Please Wait…
F&G: Wolves not causing most elk losses
Wolves have long been blamed for elk deaths in Idaho. But research is showing the predators have gotten a bum rap.
In its August newsletter, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game summarized recent elk studies and found only a minority of elk populations are declining and wolves are culprits in few.
A third of elk populations are increasing even though wolves have been in Idaho since 1995. Though statewide numbers have dropped some, claims that wolves are wholly responsible for declining elk populations aren’t holding up.
Craig White of Fish and Game said the agency’s wildlife division conducted elk studies in 11 of the 29 state elk management areas between 2005 and 2008. The sample included five of the six areas in the state with declining populations. White said biologists tried to collar approximately 30 female elk in each area, but didn’t provide exact numbers.
“We selected areas we thought would be representative for a snapshot of what was happening across the state,” White said.
Biologists found that wolves killed significant numbers of collared elk in only one area, the Lolo zone along U.S. Highway 12 in north Idaho. Over the three years, the report claims wolves killed 20 percent of the Lolo sample, or about six elk. Three-quarters of the collared elk survived, less than Fish and Game’s survival goal of 88 percent.
White said deteriorating habitat in the Lolo zone has contributed to declining elk numbers since at least 1988, before wolves entered the picture. The population dropped by 40 percent during the severe winter of 1996-97 alone. Bears and cougars also kill many elk. Just across the border, Montana biologists are starting a similar collaring study in Ravalli County, where one factor of elk decline may be high human population growth.
The report said wolves caused the highest number of deaths in two other areas with declining populations. But in the Smoky Mountain zone west of Ketchum, where wolves were said to have killed 5 percent of about 30 collared elk, other predators and hunters together killed 7 percent. The Sawtooth zone, west of Stanley, had similar results.
Conversely, the report showed that hunters were the biggest cause of elk kills in two other areas with declining populations: the Pioneer zone east of Ketchum, and Island Park near Rexburg. In the Island Park zone, hunters killed 17 percent of collared elk while wolves killed none.
White said Fish and Game ran a shorter study starting in 2008, collaring 6-month-old calves in just the Lolo and Sawtooth zones. In both areas, wolves killed around a third of the calves. But in the Sawtooth area, only one-third of calves survived, meaning other factors were also to blame.
The conclusion that wolves don’t have a greater effect on elk runs counter to the expectations of many. In July 2009, an informal Fish and Game survey of 2,500 out-of-state hunters found that three in 10 didn’t plan to visit Idaho because of the perceived effect of wolves on elk populations.
In the late ’90s, even ecologists like Scott Creel of Montana State University expected wolves to kill a lot of elk. But after eight years studying the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem where wolves are numerous, he’s learned that other factors are more likely to reduce elk populations.
Before wolves were reintroduced, elk populations were larger and elk stayed in the open, which is what hunters got used to, Creel said. Now, he said, elk may be acting like they did before wolves were eliminated.
Given time, Creel said, he thinks both populations would stabilize. He noted population sizes are only considered “good” or “bad” based upon arbitrary ideas of what the size should be.
“No predator has ever eliminated its food,” Creel said. “Change is always the most dramatic at the beginning, then population numbers settle.”
Laura Lundquist may be reached at llundquist@magicvalley.com or 735-3376.
When this article first came out I inquired and I have it on good authority that what Ms. Lindquist reported was not consistent with the departments point of view. What was written doesn't even represent the brief preliminary results article in the F & G Newsletter, but rather her own pro-wolf agenda. The fact the the Times News allows opinion pieces such as this to be published anywhere but the opinion section is beyond me. i also don't believe that Mr White had any right to make the comments he did either. The last study for the F & G that has been published was concerning a 1997 - 2004 study on cow survival up north and these results most assuradly do not coorelate to the situation seen today.
I believe that the season setting for wolf by the F & G will reflect a higher number of allowable take to better manage the wolf. The real wolf problem lives in Montana and is still deliberating on placing another injunction on the hunt.
V/r,
MW
Here is a fact: The elk population in North Yellowstone has dropped to about 8,000 from almost 17,000 in 1995. That was the year wolves were reintroduced into the 2.5-million-acre federal park in Wyoming, which overlaps the border of Montana and Idaho.
Look it up! Has anyone gone to Yellowstone lately? What did you see? I have, there is a drastic reduction of all animals being preyed upon in the park and it is being ignored and hidden. The same population decline is going on with our populations as well.
They say that all of a sudden, hunters killed all the elk, but at the same time say there are less hunters (and dumber too). They are trying to say the elk are still there,just better at hiding. That is just plain garbage, they are wolf feces. They continue to fill their statements with partial truths and flat out lies and make it sound like it comes from a legitimate source. She always finds some person to say things that she wants in her "story" but does she ever have data from people affected by what is going on? No, where are statements from guides, outfitters, ranchers, The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, etc.?
as it was so well put by the ifg:
"There are certain parts of the IP zone that get tremendous pressure...and others that see none. Most of the terrain is very mild compared to the panhandle of ID. The elk herd has taken a SERIOUS beating from the wolves in the last 5 years and small pockets of elk are increasingly hard to find. It's a very large unit...get a map and find the largest areas without FS roads and you'll do O.K. Seems the calling has gotten tougher the past few years, with some bulls heading the other way with the first cow call." kinda puts this whole report in perspective
Times past, Rattlerrider, no wolves and open season meant the woods were plentiful of all game. If anyone doesn't remember, they are not old enough and should pay close attention to what they are going to learn. The dog has to come out of the woods via bounty and steady, year-round persuit with extra compensation for den kills, is adamant, to start.
The inability to drive the dog off or suspend it's numbers should result in continueous and profitable open season takes paid for by promoters of these lies. They have stolen, lied and in fact have been murdering game nationally (mo), then trying to hide it and lie about it by making things up as if in the third grade and they won't get caught. Too late for that.
Like I said I am an open minded individual and don't think we should shoot every wolf in sight. I do however believe that they need to be hunted to keep a controllable level. We do it with every other apex predator in North America so why not with Wolves as well? They are off the endangered species list and if the animal rights individuals think it's easy to hunt them, I would challenge them to tag along some day and see just how hard they are to spot in the wild, much less to kill!
Wolves may not be the cause of a declining number but in any area where they are even 1 percent of the cause of deaths in Elk populations then that's 1 more percent than we had a few years ago before the Wolf re-introduction.
I still can't get over the fact that this whole study seems to be geared, and the outcome made to appease, out of state hunters so as to waylay their fears that our Elk population is decreasing because of the Wolves. No please come back and spend your money in Idaho!! Wolves aren't to blame, the Elk are just getting better at hiding and us dumb hunters have gotten fat and lazy and don't know how to hunt them now that they have become smarter elk!! Come on that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard!!
Idaho get your senses together and stop trying to make money from out of state individuals and just love the hunters you have. The ones who are loyal to your state and have lived and hunted here their whole lives and stop wasting tax money on irrelevent studies and put it toward something useful for a change!!!
Toby Bridges
LOBO WATCH
I say the best way to study it would be to shoot all the wolves and see if the Elk # come back to what they were before they were introduced the first time.