Essay On Coywolf

The Mexican gray wolf is a large prey that, in the past, preyed on livestock which contributed to their near extinction by humans. However, the decline in the Mexican wolf lead to an overabundance in plant life which had a direct effect on other wildlife. There are many challenges involved with re-introducing wolves to other stakeholders such as to academics, mangers, ranchers, or landowners. It is not as simple as taking the Mexican wolf from where they are now and placing them in different areas in Arizona, New Mexico, the US, and across the border in Sonora, Mexico. This is a very large area of land that policies would have to cover. The best ways to illustrate that this concept is not as easy as it may seem are best described by nature culture dichotomy, social-ecological systems involving ecosystems with people, and the Anthropocene comprised with the idea of humans as agents of change.

For a number of years the wolves were not missed by most people, the ranchers and farmers were happy to have the pests gone. Coyotes,

Throughout the 1970’s, the US Fish and Wildlife Service developed a criteria to help identify the red wolf from the other the canids in order to protect them. Between 1974 and 1980, the US Fish and Wildlife service used this to identify and discovered that there only 17 red wolves remaining in the

...elk and other browsing animals behave differently when wolves are around. Instead of eating greenery down to the soil, they take a bite or two, look up to check for threats, and keep moving. The greenery can grow tall enough to reproduce.(578)

When the wolves were first reintroduced, having 30 equally distributed breeding pairs was enough to constitute a success. A breeding pair is defined as an adult male and female wolf raising two or more pups in a year, where the pups are born between April and May and then raised till December 31. With the reintroduction of the gray wolf, a recovery population goal had to be established. That was the goal of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for the recovery of the wolf population for the northern Rocky Mountains. Wolf numbers needed to be maintained at this level for at least three consecutive years. According to the USFWS 2002 was the third year where there had been at least 30 breeding pairs throughout Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. After 2002, these wolves are still multiplying and the population continues to soar, even at this very moment.

We looked first at the relationship between the wolf population and the moose population. From about 1960 to 1970, the wolf population remained fairly consistent at about 20 to 25 wolves. During this time, the moose population grew steadily from 500 to over 1200. The next 10 years saw a doubling of the wolf population to 50. This same 10 years saw a decrease of the moose population from over 1200 to over 800. Then in 1980 began a two year drastic decline in the moose population, which was brought down to 15. For the rest of the decade, the moose population remained quite low at numbers near 20. During the 1980s, the moose population doubled again from around 800 to

In “Scared to Death” by Ed Yong and Sharon Levy’s “Wolf Family Values,” we read about the need to protect the population of wolves in North America. These two articles have very different ways to go about this. Ed Yong talks about the wolf effects on elk as well as the rest of the environment. Levy’s approach is about wolf social structure and how it is impacted by hunting. Both of these make some valid points on why more conservation efforts should be made; however, I believe Ed Yong made the stronger case.

The gray wolf is one of the world’s most well known and well researched animals with more documentation on them than any other wildlife species. It is a canid whose main habitats are in the wilderness of remote areas in North America, Eurasia and North Africa. It is the largest member of the wolf family, usually weighing between 70 and 120 lbs, and closely resembles in general appearance and proportions to a modern day breed of dog known as the German Sheppard, although they typically have a larger head, narrower chest, longer legs, straighter tails and bigger paws. The narrow chest of the gray wolf allows for swift and efficient movement through the common elements of their environment such as snow, brush and other conditions. Their larger heads indicate their higher level of intelligence and their large paws, webbed with fur aid in movement across mud and snow. The colour of a gray wolf’s fur lives up to its name and is predominantly a mottled gray although the gray wolf can also have fur that is nearly pure white, mixes of red, brown, or black. Being very social animals, gray wolves do mostly everything in packs of 2 – 15 animals; living, traveling and hunting. They can hunt and feed off smaller game, yet with their large pack size, they can work collectively to bring down large game such as deer, moose or bison. There are 37 recognized subspecies of the gray wolf in total ranging across six continents with familiar names that one

