History of Wolves in Yellowstone

A BOOK SUMMARY ON “The Return of the Wolf To Yellowstone”  Author  Thomas McNamee Part 2

by Brad Hawkins

The wolf population, as well as other animal populations, including the beaver, were decimated by uncontrolled hunting and trapping in the early 1860’s by companies like the American Fur Trading Company.  Yellowstone became a national park in 1872.  In the 1870’s, the slaughter of the buffalo took place greatly affecting wolf populations in the Yellowstone area.  Cattlemen moved in as the land was tamed and the wolf had very little natural prey.   Wolves began to kill cattle.  This led to more hatred and slaughter of wolves.  This “cow killer” theme has prevailed in the hearts of many to this day.  In 1918 in the name of good, the National Park service declared war on wolf populations by trapping, shooting, and burning pups in dens.  In 1923 the last known natural wolf den was destroyed in Yellowstone National Park.   The last photo of two adult wolves was taken in the Lamar Valley in 1926 feeding on a buffalo carcass.  Then they were gone.

In 1944 Aldo Leopold, one of America’s greatest conservationists, killed a wolf in New Mexico and it changed his view of the wolf.  He wrote an essay, “Thinking Like a Mountain,” which described the fierce green fire dying in the eyes of the wolf as it breathed its last.   Leopold described that that look in the wolf’s eye convinced him that his itchy trigger finger had done something unnaturally wrong against the wolf and the mountain.   He was one of the first major players in looking into reintroduction of the wolf to North America.

In 1972 President Richard Nixon issued an executive order that predator poisons could no longer be used on federal  lands.  In 1973 President Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act, which set in motion the process that eventually led to wolf reintroduction in the Yellowstone area.  The key to this legislation is the fact that the grey wolf could be considered endangered in one area and have fully growing populations in others.  This meant that the population of wolves in one state did not affect the adding of wolves to an endangered species list in another.  Technically there were no breeding pairs of wolves that called Yellowstone home.  This meant that we could transfer wolves from wolf rich Canada to wolf poor Yellowstone under the Endangered Species Act.

The original plan for reintroduction of the wolf to the Yellowstone involved capture and transportation of two major groups of wolves into Idaho and the Yellowstone valley from Alberta , Canada.  Approximately 15 wolves would go to Idaho with blue ear tags and radio collars and the others would go to Yellowstone and have red ear tags and radio collars.

One of the chief biologists in on the transfer from the start is wolf specialist David Mech (pronounced “meech”).    He strongly believed that wolf predation on cattle and other livestock would be minimal from the start.  Mech was a student of the famous wolf biologist, Durward Allen.  He was involved in the Minnesota study of wolves on Isle Royale.  Isle Royale was an island cut off from other land masses that had wolves introduced onto it in 1957.  Allan wrote a classic book on wolves called “The Wolves of Minong.”   The problem with the Isle Royale packs was that there was much inbreeding due to most of the members of the packs originating from one alpha female.   This was compounded by the fact that there was no way for the bloodlines to diverge because there was no method of dispersion.  This made these wolves highly susceptible to diseases such as Parvo introduced accidentally by a dog brought to the island.  The packs also had breakdowns in hierarchy due to territory limits and relatedness on such a small area

We learned much about managing new wolf populations from the mistakes made on Isle Royale in the early 50’s and onward. 

  

In the mid-80’s around 1985 a movement began to re-introduce the wolf to Yellowstone.   Many tried to stop this movement.  Some claimed that there was no need for a reintroduction because there were wolves already in Yellowstone.   This was never scientifically verified and most of the wolves accounted for were probably drifters from the North.  There was no permanent population of wolves in Yellowstone before the reintroduction began.