Some Biologists Envision Wolves Controlling Elk in More National Parks

[jpurdy]

Though it's been well over a year since a wolf's howl awoke me in the backcountry of Yellowstone National Park, it was a sound so rich, so piercing, and so symbolic that I'll carry it with me always. Rising and falling on the predawn air currents, the howl was not mournful nor baleful but a pulse-racing page out of a Jack London novel, truly a call of the wild.

Each year, tens of thousands of people enter Yellowstone with hopes of hearing such a howl, or spying one of the park's wolves, tangible symbols of wilderness in motion.

Imagine if one didn't have to head to Yellowstone, or Glacier, Grand Teton, Isle Royale or farther still to Alaska to witness wolves in the wild? There is at least a handful of wildlife biologists who believe there could be pockets of these predators scattered about the National Park System in the Lower 48 states where their main job would be tamping down burgeoning elk and deer herds, though certainly a sidelight would be their tourism value, something not to be understated.

Their proposal zoomed around cyberspace a couple weeks ago, roaming far and wide, not unlike a young wolf seeking a territory of its own. It gathered speed as it was flicked around the Twittersphere because it focused on two subjects that captivate more than a few people -- national parks, and wolves. The gist was that wolf packs small in number could be strategically inserted into some national parks to control burgeoning herds of elk.

In theory it all sounded well and good. But could it actually work?

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[Waterfowler84]

The key, they suggest, are "small and non–self-sustaining populations of wolves" used specifically for "ecosystem restoration and stewardship." Wolf populations could be kept at bay through such options as sterilization and physical barriers such as fences, both structural and electrical.

Sounds like they want to play God here...I would be 100% against this if they went about "maintaining" populations this way. I agree there is a need for population management due to the ever increasing urban takeover of wilderness. This argument will come down to respect animal/natural rights, or cater to humankind's greedy need for complete satisfaction.

Personally I would love to see higher wolf populations in other areas where they were once prominant.