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service are considering removing the gray wolf from the endangered species list once Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming have enough wolves to be deemed sufficient to continue to expand the wolf population, requiring only that each of these three states have a management plan in effect to prevent the gray wolf from becoming endangered again. With the current attitude of the governments in these states, the wolf should not lose their federal support under the Endangered Species Act as it would merely serve to cause the wolves to become endangered once again, or at best, held to the absolute minimum population that the states can pass off as “viable, self-sustaining populations”

The Mexican wolf is the southernmost subspecies of gray wolf in North America, its natural habitat was that of the southwest United States and Mexico, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona as their home range in the US. Mexican wolves typically feed on deer and elk. (Rinkevich, Murphy, & Barrett, 2011). The gray wolves were a menace to rancher’s cattle and farmer’s livestock. Depredation of livestock led ranchers and state governments to declare war on the Mexican gray wolves through public and private bounties. The Mexican gray wolves were successfully removed from the wild. (Foreman, 2004) The Endangered Species Act of 1973 was vital for the protection of the Mexican gray wolf. (Larkin, Noss, & Maehr, 2001) In 1990, the United States Fish & Wildlife Service coordinated and developed a Mexican wolf reintroduction recovery plan to establish a wild population of no less than 100 Mexican Gray wolves in March

Red wolves are very similar to the coyotes. As their name name suggests the have red coat but also a little brown mixed into it. They are the smaller and leaner version of their cousin, the grey wolf. They are native to the southeast region of North America. Red wolves are mostly found in forest and swamps but can survive mostly anywhere in the southeast. They are a carnivorous species and their diet ranges from small rodents to white tailed deer. If they can not find anything else they have been to eat berries and insects to survive. Red wolves breed once a year during January through February. They

Long before the settlers started to make the United States their home, “American Indians lived long beside the Gray Wolf before settlers started to come here.” (Rowe, Mark) The wolf is native to the North American continent and has been inhabiting its land for centuries. It is a canid species, or member of the canine family and is a cunning, smart, fast, and sly animal. Gray wolves range in color from black, brown, gray, and white and also look like a grown German Shepherd. They are well known for traveling in family sizes from 7-9 wolves, led by the alpha male and have a mate. They are a fierce animal that has been researched extensively because of their unique qualities and that they are near extinction.

Hybridization of species in the wild is both rare and often unsuccessful. The product of hybrids are most often sterile and unfit to survive in the natural world. North America may claim one of the most successful hybrids of this century. The newly discovered “coy wolf” is a mix between two canis species, the western coyote and the eastern wolf. This hybrid is also called the eastern coyote or northeastern coyote. The hybrid did not arise spontaneously. Human’s set up the perfect scenario to create a hybrid from species that would otherwise be allopatric. Humans highly influenced the formation and success of this hybrid. Without human destruction of American ecosystems, the coy wolf may have never walked this Earth.

Badgers can readily dig rodents out of burrows but cannot run them down readily. Coyotes, on the other hand, can readily run rodents down while above ground, but cannot effectively dig them out of burrows. When badgers and coyotes hunt in the same area at the same time, they may increase the number of rodents available to the other. Coyotes take advantage of rodents attempting to escape from badgers attacking their burrows and it has been demonstrated that coyotes benefit from the association. Badgers and coyotes tolerate each other's presence and may even engage in play behavior.

The wolf was once a much slandered animal. In the western world, people feared and hated wolves, and this legacy is reflected in stories such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Boy Who Cried Wolf. In these popular children's tales the wolf is made out to be a prowler and a killer of livestock and people. There is some basis for The Boy Who Cried Wolf, for wolves have killed cattle and sheep. But what of Little Red Riding Hood? There are no records of wolves killing humans in Canada or the United States. Yet, when wolves were spotted near rural communities, fear used to grip the populace, but over time this has become less prevalent.