Wolf reintroduction
Reintroduction is only considered where large tracts of suitable wilderness still exist and where certain prey species are abundant enough to support a predetermined wolf population.
The five last known wild Mexican gray wolves were captured in 1980 in accordance with an agreement between the United States and Mexico intended to save the critically endangered subspecies.
In March 1998, this reintroduction campaign began with the releasing of three packs into the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona, and 11 wolves into the Blue Range Wilderness Area of New Mexico.
[6] Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) created a multidisciplinary working group that drafted a wolf management plan for possible reintroduction.
Such classification gave government officials greater leeway in managing wolves to protect livestock, which was considered one of a series of compromises wolf reintroduction proponents made with concerned local ranchers.
The idea of wolf reintroduction was first brought to Congress in 1966 by biologists who were concerned with the critically high elk populations in Yellowstone and the ecological damages to the land from excessively large herds.
Ranchers, though, remained steadfastly opposed to reintroducing a species of animal that they considered to be analogous to a plague, citing the hardships that would ensue with the potential loss of stock caused by wolves.
It was finalized in May 1994, and included a clause that specified that all wolves reintroduced to the recovery zones would be classified under the "experimental, nonessential" provision of the ESA.
The latter group pointed to unofficial wolf sightings as proof that wolves had already migrated down to Yellowstone from the north, which, they argued, made the plan to reintroduce an experimental population in the same area unlawful.
Adolescent members from packs of Mackenzie Valley wolves in Alberta, Canada, were tranquilized and carted down to the recovery zones later that week, but a last-minute court order delayed the planned releases.
After spending an additional 36 hours in transport cages in Idaho and in their holding pens in Yellowstone, the wolves were finally released following official judicial sanction.
Fish & Wildlife Service Over the decades since wolves have been present in the region, hundreds of incidents of livestock depredation have been confirmed, though such predation represents a minute proportion of a wolf's diet on a per-wolf basis.
Since the year Defenders of Wildlife implemented their compensation fund, they have allocated over $1,400,000 to private owners for proven and probable livestock depredation by wolves.
[18] Defenders of Wildlife transitioned from paying compensation to helping ranchers use nonlethal methods to better protect livestock from wolf predation.
This process of top predators regulating the lower sections of the trophic pyramid was dubbed, "the ecology of fear" by William J. Ripple and Robert L. Bestcha[21] In addition to the restoration of vegetation several important species, such as the beaver[20] (which also became extinct in the park) and red fox have also recovered, probably due to the wolves keeping coyote populations under control.
Compared with the state's other wildlife numbers (e.g. 2000-3000 mountain lions, 20,000 American black bears, 100,000 elk, and several hundred thousand mule deer), conservationists are concerned that too few wolves are protected under the plan.
The Washington and Oregon Departments of Fish and Wildlife track the wolf population in their respective states and the "minimum numbers" of wolves.
Despite some early success, the program was cancelled in 1998 due to the death of wolf pups from malnutrition and disease, and the wolves roaming beyond the boundaries of the park.
In December 1976, two red wolves were released onto Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge's Bulls Island in South Carolina with the intent of testing and honing reintroduction methods.
[32] After that, a larger project was executed in 1987 to reintroduce a permanent population of red wolves back to the wild in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge (ARNWR) on the eastern coast of North Carolina.
[33] In September 1987, four pairs of red wolves were released in ARNWR in northeastern North Carolina and designated as an experimental population.
Currently, adaptive management efforts are making progress in reducing the threat of coyotes to the red wolf population in northeastern North Carolina.
[36] However, relaxed protections and a halt of reintroductions in the early 2010s led to a plummet in the population due to poaching and vehicle collisions.
Despite no confirmed breeding population, wolves are still listed as Endangered in the state, and are a protected species under Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) section 11-0535.
Certain proponents of wolf recolonization state that wolves are already established in New York and New England, and have naturally dispersed from Canada by crossing the frozen St. Lawrence River.
The former mostly consists of members of the rural working class who fear competition for certain large ungulate species (roe deer, moose, etc.
[citation needed] In the early 1980s, however, a single breeding pack was discovered in southern Sweden, over 1000 km away from the nearest known population in Russia or eastern Finland.
Genetic analysis seems to support the idea that the wolves were immigrants that had traveled over 1000 km from Russia to southern Scandinavia along one of several possible dispersal routes.
Charities in many European countries, including Denmark, Germany, Italy, Ireland, and the United Kingdom,[51] are also advocating the reintroduction of wolves to specific rural and forested areas.
The reintroduction of wolves to Scotland and England is currently being considered, along with bears and lynxes, as part of a larger effort to reintroduce native species to the country.
