The Remarkable Recovery of Gray Wolves

Aldo Leopold – often considered the father of modern conservation – shot an old wolf in Arizona.  He approached her, and later wrote, “We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes.  I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes – something known only to her and to the mountain.”   A Sand County Almanac, 1949.

What force is it that burns inside and through a wolf?  Something that wants to live, that is intelligent; something other than human?  Other?  Perhaps.  Yet we recognize it as kindred, as ancestral, just as Leopold did over 75 years ago.  Perhaps it is the power of an ancient, non-human life form, something from somewhere beyond, primal, valid, and wild.  That word, ‘wild,’ comes from old English, meaning self-willed, possessing a non-human will, ‘a mind of its own,’ a force born of the land itself and its community of species that is outside strict human control.

Once found throughout a variety of habitats across the lower 48 United States, gray wolves (Canis lupus) were hunted and persecuted rigorously, often supported by a bounty system.  They virtually disappeared here by about the 1950’s, with exceptions for Isle Royale, Michigan; boreal Minnesota; and probably far northern Washington state, where they were still connected to Canadian populations.  Separately, in North Carolina, there is a different wolf species, the red wolf (Canis rufus), where there are currently 18 known to occur in the wild in and around the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.  In the Southwest, a slightly smaller subspecies, the Mexican gray wolf, or lobo, was persecuted out of the country, although a few dozen individuals remained in Mexico and may have occasionally crossed over the border.

To Reintroduce Wolves or Not?

Today, this highly social, family-oriented and intelligent apex predator and top-down ecosystem regulator, and probable ancestor of the domestic dog, is in the early stages of a remarkable turnaround:  From near zero, there are now over 5,000 wolves present in 12 states, every state throughout the West except Nevada (which has the least suitable habitat) and Utah (whose political leaders don’t currently want them).  Probably the best-known wolf recovery effort was the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in 1995 and 1996.  Arizona initiated a Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Program in 1982, which culminated in three Mexican lineages being combined in 1995, and released into the Apache National Forest of Arizona/ New Mexico in 1995.  After a rocky start, the first pup born in the wild was in 2002.  Sonora, Mexico is also increasing its wild populations, so we can expect more cross-border inter-mixing.

From the northern Rockies they have spread on their own through all three West Coast states and may soon again be up and down the Spine of the Continent, the full Rockies, in an unbroken chain from Canada to Mexico.  They have expanded under their own volition, supported by Endangered Species Act protections; better monitoring of their movements, denning, kills, and other activities; better (2^nd generation) management of wolf-human and wolf-livestock interactions; and, in one case, they’re back by popular demand.

Wolf numbers are also solid in the Upper Midwest/ western Great Lakes states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.  Wolves were never fully extirpated from Minnesota, as their numbers were refreshed regularly from Canada.  From there, their numbers grew and they spread to UP Michigan and Wisconsin, and now their numbers are in the thousands (see table below).

Such a recovery of the big, bad wolf is not to be expected without push back and some controversy.  Yet in truth, except when rabid or acclimated, wolves generally avoid humans.  After all, who’s the most dangerous animal of all?  – humans!  And, they say you are more likely to be hit by lightning than attacked by a wolf.  Still, chances of an adverse wolf encounter are not zero, and if traveling into wolf country, one should educate oneself and be prepared.  This basic understanding that wolves are not as dangerous as our dark and fear-based imagination makes them out to be seems to have taken hold more broadly.

Of more concern to most are wolf pack livestock interactions.  Here, ranchers in the wildland interface need to take well-known and well-documented non-lethal precautions with their animals, using guard animals (more than one), movement and pasturing techniques, shielding the young, old, weak, or sick, which wolves prefer, and so on.  And there are programs in every state to repay such ranchers in the event of a documented wolf loss.  It is undeniably more work for them, and is not a perfect system, but is overall much better and fairer than any in the past.

