The Wolf Pulled Over Our Eyes

How can a non-native species arrive on the Endanger Species List? It is a question many in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming are asking. The non-native species I am referring to is the wolf. Gray wolves have 24 subspecies in North America with distinctly different habitats, ranges, pack dynamics and behaviors.

The professionally sanctioned taxonomy of mammals is published by the American Society of Mammalogists and follows taxonomy in Mammal Species of the World used by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. The gray wolf taxonomy currently recognized by the American Society of Mammalogists continues to be based on Mech (1974), which identified 32
taxonomic subspecies of gray wolf worldwide, including 24 subspecies in North America. The current taxonomy identifies C. l. irremotus as the wolf subspecies that historically occupied the Northern Rocky Mountain area. The range of C. l. irremotus abutted the ranges of C. l. occidentalis and C. l. columbianus some distance north of the Canadian border, and it abutted the range of C. l. nubilus on the east. Under a strict interpretation of the current taxonomy, wolves that were introduced to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho were from founder populations of C. l. occidentalis and C. l. columbianus.

Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection

As you can see from the preceding block quote, canis lupus irremotus is the subspecies of wolf native to Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Canis lupus occidentalis and canis lupus columbianus are the subspecies that were introduced into the region. This might not seem an important distinction to some observers but man’s history of introducing non-native species into an ecosystem have been less than stellar, to say the least.

Montanan’s are well aware of the millions of dollars spent each year fighting noxious, non-native weeds. Not to mention the millions of dollars ridding our waters of non-native fish and efforts to restore native cutthroat trout populations. Yellowstone Lake along with it’s native cutthroat trout are being over taken by non-native lake trout which has a devastating effect on all the species in the ecosystem which feed on the cutthroat, including raptors and otters. The lake trout is a very deep water fish that is not available to these predators, while the cutthroat is a surface fish that provided food for these species before the Europeans ever stepped foot on this land.

Natural selection theorizes some individuals will survive and reproduce more successfully than others in their current environment thereby creating a population well adapted to their environment. Canis lupus occidentalis and canis lupus columbianus are adapted to ecosystems far to the north of the American Rocky Mountains. They are a much larger subspecies than canis lupus irremotus and they hunt in much larger packs. Canis lupus irremotus usually hunted in packs of two animals. Canis lupus occidentalis is the wolf of the Alaska tundra. It is a super sized, super hunter that hunts in very large packs following the caribou herds across thousands of miles. How could anyone in their right mind introduce canis lupus occidentalis (Mackenzie Valley Wolf) into the lower 48 states?

In the 1978, rangewide listing of the gray wolf, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stated, “The Service, however, can offer the firmest assurance that it will continue to recognize valid biological subspecies for purposes of research and conservation programs.” The ESA [Sec. 3.(3)] defines “Conservation” as meaning, “… to use and the use of all methods and procedures which are necessary to bring any endangered species or threatened species to the point at which the measures provided pursuant to this Act are no longer necessary” (i.e., the species can be delisted). Additionally, National Park Service policy states, “The NPS will manage the natural resources of the national park system to maintain, rehabilitate, and perpetuate their inherent integrity. The NPS will strive to restore native species to parks whenever all the following criteria can be met: (1) Adequate habitat exists and a natural population can be self-perpetuating, (2) The species does not pose a serious threat to safety of park visitors, park resources, or persons or property outside park boundaries, (3) the species used in restoration most nearly approximates the extirpated subspecies or race, and (4) The species disappeared, or was substantially diminished, as a direct or indirect result of human-induced change to the species or the ecosystem”

American Society of Mammalogists criticised the project’s lack of deference to the principle of Bergmann’s rule, pointing out that the wolves used for the introduction were 30% larger than the original park wolves, and were adapted to much colder climates. Finally, the society questioned the legality under the ESA of “recovering” a taxon of wolf by expanding the historic range of a less similar type, when more closely related founder stock still remained available.

National Park Service Violates it’s Own Rules

As you can see, there were more closely related founder stock available for introduction. I won’t call it reintroduction because the evidence shows the wolves placed in Idaho and Yellowstone are not native and never occupied this region. Additionally, the American Society of Mammalogists questions the legality of the introduction of these super predators.

Conclusion

The federal government, with the full support of radical environmentalists, have introduced a foreign super predator into the ecosystem of the northern Rocky Mountains. They failed to recognize that the presence of man forced elk and deer off their natural range (valleys and praries) into mountain regions they didn’t occupy prior to the settlement of the valleys.

Elk numbers throughout areas now in the wolves range are declining rapidly. Calf recruitment is almost none existent in some areas. Ranchers are reporting severe declines in cattle calf recruitment where wolves are present. And there is zero reimbursement to ranchers for stillborn calves caused by wolves running cattle throughout the nights. Ungulate populations are in dangerously low in the West Fork of the Bitterroot which has one of the highest wolf populations in western Montana.

These are disturbing trends. They were predictable trends, though. Many biologists issued warnings prior to introduction. Now, we are left to face a growing mess that inevitably will cost millions of dollars to fix in the future. Not to mention the millions of dollars in lost revenue and lost jobs Montana, Idaho and Wyoming face with severely declining elk populations on public land.

Calling the introduction of wolves into the northern Rocky Mountains a success is as premature as President Bush declaring Mission Accomplished May 1, 2003 aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Hopefully, some day man will quit trying to play God and come to the realization we will never conquer nature. We must live within nature as do all living creatures. Unfortunately, we seem incapable of learning from past mistakes when it comes to introducing non-native species into ecosystems.