Yellowstone Wolves
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‘ “I’m not looking at whether this is connected to global warming,” said Doug Smith, lead biologist and team leader of the Yellowstone wolf project. Yet wolf and prey behavior is different from what it was at the beginning of wolf reintroduction to the park in 1994, because the weather is different,” he said.’ Brodie…
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Wyoming’s wolf conservation plan has now been rejected twice by USFWS, mostly because it in effect limits wolves in Wyoming to Yellowstone National Park, which Wyoming hopes will maintain the mininum number of wolf packs required for recovery in the state. Granted the Wyoming plan would allow wolves to wander as “trophy big game” animals…
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In recent years, mange has grown as a problem for wolves of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, both in Montana and Wyoming, although none has been seen inside Yellowstone Park itself. A recent query posted to this blog asked about current conditions, so I contacted Mike Jimenez of USFWS and Carolyn Sime, Jon Trapp, and Liz…
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Cindy Knight posted a very interesting comment a day ago about her recent observations (early October) of the Agates and Sloughs on the Northern Range. She consented to have it made into a post. It follows. “I watched the Slough Creek and the Agate Creek Packs all last week and had some of the best…
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Several weeks ago (Sept. 19) I posted that wolf watching in the Park was at about a seasonal low point, but since then it has picked up a lot with the Agates, Sloughs, Hellroaring Pack, and Leopolds often visible. In addition people have been treated to a number of bears, grizzlies and black bears, feeding…
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Here are the data on the Yellowstone “mid-year” wolf packs — the pack names and number of adults, pups, total pack size. Finally a numeric ID has been assigned to the pack. Yellowstone National Park = 143 wolves; 14 packs (13 packs producing 76 pups) [at least 12 potential breeding pairs). Northern Range 1) Swan…
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Last year the Yellowstone wolf population suffered a big decline due to very high pup mortality in addition to the normal annual attrition of yearling and adult wolves. Last year they counted 118 wolves in 12 groups in Yellowstone at mid-year. At year’s end, it was 116 ±2 in 11-13 packs. This was later revised…
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On Sept. 22, Ed Bangs sent out email giving the mid-year population esimates for wolves in the 3 state experimental wolf recovery area. The news media are now picking up the story. Most of the media are taking an unreflective straight approach, saying the wolf population is up by 20%. Yesterday, however, the Idaho State…