It is we, after all, who have moved into their territory, with that longstanding unexamined human assumption that everything here is for us first and foremost to use and consume and profit from, other species be damned.  We have adaptation tools, knowledge, and skills that wolves do not.  There has been a significant growth in public support for the presence of wolves and the general rewilding of natural areas.  A 2020 survey in Minnesota, which perhaps surprisingly supports the highest population of wolves in the lower 48, close to 3,000, concluded that over 85% of general ‘residents’ support maintaining a wolf population, people, because ‘they are an important part of the ecosystem, because ‘they have a right to exist;’ so they can ‘see and hear them in the wild;’ ‘so future generations can enjoy them;’ and because ‘they are a symbol of wildness,’ among other reasons  (Minnesotans’ Attitudes Towards Wolves and Wolf Management, U of M and MDNR, 2020).   Surveyed deer hunters supported maintaining a wolf population by a 2:1 ratio (67% support), while livestock producers were the least supportive, although still almost half (47%) support maintaining a wolf population.

Colorado Wolf Reintroduction

Citizens of Colorado went so far as to place a measure on the 2020 ballot that asked the public if they wanted to have wolves reintroduced into the state by the end of 2023.  The measure passed by over 50,000 votes, still a slim majority like most things these days, but including in places where the wolves were likely to be reintroduced.  The state’s Parks and Wildlife Commission was directed to create a plan and hold hearings on  reintroducing the species west of the Continental Divide, which they did with 12 wolves from Oregon,  with more to come.  All were collared and are monitored.  State funds are available to help livestock owners adapt to prevent conflict with wolf populations, and to pay fair compensation for livestock losses to gray wolves.  The 250-page Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan by Colorado Parks and Wildlife is available online, complete with a sophisticated Education and Outreach, a Conflict Minimization Program, and Compensation Program.  In addition to livestock, staff will be monitoring closely the effects of wolves on elk, deer, and moose.  Deer and elk currently number in the hundreds of thousands each, whereas moose were themselves transplanted into Colorado from the 1970’s on, but moose are only occasional prey for wolves, and their numbers appear to be growing.  Wolves may also reduce and displace populations of coyote locally, but are not expected to significantly reduce the populations of other large carnivores like black bears or mountain lions.   There is currently no hunting of Colorado wolves allowed.

But hunting and trapping is allowed in the three northern Rocky Mountain states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, where wolves are state -managed, and not protected by the Endangered Species Act.  In Montana, the federal wolf recovery goal of 30 breeding pairs for three consecutive years was met by 2002, so wolves were delisted in 2011. There are now just over 1,000 documented individuals there.  Wolves are harvested in two seasons, spring and fall.  In 2022, a total of 248 were either shot or trapped.  In the same year, 103 livestock were lost to wolves, including 58 cattle and 48 sheep, with similar numbers for the previous 10 years.  Close to $100,000 was paid out in compensation, and 45 wolves were killed as a result of these depredations.  It’s an uneasy relationship but appears to be holding.

Where Do Wolves Live in the US

Why Do Wolf Lives Matter?

Wolves are the stuff of myths and legends, scary children’s tales and nursery rhymes, and even monster movies.  Sinister abominations once, they (and so many other species) now exist at all mostly because we collectively allow them to be.  Humans unquestionably dominate the planet, sequestering and consuming the lion’s share of its energy and many resources and gifts for themselves.  Some of our traditional religions underlie our attitudes we are entitled to do this.

But perhaps that is changing.  The presence of wolves is a lesson in co-existence with another top predator, one that competes with us and can even harm us.  For many tribes, wolves represent a spiritual energy as well – “a vital link in our sacred circle,” as a central Idaho Nez Perce elder says, and source of ‘medicine.’  Yet in this intense, polarized, and difficult contemporary world, where our mental health is stretched and challenged as never before, perhaps we are turning back towards one of our greatest teachers, Nature.  The great poet Walt Whitman wrote that Nature, deep nature, is a source of what he called ‘primal sanity.’  With the inner green fire that startled and pierced Aldo Leopold so many years ago, wolves represent the wild, the self-willed, and provide a lesson in the Right to Life that heralds a maturing American psyche and the conscious choice for a softer touch on the earth, the magnificent American landscape, and its diverse and many inhabitants.

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