John Clemente

5/1/2023

Wildlife Management Issue Analysis

Humans and Wolves

Summary

Humans perceive wolves in four ways(Four Perceptions - Living With Wolves, 2020).

The native Americans perceive wolves as a symbol, they see the wolf as an animal of great

wisdom and a spiritual guide. Scientists perceive wolves as something that needs to be carefully

monitored for the sake of conservation and understanding. Scientists study the wolf’s breeding,

predation, diet, pack structure, habitat and more. Many throughout history since medieval times

have perceived wolves as the incarnation of evil and nightmares. Painting wolves out to be

ancient beasts of fables, fear, and superstition, even demons. This perception has followed them

through time to today. The last perception is that of the social animal, one of many species that

share characteristics with humans. Wolves are capable of emotion and compassion. Each has

their own personality and role to play within the pack, they form unique relationships and bonds

with their fellow pack members and all work to structure and strengthen the pack. They care for

their injured, protect their family, and feel the need to be part of something bigger than

themselves. This paper will focus on the scientific and the evil with a little bit of the social

animal.

Wolves are a major part of the natural world around us. We have revered them as the

ultimate symbol of the wilderness, worshiped them as a spirit of nature, and idolized them as the

ultimate social animals, at one point we even tamed and befriended them to survive in this world
(International Wolf Center, 2023). Yet over time we have come to fear and hate them and the

stories and fairytales we are told throughout our lives do nothing but empower that fear and

hatred. Even with the encroaching fear and hatred each person has a different perspective of

wolves influenced by cultural and personal experiences, perception, and education. Wolves in

the wild are shy and avoid humans, most will never see a wolf or have any conflict with one. To

keep yourself and the animals safe do not approach it, do not feed, or entice it, and give it space.

There is a higher chance of being killed by lightning than to be injured by a wolf. Like other

animals, wolves can lose their fear of us through habituation, like feeding, and this will then

increase the possibility for conflict.

In North America wolves primarily hunt and feed on animals such as moose, elk, deer,

caribou, muskox, and bison(U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service).They have long legs well adapted to

running, large skulls and jaws to catch and feed on larger animals, and keen senses of smell,

hearing and vision used to detect prey and each other. In the early 1900s, wolves were eliminated

from most of the United States(U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service). In 1978 gray wolves were

reclassified as an endangered species, then the Rocky Mountain population was delisted in 2011,

the Wyoming population in 2017, and all other populations in the United States were delisted in

2021, just to be relisted in 2022(U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service). Most recently Colorado has

decided to start reintroducing gray wolves.

Yellowstone:

The wolves and all other major predators were deliberately eliminated in the park by

1926 and the elk populations skyrocketed in the years between then and 1995 when the wolves

were reintroduced(Boyce, 2018). Park managers tried using culls to keep the elk population in

check killing tens of thousands between 1932 and 1968(Boyce, 2018). The public response to
this was very negative and caused the culls to end which then caused the elk population to shoot

up from a few thousand to 20,000.From 1981 to 1995 the elk population in the park averaged

about 15,500 (Smith et al., 2003).Without wolves the increased elk populations caused serious

damage to the vegetation in the park and were dying off from a lack of food (Boyce, 2018). After

the wolves were reintroduced in 1995 the elk became their primary prey year-round, and the elk

population became more sustainable. The vegetation has returned but some parts of the park

have not completely recovered to this day.

Other than the elk many other species have been affected by the return of the wolves.

Coyote populations grew rapidly without wolves. Their populations have decreased and

stabilized due to predation by wolves. With less coyotes the pronghorn fawn’s survival seems to

have increased as coyotes were their main predators(Smith et al., 2003). Grizzly bear populations

have increased since being listed on the Endangered Species Act and share many of the same

prey species with wolves, most interactions between the two occur at kills for control of the

carcass(Smith et al., 2003). Many scavengers share the kills with wolves and grizzlies but the

most interesting is the ravens. Ravens will follow wolves to the kill or even fly overhead as the

wolves pursue their prey(Smith et al., 2003). The cougars have also slowly returned to

Yellowstone but there is very little interaction between them and wolves, cougars avoid wolves

and are subordinate at kill sites(Smith et al., 2003). Twenty-eight years later the wolves of

Yellowstone that people feared would wipe out the elk and cause more problems have proven

themselves to be a stabilizing force.

