Things are shocking for three wolves on Ted
Turner’s ranch near Bozeman, Mont. For the past several weeks they
have been serving time in what one wolf biologist calls “reform
school,” an experiment that managers hope will stop wolves from
killing cattle. In a few weeks, when a beef calf is added to the
wolves’ half-acre pen, the predators will be wearing shock collars,
devices designed to emit a strong jolt of electricity. When the
wolves come within a certain distance of the calf, it’s zap
time.
Mike Phillips, head biologist for the
Turner Endangered Species Fund, says shock collars are nothing new.
Dog trainers frequently use them to break animals of bad habits;
one or two lessons usually do the trick.
The goal
is to teach the wolves that beef is not what’s for dinner. When
they learn their lesson, they’ll be released back on their home
turf, just north of Yellowstone National Park, says Ed Bangs, wolf
recovery team leader for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
The Defenders of Wildlife and several
government agencies are cooperating with the experiment, but there
are plenty of skeptics in the local ranching
community.
“It’s well-intentioned people grasping
at straws,” says Bob Taylor, a wildlife biologist who consults with
a Montana group urging stronger control on wolves. He says once the
wolves are free, they can quickly unlearn anything taught them in
the pen on Turner’s ranch. “How much harder is it for a wolf to
learn you can’t attack cattle in a pen but can attack them outside
a pen?”
Copyright © 2000 HCN and Scott McMillion
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Reform school for wolves.
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