The Future of the Mexican Gray Wolf
"Hugh Walker grew up in Shageluk, on the Innoko
River in Alaska. A native American, he has a degree in social work at the
University of Alaska. He tells a story his father told him. In the 1960s his
father and his uncle were shooting wolves from airplanes, hoping to collect
bounties and sell the furs. One winter day, he said, after following wolf
tracks, his father and his uncle herded a pack of wolves out of the forest and
into the open on a valley floor. Says Walker, 'The wolves were heading for
the timber and they got almost halfway over and realized the plane was going
to catch them. They turned around and faced the plane and were jumping off
the ground at it. Over the sound of the engine, my father and my uncle could
hear the wolves barking and snapping. They were barking and screaming because
they knew it was over. My uncle did shoot them. But from that day, they could
not do that any more. They didn't have the stomach for it any more after
that.'" From the book The Company of Wolves by Peter
Seinhart
Wolf Recovery
To deal adequately with wolves, we have to overcome our long history
of estrangement. North American culture, being a forest culture, has an innate
sense of 'good land' embracing deep shade and groves of trees. Wolves do not
necessarily need thick forest and lots of precipitation to be successful
populations.
As more is learned about the wolf, the increasingly urbanized public continues to
favor wolf recovery. Even though illegal 'taking' of wolves persists in some
areas of
North America and Europe, it has not been sufficient enough to prevent wolf
population growth. Although as wolves move into agricultural areas, conflicts
with
humans greatly increase and the US. Department of Agriculture and Animal
Damage Control Programs (and individual ranchers and farmers) will retaliate by
killing the accused stealers. There is a distinct danger of public backlash.
Not only
will wolves in semi-agricultural areas take increasing numbers of livestock and
incur the wrath of the livestock industry, which often has strong political
support,
but they will also kill household pets.
With natural habitat in so many areas greatly fragmented and wolves
adapting to travel through relatively settled and open areas, some disjunct wolf
populations are developing where wolves can live without causing livestock
damages. Wolf management zoning is a definite part of wolf recovery. [Mech,
1995]
Because of the wolf's high reproductive rate, and long dispersal tendencies, the
animal can successfully re-colonize many more areas. The use of large or small-
scale zoning for wolf management may help resolve the issue. Public education is
probably the most effective way to minimize the problem and maximize recovery.
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