Minnesota:

Minnesota was the last holdout of wolves in North America in the 1900s and continues to

protect their wolf populations to this day. At the time of the Endangered Species Act there were
about 750 wolves in the state, and they had just ended a livestock-predation control program

(Wolf Conservation Center, 2023). Minnesota’s goal is to maintain a population of two to three

thousand wolves. In a study to see how the public felt about wolves they surveyed residents,

hunters, and livestock producers; 87% of the residents, 67% of hunters, and 47% of livestock

producers said it was important to maintain a wolf population; while 6% of residents, 26% of

hunters, and 42% of livestock producers said it wasn’t, the rest were neutral(DNR). The state’s

goal is to maintain a population of about 2-3 thousand wolves and that goal has already been

reached. In 2021 there were about 2700 wolves in Minnesota, almost more than the entire

northern rocky mountain population (Wolf Conservation Center, 2023). Wise and careful

management allows the wolves to flourish and repopulate and they are clearly valued by the

public.

Colorado:

Colorado plans to reintroduce gray wolves by the end of this year. The plan is to release 10-15

wolves annually for 3-5 years, totaling around 50 wolves reintroduced(Chudzik, 2022). The

wolves will be relocated from the current populations in the Northern and Central Rockies and

released into Western Colorado. The wolves will help restore balance in nature that was lost after

being eradicated from the state in 1945(Rapp, 2020). To help with the reintroduction the

Colorado Parks and Wildlife department will implement educational and outreach programs as

well as compensation for any lost livestock confirmed to have been killed by wolves to livestock

owners(Chudzik,2022). The outreach programs will focus on conflict minimization techniques

for livestock owners. Before their plans could be implemented, they had to get the public

involved so they put it to a vote and the citizens of Colorado voted in favor of reintroducing

wolves into the state.

 Challenges

For centuries wolves have been villainized, since medieval times they have been depicted

as beasts and even demons(Living with Wolves, 2021). European settlers brought this fear and

hatred with them to North America, and it lives on to this day. These misleading stereotypes and

misrepresentations seep into our imaginations and shape our understanding of wolves(Living

with Wolves, 2021). We all grew up on stories of the “big bad wolf” now imagine if the wolf was

your neighbor, times have changed but this fear and hatred still exists.

The challenges faced by wolves all stem from that ancient fear and hatred, humans have

hated and feared them for thousands of years that it must have seeped into our subconscious at

this point. Because of this fear and hatred gray wolf management strategies have ranged from

eradication to protection and recovery to predator control and hunting seasons(Cassidy et al.,

2023). These conflicting management strategies only get worse when the wolves cross the line

from one extreme to the other. A recent example of this was when wolves were delisted during

the Trump administration and continued to be unlisted during the Biden administration until they

were relisted in 44/48 states (MT,ID,WY,NM remain unlisted). The perception of wolves being

dangerous continued to shape their population once more without protection from the ESA. The

wolves remained safe as long as they stayed in the park where the National Park Service

protected them. But when they left the boundary of the park, they entered three states that had

them delisted long before this delisting and had healthy populations. Wyoming allowed year-

round wolf killing across 85% of the state(America’s New War on Wolves and Why It Must Be

Stopped, n.d.). Idaho put bounties as high as $2,000 on wolves and legalized killings at any

time(America’s New War on Wolves and Why It Must Be Stopped, n.d.). Montana passed similar

legislation seeking to eradicate 90% of its wolves and removed the buffer around Yellowstone
(America’s New War on Wolves and Why It Must Be Stopped, n.d.). In 2021 273 wolves were

hunted in Montana. This persecution of wolves was and is extremely unpopular with the public

as it took outrage and outcry from so many people to get Biden to relist them. This outcry

included 85 members of the House of Representatives, 21 senators, 200 tribal leaders, 30

business leaders, 61 conservation groups, over 800 scientists and so many more(America’s New

War on Wolves and Why It Must Be Stopped, n.d.).

