Long misunderstood and hunted into near extinction, the big, bad wolf isn't all that bad. This species is very good, in fact, and has been credited for creating a much better eco-system in Yellowstone National Park. Hunted and trapped into near extinction and heavily safeguarded as an endangered species for a long time, the gray wolf's numbers have increased. But now it's open season on gray wolves and its cousin, the red wolf, has only 100 of these wild carnivores roaming around in America, primarily in southern states. But the threat of inbreeding with coyotes may see the end of red wolves entirely. So who are we to give either species a thumb's-down death sentence?
In many states, the wolf hunt has begun, or is about ready to start up again. Why? If history repeats itself, as it always seems to, we'll ultimately eradicate wolves.
It's fall again. What a beautiful season, huh?
Many Americans live where the leaves are changing on the trees, from green to yellow, orange, tan, brown, ochre, and all hues in between. It’s certainly one of my favorite seasons, and with it comes harvesting crops. Halloween's about to arrive and next month, Thanksgiving will be here.
And for many Americans, it’s hunting season. Many families rely on the autumn to stock their freezers with meat to make it through the winter, and if there’s a good harvest to the fall hunt, maybe well into spring. Times are tough and meat prices are high. Bagging a couple of deer, some wild turkey, along with ducks, quail, and even rabbit, puts food on the table and helps feed a family. And in many American families, hunting is a tradition that goes back for generations. If grandfather used to hunt and taught your father this outdoor sport, there’s a good chance that you’re a hunter, as well. And if you have children, you're probably teaching them how to hunt.
But is killing wildlife for the sake of killing a good thing? Certain types of human prey really should be left off the hunting list. Particularly species that have just been taken off endangered species lists. And in North America, hunting wolves, particularly in regions where they’ve been reintroduced within the past few decades, is just not a good idea. Although some claim that there are too many wolves and gray wolf populations need to be downsized, having gray wolves just reintroduced in the past few decades, they just have not developed a sustainable population yet. Hunting and trapping them might not just lead to gray wolves being put on an endangered species list, they might wind up extinct.
Autumn, and in particular, November, ushers in the big hunt for North America’s wolves. The gray wolf inhabits the Rocky Mountain and Great Lakes regions of the USA, along with Alaska. And their habitat extends throughout Canada. And wolf season begins soon, if it hasn’t already begun.
The big bad wolf has long been a figure that is feared, but if you look at your dog, even if it’s a poodle or some sort of terrier, it’s a direct descendent of the wolf. The blood of the wolf is flowing through the blood of Fluffy or Spot. And somehow, someway, our ancestors adopted the wolf in our own social order. It’s not exactly clear whether the tame and friendly wolf of the forest adopted us or if these canines were adopted by us, but this major event occurred sometime in antiquity. And the ultimate present, of course, has been “man’s best friend.” This family pet, more often than not a family member, has always enjoyed a place in our hearts. But your dog’s cousin and ancestor, the wolf, is hunted, killed, and is despised.
The wolf is a misunderstood species, and whether you like wolves or hate them, they are proving to be an important part of the eco-system.
Would the Department of Natural Resources of any state declare an open hunting season on stray dogs? It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? But wolves are hunted and killed.
You can’t eat wolf meat. It's inedible and from all accounts, tastes terrible. Did you ever watch the movie The Grey, where the victims of an arctic plane crash eat an omega wolf? They choke down the meat, complaining that it tastes horrible.
But I guess there’s a cash reward for their pelts, and some might think it would be neat to have a taxidermist stuff a big wolf and have this trophy stand in drawing rooms, living rooms, or man caves of their houses.
As crazy as it sounds, wolves are needed. A Romanian proverb says, “Where wolves roam, forests grow.” And wolves have helped Yellowstone National Park to such a degree that they’ve even changed the river systems there. The rivers of Yellowstone National Park have meandered less since wolves were reintroduced and they have seen less erosion. Channels and pools that have formed have created a much more conducive habitat for other wildlife. With the advent of the gray wolf returning to Yellowstone, Mother Nature has rejoiced. The reason: The regenerated forests stabilized their banks because these river banks have collapsed less since the gray wolf was returned to Yellowstone in 1995, after the previous 70 years of having no wolves in this national treasure.
