fighting the program. A more scientific examination of the facts suggests that Canis lupus could well have a highly beneficial effect on the Northwest’s environment, possibly even helping ranchers by reducing the numbers of their most feared enemy, the coyote.

If the desired breeding packs emerge, wolves are expected to have a wide ripple effect on Yellowstone’s ecosystem, presumably pruning the huge herds of elk and thereby restoring vegetation and altering the balance of numerous other species, animal and plant. And visitors to Yellowstone will thrill again to the chilling howls of the wolf.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that by the year 2002 the wolf population in the northern Rockies will have recovered to 300 at most. Whether the wolves will substantially affect local livestock is hard to predict; in northwestern Montana, where 75 wolves have migrated naturally from Canada, the predators killed only two calves last year. Last month one of 15 wolves released in Idaho was shot after she killed a newborn calf. Under the federal program, ranchers may shoot wolves they catch killing livestock on their own ranches.

The 2,000 wolves in northern Minnesota have caused no great problems, and wolves present no direct threat to humans. The governor of Alaska deserves praise for halting that state’s inhumane wolf hunts by wire snares. If a new wolf population poses a real threat in the Northwest, it can be controlled. If ranchers armed only with carbines could exterminate thousands of wolves two generations ago, certainly hunters with helicopters and semiautomatic weapons can control a few hundred today.

This is a worthy experiment in ecosystem management. It is time to stop crying wolf over wolves.