Is there a future for the reintroduced wolf?

"The wolf is neither vicious nor huggable, dangerous nor lovable. It is merely one more interesting species long persecuted by humans throughout the centuries that requires a place to survive. It is true that a number of "Dr. Know-it-alls" have chosen the wolf to idolize, but most wolf biologists believe such idolatry is not in the long-term best interests of the species." L. David Mech

According to David Mech (1994) wolves could live in far more places if wolf advocates could accept effective control. Reintroduction of this top predator means that wolves and humans must find a way to co-exist. At this point, direct lethal control is still usually the only practical way (Mech, 1994). Since recovery began 5 years ago, the government has relocated 91 wolves and killed 82 wolves (Corbett, 2000). Although the gray wolf is endangered, reintroduced wolves are coined "non-essential experimental populations," which basically means that the government has the authority to manage wolves perceived as problematic. Between 1988 and 1993 the number of wolves in Minnesota increased by an estimated 15%, and this saw an increase in the number of wolves killed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal Damage Control Program from 59 to 139, or 223% (Mech, 1994).

Many wolf advocates are concerned about the future of these wolves, especially if they are de-listed and therefore a threatened species left to be regulated by individual state policies. The rules of wolf interaction would change with the delisting, and there are concerns that the wolves may be harassed, relocated, and killed to reduce conflicts with humans. The dispersal of existing wolf populations in Canada into the northwest United States will in theory repopulate the mountains of Montana with wolves, as was mentioned in the ESA recovery plan. Following ESA protection there is evidence of an increase in wolf numbers beyond the primary range in Minnesota as dispersers established new ranges in the three states surrounding Lake Superior (Fuller et al., 1992; USFWS, 1992 cited in Mladenoff, 1995). There is also a potential dispersal corridor from Canada south into New Hampshire, Maine, and New York. However, this route is saturated with great obstacles due to the presence of humans and the challenges of road crossings, railroads, river stretches, and multiple 4-lane highways (Wydeven et al., 1998).

Still, in terms of wolf numbers, reintroduction has been a success. The original 66 gray wolves introduced in Idaho and Wyoming have multiplied to as many as 500 wolves over the course of 5 years (Corbett, 2000). Now we are left with the question of how many wild wolves do we need, or want, or how many can we handle? Does it make sense for people to expend so much in reintroducing this endangered predator, if people are eventually going to kill most of the wolves through control management?

"An argument for wilderness that goes deeper still is that we have an ethical obligation to provide animals with a place where they are free from the impingements of civilization." (Barry Lopez, 1983 cited in Phillips and Smith, 1996)

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