A compelling video clip explains this, in a quick 4:33 minute span. Narrated by George Monbiot and titled “How Wolves Changed Rivers,” this very compelling video, produced by Sustainable Man, explains that one of the most exciting and significant scientific findings of the past half century has been trophic cascades, or the dynamics of the top-to-bottom results of the food chain. This scientific concept theorizes that all species are dependent upon each other for their overall survival and prosperity. (Click here to go to video:
https://www.youtube.com/...)
“Wolves may kill prey but they give life to others. Without wolves in Yellowstone, the deer population exploded so much so that deer reduced Yellowstone’s vegetation to almost nothing. They grazed the landscape away,” Monbiot says in the video.
“As soon as the wolves arrived, although few in number, they began to have a dynamic impact. First, they killed deer, but that wasn’t the major thing. The wolves radically changed the behavior of the deer. The deer began avoiding certain areas of the park – the places where they can fall prey to the wolves most easily – like valleys and gorges,” Monbiot explains.
“Immediately, these areas regenerated. In some areas, the height of the trees quintupled in only six years,” the narrator continues. “Bare valley sides quickly became forests of aspen and willow and cottonwood. Because of this, the birds came. Numbers of songbirds and migratory birds increased greatly. The numbers of beavers, which like to eat the trees, also increased. Beavers, like wolves, are eco-system engineers. They create niches for other species. The dams these beavers built in the rivers became habitat for otters, muskrats, ducks, fish, reptiles and amphibians. The wolves killed coyotes. As a result of that, the population of rabbits and mice began to rise, which meant more hawks, more weasels, foxes and badgers.”
Ravens and bald eagles rose in population as well, since they had carrion to feed on. And then, the bear population rose, and because of the regeneration of vegetation and shrubs, the bears had wild berries to eat, which are an important food source to them. The bears reinforced the impact of the wolves by killing deer calves.
And so, with a reintroduction of gray wolves to Yellowstone, its entire eco-system became more vibrant, more habitable, healthier, and even more lively, giving tourists something to see besides hoofed animals. The gray wolf can be thanked for the rivers rebuilding into habitat-friendly environments for a plethora of species, as well.
Whenever mankind acts as a regulator of a trophic cascade, however, things become dysfunctional, frenetic and even catastrophic. During pioneering times, bison were hunted to near extinction. Why? Because bison were the main food source of plains Indians of the northern and western tribes. White settlers and pioneers knew if they eliminated bison, Native Americans would starve. - This is a cruel and hideous reason to force a species into near extinction, just to continue with a genocidal attack against a race of people that have historically suffered apartheid and hegemony at the hands of the white invaders of Turtle Island.
These days, on top of mankind’s hit list are alpha-apex predators. All the big cats are on endangered species lists. And the species that has suffered the most from humankind’s predation is the biggest of the big cats, the tiger. According to All About Wildlife, “Until the 20th Century there were nine tiger subspecies that probably numbered over 100,000 animals. They included the giant 660-pound, or 300 kilo, Siberian (Pantera tigris altaica) and Caspian (Pantera tigris virgata; now extinct) tigers as well as the relatively small—and now also extinct—200-pound (90 kilo) Balinese tiger. Depending on whether there are any remaining South China tigers—nobody has seen one in years—there are either 5 or 6 tiger subspecies remaining in existence; all are endangered. All tiger subspecies put together currently amount to around 3,200 endangered tigers remaining in the wild.” (See: http://www.allaboutwildlife.com/...).
The cheetah, leopard, lion and panther are also on endangered species lists and are facing extinction. Another ambush apex predator, the bear, has many species well-represented on endangered species lists, including: polar bears, giant pandas, and grizzly bears.
