Guest columnist Jack Hamann reflects on the
myths and realities of wolves after the first wolf pack was found in
Washington state's Kittitas County in decades.
Special to The Times
THE pen was hidden in a remote glen, off a snow-covered dirt
road. A 12-foot-high wire fence separated a dozen wild wolves from the
rest of Yellowstone National Park. Into that pen stepped one park ranger
and three journalists, armed with nothing more than a camera and
assurances we would probably not be attacked.
We stood in the center, like circled wagons, as wolves trotted the fence line. Their padded paws were silent; the only sound was rhythmic panting.
Wolves strike fear, sharing space in our primal brain with bears, sharks, snakes and spiders. Never mind that just two North American wild wolf attack fatalities have been confirmed in the past hundred years. Never mind that, by comparison, domestic dogs kill or maim tens of thousands of Americans every single year. We are weaned on fairy tales, fables and cartoons that portray wolves just one way: big, bad and deadly.
Throughout the West, ranchers and farmers well realize that wolves pose little threat to kids and neighbors. But this week's confirmation that a gray wolf pack has found a home near Cle Elum will likely rekindle a different conversation: whether state and federal governments are to blame for open-range sheep and cattle felled by the fangs of wolves.
Yellowstone is now home to 14 wolf packs. About 83 percent of animals killed by park wolves are elk, primarily the old and infirm. Before wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995, elk had overgrazed much of their range; malnourishment and disease were common.
Outside the park, wolves have killed cows and sheep, but the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife has paid out more than $1.4 million to ranchers who offer proof of confirmed losses. Starting in 2009, several states and tribes took the reins of compensation programs, funded, in part, by federal grants and private donations. And the rare rogue wolf can, with permission, be legally shot and killed.
Reintroduction of wolves saves money in another unexpected way. States and counties spend millions to shoot, poison and trap coyotes. But when wolves move back into their historic range, they reassert their evolutionary status as the dominant canid, and coyote populations plummet. In Yellowstone, the decline in coyote density is 40 percent and growing. Pronghorn antelope have reason to celebrate, too: coyotes are major predators of antelope fawns; wolves are not.
Every ecosystem needs wild predators at the top of its food chain. As wolves rediscover old niches in Washington, additional new and unanticipated benefits are likely to surface.
I've run across plenty of bears, snakes and spiders in the wild, and even a shark or two. Standing among untamed wolves in that Yellowstone pen back in 1996 simply wasn't the same. They were released into the wild shortly thereafter, free to repopulate the west.
Who knows? Perhaps some of their progeny now live near Cle Elum. I look forward to seeing them outside the fence.
Jack Hamann, a Seattle journalist, spent a decade as a correspondent with CNN's Environment Unit. He is the author of "On American Soil."
We stood in the center, like circled wagons, as wolves trotted the fence line. Their padded paws were silent; the only sound was rhythmic panting.
Wolves strike fear, sharing space in our primal brain with bears, sharks, snakes and spiders. Never mind that just two North American wild wolf attack fatalities have been confirmed in the past hundred years. Never mind that, by comparison, domestic dogs kill or maim tens of thousands of Americans every single year. We are weaned on fairy tales, fables and cartoons that portray wolves just one way: big, bad and deadly.
Throughout the West, ranchers and farmers well realize that wolves pose little threat to kids and neighbors. But this week's confirmation that a gray wolf pack has found a home near Cle Elum will likely rekindle a different conversation: whether state and federal governments are to blame for open-range sheep and cattle felled by the fangs of wolves.
Yellowstone is now home to 14 wolf packs. About 83 percent of animals killed by park wolves are elk, primarily the old and infirm. Before wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995, elk had overgrazed much of their range; malnourishment and disease were common.
Outside the park, wolves have killed cows and sheep, but the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife has paid out more than $1.4 million to ranchers who offer proof of confirmed losses. Starting in 2009, several states and tribes took the reins of compensation programs, funded, in part, by federal grants and private donations. And the rare rogue wolf can, with permission, be legally shot and killed.
Reintroduction of wolves saves money in another unexpected way. States and counties spend millions to shoot, poison and trap coyotes. But when wolves move back into their historic range, they reassert their evolutionary status as the dominant canid, and coyote populations plummet. In Yellowstone, the decline in coyote density is 40 percent and growing. Pronghorn antelope have reason to celebrate, too: coyotes are major predators of antelope fawns; wolves are not.
Every ecosystem needs wild predators at the top of its food chain. As wolves rediscover old niches in Washington, additional new and unanticipated benefits are likely to surface.
I've run across plenty of bears, snakes and spiders in the wild, and even a shark or two. Standing among untamed wolves in that Yellowstone pen back in 1996 simply wasn't the same. They were released into the wild shortly thereafter, free to repopulate the west.
Who knows? Perhaps some of their progeny now live near Cle Elum. I look forward to seeing them outside the fence.
Jack Hamann, a Seattle journalist, spent a decade as a correspondent with CNN's Environment Unit. He is the author of "On American Soil."
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