Page 51 - EarthHeroes

The wolf population grew quickly before settling at around 100 animals in 10 packs, although the number changed depending on the amount of prey, such as elk and bison, available for them to feed on. Soon the elk numbers went down, as predicted, due not only to the presence of wolves, but also to cougars and bears. There was no risk of too many elks being killed, because the wolves only preyed on weak and vulnerable animals. Doug’s team found that wolves lived for only five to six years and could be killed by disease, wolves from other packs or even by the animals they were hunting.
After the wolves’ reintroduction, there continued to be many people who objected to them being at Yellowstone. These people argued that the wolves would go outside the park and kill livestock, and that they were killing all the
elk so that there were fewer for hunters. In reality, few wolves tried to leave the park, and when they did, they were most at risk of being killed by humans. Doug was always sad to hear that wolves had died. In his view, the public don’t
know the truth about wolves and believe that they kill other animals for fun, which is untrue. People are also often surprised to
learn that wolves are naturally afraid
of humans. There are rare cases
of wolves attacking people, but this happens when the animals have lost their fear of humans. For this reason, Yellowstone
Park rangers have to
kill wolves that have
been fed by visitors.
Since wolves were
reintroduced, many
people have used court
cases to try to get them
removed from Yellowstone.
Although these have all been
unsuccessful, fighting each
case involves a lot of work
and expense for the park’s
team. Getting enough funding for
research has also always been difficult
and the project relies on donations from wolf supporters.
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