CPW Working Group Delisting Recommendations Miss the Mark

Forty years ago, as a resource management specialist at Yellowstone, I attended a grizzly bear recovery meeting. An endangered species specialist commented, “You don’t manage grizzly bears the way you do bobwhites and whitetails.” That applies to wolves as well. But as I read the delisting framework proposed by CPW's Technical Working Group and supported by the Stakeholder Advisory Group, it made me think of planning to stock a put-and-take fishing pond: Put them in, let them grow to catchable size, and yank them out. As it stands, this report does not reflect the intent or the spirit of CRS-33-2-105.8. Voters plainly meant for wolves to stay non-game species and serve an essential ecological role that has been missing for a century.

It appears that the concept that wolves must be controlled by humans to prevent their overuse or elimination of their prey has become widespread, despite abundant evidence to the contrary. That begs the question, “What natural factors limit wolf populations?”

Nine scientists examined that question at length (15 pages) in Smith et al. 2020. Population Dynamics and Demography (Chapter 6) in Smith, Stahler, and MacNulty 2020. Yellowstone Wolves: Science and discovery in the world’s first national park.

After acknowledging that available food affects a number of vital factors, the authors conclude (Pp 90-92) that, “population growth rate is most influenced by adult wolf survival, mainly of yearling wolves, but also of older wolves. The authors ask, “How did survival decline? By wolves killing each other - intraspecific strife - a form of intrinsic regulation.” Then, ”Did the wolves kill each other because there was less food? Cubaynes et al (2014) tested this possibility by controlling for the effect of food and found that increased wolf density reduced survival independently of changes in elk abundance.” Later, “Certainly, we find strong evidence that social factors play a key role in driving wolf mortality rates in Yellowstone, which leads to the conclusion that if wolves were not territorial, there would be more of them on the landscape.”

In the northern Rocky Mountain states, about 1 in 10,000 cattle and 3 in 10,000 sheep are confirmed taken by wolves annually. Even if ten events are undetected for every one confirmed, that still comes out to 1/10 of 1 percent of livestock lost to wolves.

Planning and preparation for prevention of conflicts related to wolves killing livestock must be proactive and in advance of reintroduction, and can greatly reduce the need for lethal removal of wolves. There is no justification whatever for recreational hunting of wolves. Random killing of wolves has no place in a restoration program, and is demonstrably counterproductive to maintaining the health of wild ecosystems.