In the meantime, gray wolf numbers in the USA’s lower 48 states comprise about 1,600 in the northern Rockies, including the Greater Yellowstone area, and about 5,000 in the Great Lakes Region of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin. Gray wolves were removed recently from Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection in Montana and Idaho. The gray wolf’s cousin, the red wolf, numbers only about 100. Needless to say, the red wolf is also an endangered species but according to All About Wildlife, its population trend indicates numbers are increasing. “The red wolf was declared extinct in the wild in 1980 after the last 17 animals were captured on the Gulf Coast of Texas. After captive breeding increased their numbers, the animals were reintroduced to North Carolina. Largest threat to the species is hybridization with coyotes,” All About Wildlife states. (See: http://www.allaboutwildlife.com/...)
In January of this year at a legislative hearing on wolf management by the Minnesota House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources “roamed all over the landscape, topically and philosophically, but for me the most interesting portions centered on "depredation conflicts," writes Ron Meador of the Minnesota Post. (See: http://www.minnpost.com/...)
“That's a wildlife manager's term for losses of livestock and pets, and you will recall that reducing those losses has been a significant rationale for the sport trapping and hunting seasons inaugurated in the fall of 2012,” Meador writes, continuing, “But are the seasons working? In a solid three hours of testimony, I didn't hear a single indication that the killing of 562 wolves by sportsmen, and another 430 by government agents and landowners, and who knows how many by poachers, is having an effect at all. Or ever will.”
Wolves were saved from the brink of extinction in the 1970s because the U.S. government set stringent protection laws into place banning their trapping and hunting. But around 2011, the government began opening up the floodgates of wolf predation at the hands of humankind and as of this summer, an estimated 2,800 wolves have been slaughtered in six U.S. states. The Obama Administration on June 7, 2013, removed gray wolves from federal protection in states where they are still covered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
How can this be and why? Why make a species that was hunted and trapped almost into extinction in very recent years a target? Why hunt and trap the gray wolf? It makes no sense. My only hypothesis is that government leaders want to make this species eradicated for good – totally extinct, in other words.
According to the website Predator Defense: “In 2011 and 2012 wolves were delisted in five of the states that had managed to establish significant populations--Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's new proposal would allow all other states in the lower 48 to establish wolf hunting and trapping seasons with the prospect of killing any wolves that might migrate in from neighboring states. This would essentially preclude the establishment of any significant wolf populations in the remaining states.” (See: http://www.predatordefense.org/...)
Predator Defense continues: “The Obama administration has specifically and relentlessly targeted the American wolf. First, under Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, wolf populations that were thriving were delisted and put under state control where hunters and trappers systematically and indiscriminately have begun to kill down their populations, fragmenting packs and destroying the social cohesion essential to pack survival. Approximately 25 percent of those wolves have already been killed since the 2011 delisting.
“Now one of the first actions under Obama's new Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, is to propose removing protection from wolves in all the remaining states, with exception of Arizona and New Mexico where federal protection for the Mexican gray wolf, a subspecies, will continue.
"The same forces that have driven the political decision to delist wolves across the U.S.—ranching and hunting interests—are responsible for the pathetic failure to protect and restore the Mexican wolf. The reintroduced wolves there have been repeatedly and illegally poached by hunters and ranchers, leaving only 73 alive.
“The final ruling to delist wolves nationwide is expected in 2014. The required public comment period was extended through Dec. 17, 2013. During this time the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was to review and address concerns of the public and other interested parties. Public hearings were also requested and held. (See ibid:
http://www.predatordefense.org/...)
It’s frustrating and overwhelming to see the progress of building up wolf populations succumb to such grave consequence. I have no faith in humankind’s preservation of wildlife, after driving so many species either into extinction, or into the brinks of extermination. This fall and into winter, hunters and trappers will be killing gray wolves for sport, nothing more. If they come home with a dead carcass and take the body to a taxidermist to be stuffed, I see this as a very cruel and hideous game. And for others, cashing in wolf pelts for a few dollars is no reason to take gray wolves off the endangered species list and make them fair game.
Enough's enough. Let's protect wolves and continue to legally deem them an endangered and threatened species. Once gray and red wolves have become extinct, it's far too late to do anything, so let's do something now. Let's save wolves from human predation.