As scores of bison and deer perished last winter in
and around Yellowstone, one species was there to take it all in.
Literally.
Yellowstone’s wolf packs found feast
where others fell to famine. Eight of Yellowstone’s nine wolf packs
produced 11 litters last spring. This could double the park’s total
wolf population of 47.
Although it came sooner
than expected, the population explosion was no surprise to
Yellowstone biologists. Researchers studying the greater
Yellowstone ecosystem say that whenever a predatory species is
introduced to an “open habitat’ – where competition is low and food
availability is high – populations will expand. But the fecundity
won’t last long, says Yellowstone wolf biologist Douglas Smith. “If
the wolf numbers continue (to explode), the wolves will begin
killing each other, starve or leave.”
New wolf
pups bring the federal wolf project one step closer to its goal: to
remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list in the United
States. Delisting can only occur when the three areas of wolf
introduction – the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, the central Idaho
wilderness, and northwest Montana near Glacier National Park – have
reached 10 breeding pairs apiece for three consecutive years.
*Jamie Murray
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Wolf pups proliferate.
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