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Wolf hogwash

By David Engel

Minnesota's experience with an expanding wolf population contradicts Chronicle columnist Kerry White's dire prediction that our region's growing wolf numbers will "devastate" deer, moose, antelope, elk and bighorn sheep populations.


 Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources estimated that in 1997-98 the 2,450 wolves in northern Minnesota killed about 36,000 to 50,000 deer. Hunters killed several times that number, and Dr. David Mech, who has studied wolf predation for over 30 years, recently concluded that for a 14-county area of the wolf's range in northern Minnesota, "... both hunter success and total harvest of deer increased even while the wolf population was expanding."

In addition, moose populations in Minnesota have not been reduced by wolf predation, according to a recent publication by former wildlife manager for the Minnesota Conservation Department, Patrick Karns.

White's implication that a National Academy of Science report concluded that falling antelope numbers are the result of wolf reintroduction is hogwash. Wolves rarely kill antelope. The Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery 2001 Annual Report states that of 357 wolf kills detected by project staff, only one antelope was killed.

Will there be 10,000 wolves in this region in 10 years as White asserts? This seems unlikely based upon the Minnesota experience. Between 1978 and 1998, a 20-year period, the Minnesota wolf population only increased from 1,250 to 2,450 wolves.

The attitudes of Minnesotans toward wolves may be predictive of Montana public attitudes as wolves become more commonplace in our state. A 1999 Minnesota survey found that 80 percent of Minnesotans had a positive attitude about wolves, including 60 percent of livestock growers. Wolves will occasionally cause trouble for some ranchers, and this should not be ignored or underplayed. However, the doom and gloom hysteria of columnists like Kerry White can be taken for what it is and relegated to the wastebasket of our minds.

David Engel

4314 Graf St.

Bozeman

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