The Big (Not So Bad) Wolves Of Yellowstone

By Jeffrey Kluger

It's not clear just when the wolves in Yellowstone National Park sense that the helicopters are coming, but with their sharp eyes and keen hearing it's certain they notice them fast. Last week one of the choppers suddenly appeared, flying low over a meadow where 14 gray wolves were bedding down in the crusty snow. The wolves immediately scattered, but not so fast that a crew member in the helicopter wasn't able to take aim with a modified rifle and fire a net over one of them. As the large pup thrashed in the net, another man leaped to the ground and injected it with a sedative. In short order, the crew corralled five more wolves and then spent an hour or so checking the health of the animals, drawing their blood and outfitting them with radio collars. Then, as the wolves awoke, the men edged away and waved them back into the wild.

The wolves that were netted last week are members of one of the most lovingly tended--and now hotly debated--animal populations in the world. Part of a group of 90 or so gray wolves, they are among the first of their species to tread the snows of Yellowstone in 65 years. Hunted almost out of existence in the western U.S., gray wolves have been making a triumphant comeback since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced two groups into the park's 2.2 million acres and into another large patch of wilderness in nearby Idaho. In the three years since the animals' release, conservationists have nursed the nascent packs along in a program that is being lauded as one of the most successful wildlife projects of all time.

All that threatened to come to an end last month when a federal judge ruled that while the program's goals might be noble, its methods are illegal. The only solution, he declared, is to remove the transplanted animals. In the cruel calculus of the wild, "remove" could mean "kill." If the judge's decision survives appeals, the next time the helicopters appear, the rifles may be loaded not with nets but with bullets. "This is a defining issue of right and wrong," says National Wildlife Federation president Mark Van Putten. "It would be morally wrong to exterminate them a second time."

The relationship between humans and wolves has always been a troubled one. Just a century ago, more than 100,000 of the fearsome predators roamed the West, helping themselves to the abundant prey and vast territory they found there. Early settlers, who saw the wolves as threats to both their cattle and themselves, generally killed them on sight. Ultimately, the government placed a bounty on the wolves, encouraging hunters to shoot them, trap them and even burn them alive. Before the middle of the 20th century, Canis lupus was wobbling on the edge of extinction.

But the consequences of such carnage were soon felt. An ecosystem stripped of the wolf doesn't simply become more peaceable; rather, it becomes flabby and unbalanced. With the dominant predator gone, the next biggest hunter--typically the coyote--assumes the top spot. As the coyote population explodes, the populations of foxes, badgers and martens, which compete with coyotes for rodents and other small game, dwindle. At the same time, large prey like elk, which were once brought down by wolves, begin to multiply excessively, stripping vegetation from highlands. And with no elk carcasses lying around, scavengers like magpies, ravens and grizzly bears, accustomed to dining on scraps from wolf kills, have to scrounge elsewhere for protein. "The wolf is a keystone species," says Yellowstone biologist Douglas Smith. "You remove it and the effects cascade down to the grasses."

In Yellowstone that cascade has long been felt, and since the 1930s, wildlife managers have watched in dismay as the park's ecosystem--once well balanced between predator and prey--grew more and more bottom-heavy. Finally, in the 1970s, they decided to do something about it. Working through the then new Endangered Species Act, they proposed a plan under which wolves would be imported from Canada to reclaim their place in the ecosystem. Twenty years later, the plan was approved, and wolves were trucked from across the border--31 to Yellowstone and 35 to Idaho.

The impact is now apparent. Around Yellowstone, elk kills are more common, a welcome development for park managers hoping to bring that animal's population back to manageable levels. The wolves often eat only 200 lbs. of the meat on a 500-lb. animal they fell, leaving plenty for other animals to scavenge. Wolf packs also appear to have killed as many as half the coyotes in at least two areas of the park, opening up ecological breathing room for foxes and other species. Even highland vegetation, no longer chewed up by hungry elk, is expected to start making a comeback. "We're seeing beneficial effects from the top down," says Robert Crabtree, a wildlife ecologist. "Who knows how far it will go?"

Some people are worried that it has already gone too far. Conservationists knew that a few wolves would inevitably wander off the grounds of the park, find their way to farms and attack livestock; since 1995, seven head of cattle and 84 sheep have been killed this way. The Defenders of Wildlife set up a fund to compensate owners for their losses, and to date the group has paid out more than $21,000. But money isn't the only issue. "There's also the stress of not knowing if wolves are in the area and when they'll strike," says Vern Keller, 71, a rancher who has been in the business for 48 years. "It keeps us on edge all the time."

For Keller and others, there's a way to fight back. In order to make the reintroduction project palatable to ranchers, advocates made a key concession. Though all gray wolves in the U.S. are officially listed as endangered, the transplanted wolves are considered an "experimental" population. It's an important distinction; while endangered wolves are protected under almost all circumstances, wolves in experimental populations enjoy protection only as long as they don't present a threat to livestock. Under this definition, the Yellowstone wolves live their lives in a state of permanent probation, safe only as long as they mind their business and stay in their range. Wolves that go AWOL and attack domestic animals can be shot as summarily as their ancestors were.

This provision was always the wolf project's Achilles' heel, and almost immediately opponents exploited it--though not in the way conservationists expected. In 1995, separate suits were filed by a group of petitioners arguing that the wolf program is illegal. Since there is still a small population of indigenous wolves left in the U.S., and since it's impossible to determine whether a rogue spotted outside the park is part of the relocated population, a farmer who kills a wolf--as a few already have--just might be killing a native animal, something the Endangered Species Act forbids.

The argument is a cunning one, and when the dispute reached the court last month, the judge saw things the petitioners' way: the wolves would have to go. Not surprisingly, the reaction has been explosive. "The decision defies common sense," fumes Thomas France, senior counsel of the National Wildlife Federation. "It was an order to take 10 steps backward."

Good decision or bad, at the moment it's the law--and that's grim news for the wolves. The 66 animals shipped to Yellowstone and Idaho have multiplied to 165--90 in Yellowstone and 75 in Idaho. Shipping them back to Canada is not an option, since the territory they abandoned has been claimed by other wolves. Placement in zoos--where wolves aren't popular--is difficult. "The options," says Smith, "could come down to one thing: killing them."

For the moment, that's unlikely to happen. District Judge William Downes, who wrote the decision, stayed its enforcement until the expected blizzard of appeals is exhausted, which could take until well into next year. By that time, the wolves' numbers will surely have increased, making the job of removing the animals all the more difficult--and the battle to protect them all the more fierce. "I will fight with everything I have to keep the wolves in Yellowstone," says Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. After more than a century on the run, the wolves themselves are accustomed to the struggle.

--Reported by Dick Thompson/Washington and Richard Woodbury/Yellowstone

With reporting by Dick Thompson/Washington and Richard Woodbury/Yellowstone