Humans have killed five of the wolves restored to
Yellowstone National Park last year, and a wolf pregnant with six
pups died when she fell into a thermal pool; but biologists say at
least 30 more pups are on the way.
Mike Phillips,
leader of the Yellowstone Wolf Recovery Team, is so impressed with
the reproductive capacity of the wolves that he is considering
suspending the reintroduction program for next year. After only two
years of transplanting gray wolves from Canada, Phillips says there
may already be enough animals in the park to re-establish the
species in the ecosystem.
Last spring, 14 wolves
were released and two packs gave birth to a total of nine pups. Of
those animals, three adults and one pup were killed. Last summer a
Red Lodge man was convicted of illegally shooting one of the
adults, authorities killed another after it attacked livestock
outside the park, and an unknown person shot a third adult in
February near Daniel, Wyo. Authorities have no leads to date on
that killing. And at the end of March, ranch hands near Meeteetse,
Wyo., shot another adult they mistook for a coyote. One pup was
accidentally killed by a delivery truck on a park
road.
The last of the 17 wolves that had been
transported from Canada last winter were released from their
holding pens the second week of April. Biologists say several
females are pregnant. Overall, they expect the 35 wolves now in the
park to produce five new litters of five to seven pups each. If all
goes well, the Yellowstone wolf population could swell to about 75
animals.
* Mark
Matthews
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Back with a bang.
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