Will the Wolf survive?

[losthills]

The Western Grey Wolf is scheduled to be removed from the endangered species list in March.
In the years since they were re-introduced in Yellowstone Park they have done very well for themselves and established viable packs outside it's borders. But are they really doing so well that de-listing is justified? Will they be able to survive in their new homes without Federal protection?

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/010208EB.shtml

A Divide as Wolves Rebound in a Changing West
By Kirk Johnson
The New York Times

Wednesday 02 January 2008

Cheyenne, Wyoming - Sheltered for many years by federal species protection law, the gray wolves of the West are about to step out onto the high wire of life in the real world, when their status as endangered animals formally comes to an end early this year.

The so-called delisting is scheduled to begin in late March, almost five years later than federal wildlife managers first proposed, mainly because of human tussles here in Wyoming over the politics of managing the wolves.

Now changes during that time are likely to make the transition even more complicated. As the federal government and the State of Wyoming sparred in court over whether Wyoming's hard-edged management plan was really a recipe for wolf eradication, as some critics said, the wolf population soared. (The reworked plan was approved by the federal government in November.)

During that period, many parts of the human West were changing, too. Where unsentimental rancher attitudes - that wolves were unwelcome predators, threatening the cattle economy - once prevailed, thousands of newcomers have moved in, buying up homesteads as rural retreats, especially near Yellowstone National Park, where the wolves began their recovery in 1995 and from which they have spread far and wide.

The result is that there are far more wolves to manage today than there once would have been five years ago - which could mean, biologists say, more killing of wolves just to keep the population in check. And that blood-letting might not be quite as popular as it once was.

"If they'd delisted when the numbers were smaller, the states would have been seen as heroes and good managers," said Ed Bangs, the wolf recovery coordinator at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. "Now people will say they're murderers."

(For more see link above...)

[Botany]

1. Thanx!

[emmadoggy]

2. Wow. What a gorgeous photo.

They are so beautiful. And fascinating.

I hope they do ok after delisting.

[cedric]

3. Yes

and once global warming really kicks in they'll do a lot better than most people

[DCKit]

4. How far north can the wolves, moose, elk, caribou, etc...

run before there's no more land? If they were suited to warmer climates, they'd be living everywhere there is sufficient fresh water.

Unlike humans, wolves and their prey don't have the adaptability of rats and cockroaches.

[NickB79]

5. Wolves used to range from Mexico to Alaska, California to Florida

They can survive warm weather pretty well, actually. The reason they are now found primarily in cold, northern climates is that the warmer areas of the continent have been settled by man, and the wolves wiped out.

[DCKit]

6. They also follow their prey....

Though I expect wolves to expand back to the mountains on the East Coast at any time now (the coyotes are all over the place already) they need to follow their prey. And that prey is large prey. All we have left in most of the lower 48 at this point are various kinds of deer, mostly white-tail, and domestic livestock.

If and when the wolves show up, they won't be welcome.