Yet research has shown that the acceptability of lethal management of carnivores

increases with the severity of conflicts and impacts of said carnivore even when non-lethal

methods are more acceptable and humane(Way & Bruskotter, 2012). An example of this is the

hunters and ranchers of the west, as they are the main competitors with wolves for food,

resources, and livelihoods. Hunters compete with wolves for elk but they each hunt the elk at

different parts of the life cycle(Boyce, 2018). Wolves kill the young and the old while hunters

kill the bulls and females of high reproductive values (Boyce, 2018). Hunters that kill wolves

around Yellowstone may get up to $200 a pelt but those same wolves are worth so much more

alive, people come to Yellowstone to see the wolves, park officials estimate that each wolf is

worth around $1 million in ecotourism not to mention how important they are to the ecosystem

(America’s New War on Wolves and Why It Must Be Stopped, n.d.). When it comes to being a

menace to livestock, in 2015, 1900 wolves shared the Rocky Mountains with 1.6mil cattle and

wolves killed 148 cows, or 0.01%, and the ranchers were compensated (America’s New War on

Wolves and Why It Must Be Stopped, n.d.). These few negative interactions are overinflated

leading to a continued lack of rational decision making.

Killing wolves has been shown to increase livestock attacks because the pack can be

destabilized(Study: Killing Wolves Means More Livestock Attacks, 2023). Human caused
mortality of wolves has extremely negative effects on their persistence and reproduction at a

pack level. The study concluded that human caused mortality decreased the persistence of packs

by 27%, or 73% if the pack leader was killed, it also decreased reproduction by 22%(Cassidy,

2023). These human caused changes are a concern for any agencies or organizations with goals

of natural regulation and preservation of wolf packs and biological processes. Wolves have

proven to be essential to the ecosystems they call home as a keystone species and apex predator.

Yet this fact is continuously ignored due to inaccurate risk assessments, and this causes

ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss (Big Bad Wolf and Other Tales: How Psychology

Shapes Our Perceptions of Wildlife | School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, 2022).

There are many nonlethal ways that ranchers can learn to reduce conflicts, live with, and

even coexist with wolves(Ranching With Wolves — American Wolf Foundation, n.d.). The first

step to coexistence for ranchers is assessing their needs and thinking like a wolf. To do this, they

need to keep track of the number, age, and health of their livestock, their location, the season,

and accessibility of the grazing area all while understanding the wolfs perspective. The next step

is to reduce attractants, that means removing diseases or dying livestock and properly disposing

of carcasses, it also means keeping calving operations closer to home and under supervision.

Other tactics to reduce conflicts with wolves include livestock guardian dogs, building barriers

and using fladry, increasing the human presence, keeping the heard on the move, using scare

tactics, or even “mountain-savvy” cattle that know what to do around wolves themselves. There

are many nonlethal options to use to reduce conflicts when living in wolf country, hunting and

trapping are not the only options.

If ranchers continue to suspect wolves of predation on their livestock there may be a way

to find out what really killed it. A study in Europe used DNA from biological samples to
determine what species of candid attacked a man in a reported “wolf attack” (Caniglia et al.,

2016). The man originally said he was attacked by a wolf while picking berries. Then after the

researchers and scientists did their experiment and determined that he was attacked by a dog, not

a wolf or wolf hybrid just a dog, the man changed his story and confirmed that he was attacked

by a neighbor’s guard dog.

Areas of Uncertainty

The future is uncertain for wolves in North America. The future management of wolves

and their ecosystems should focus on a return to and recovery of natural processes(Winemiller &

Beschta, 2004). Many, including hunters and ranchers, have come to the realization that we need

to coexist with these apex predators and that they deserve humane treatment and respect. There

will always be some with the perception that they are evil as we have painted them that way for

thousands of years. So as wolves continue to be reintroduced into their historical range and

re/delisted from the ESA and people’s opinions and perceptions continue to change their future

remains uncertain. I hope they stick around. It is my life goal to work with the wild wolves in

and around Yellowstone.

 Works Cited

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https://e360.yale.edu/features/americas-new-war-on-wolves-and-why-it-must-be-stopped

Big bad wolf and other tales: How psychology shapes our perceptions of wildlife | School of

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