Gray Wolf Pest Control Case Study

While researching the gray wolf, I found out that it is actually a very touchy subject in Michigan. The hunting of Gray Wolves has been a very controversial topic. Gray wolves are native to Michigan but were nearly wiped out in the 19th and early 20th centuries by hunting and state-sanctioned bounties. In 1973, when Congress created the federal endangered species list, only six wolves were known to still exist in the Michigan wild, and gray wolves were considered an endangered species. By 2007, the wolf population in the Upper Peninsula topped 500 -- far exceeding the recovery benchmark of 100 set by the federal government, making the Great Lakes gray wolf one of the most successful recovery stories in the history of the endangered species list. The gray wolf actually came off the endangered species list in 2012, but as of December 2014, has been relisted.

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

Wolves are highly adaptable to most habitat types except tropical rainforests and arid deserts. Wolves can be found in savannas, taiga, tundra, plains, steppes, and all forest habitats. The Grey wolf is a carnivore and is known as a tertiary consumer. This means that they exist in the top level in a food chain. An example of an animal that is beneath the Grey wolf on the food chain would be the caribou, which is one of its most hunted food sources.

The gray wolf packs continue to be rarely seen in North Dakota. We can’t count how many packs there is today because there is only an exiguous amount left. Gray wolves remain threatened in North Dakota in addition to some of endangered in other areas of the United States of America. Clearly, ranchers are one of the primary reasons that gray wolves stay threatened. They are killing gray wolves for the reason that the wolves are killing off their livestock. Another reason why the gray wolves remain vulnerable is because the poachers set traps to kill the gray wolves. Gray wolves keep the ecosystem healthy by keeping the elk and deer population intact. However, some hunters could see this as not helping them so they would want to kill wolves.

Grey wolf Habitats: They are normally found in North America.Today, their range has shifted to Canada, Alaska, the Great Lakes, northern Rockies, Pacific Northwest and Yellowstone park.

Policy desired because Gray Wolves were almost extinct in the early 1900s and wanted a way to bring them back into Yellowstone National Park

As the population is growing more crops and cattle for farms are expanding and this has started to cause the Gray Wolves to get in the endangered list in 1976. Within those farms, Gray wolves would invade the livestock and gather food from the farms. When the farmers witness their livestock being eaten and taken away from the wolves they would kill and shoot the animals to defend their farm. Since there are so many farms the food stock has become limited for them so they have to find whatever food they can. Besides limited food disease is also a huge problem within their community, diseases such as canine distemper which is caused by unvaccinated dogs and kills young pups to older adults. Gray wolves are also a dangerous predator to themselves,

A protected female gray wolf has been shot and killed in Utah by a hunter who claims to have mistaken it for a coyote. DNA tests conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have confirmed that it is the same wolf, which wore a radio collar, that had been previously spotted in the Grand Canyon in Arizona—the first gray wolf seen so far south in at least 70 years. After being slaughtered in the tens of thousands back in the 1920s and ‘30s, the species had never been seen south of Colorado until this female—named "Echo" in a student contest—had been spotted in Arizona in the fall of 2014.

Gray wolves. To some, these creatures are monsters, harbingers of death and destruction. To others, they are simply misunderstood creatures, protective of their family and their pack. However, what either side does not know is that these creatures play a greater role in their ecosystem than one human alone could understand. Grey wolves are one of thousands of different keystone species- species of organisms that have a large effect on the health and stability of a particular ecosystem. But they are also on the brink of extinction. The over hunting of these creatures in the 1900’s has lead to a severe decline in their population throughout the U.S., creating a ripple effect in the ecosystems in which they reside in. Luckily, reintroduction

Secondary data on the number of successful and unsuccessful wolf reintroduction programs can be gathered from state and federal wildlife management agencies from the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. Collection of the same information from environmental organizations, and other local groups who study predator species is also important to determine if data on wolf reintroduction show similar numbers. If methods of data collection are similar but each has different outcomes, the level of bias should be minimal. Reports on loss of livestock from farmers, ranchers, and hunting groups should also be analyzed and compared with the numbers reported to state and federal agencies. Another piece of secondary data critical to this research

Another challenge to the long-term survival of the NRM gray wolf is its persistent widespread public persecution. Many public landowners, namely ranchers, cite the gray wolf as being the primary cause for livestock population declines. According to the USFWS, throughout a period between 1995 and 2008, gray wolves were directly involved with the deaths of 3242 livestock (cattle and sheep) animals in the northern Rocky Mountain states. During the thirteen year span, there were 988 confirmed wolf kills in the region (USFWS n.d.). Many ranchers in the Yellowstone region assert that, even though they receive government compensation for lost livestock, they spend too much time and effort in raising livestock that perish as a result of wolf depredation.

In the past several years news organizations have reported that the wolf populations have been dwindling and researchers are attempting to bring the wolf populations back to what they should be. The population on Royal Isle has been struggling to survive. Many populations are suffering on the island and researchers are struggling to make the population hit a point where they are able to survive without overpopulating or under populating. The wolf population in upper Michigan has now hit a high where people are starting to hunt them to protect wildlife. It used to be a very small population but now it is thriving which will cause adverse consequences. This is also a struggle in Yellowstone National Park. People have a lot of different

Wolves in the Upper Peninsula have been a hot topic for many of years, especially the hunting and trapping of them. I think people pro wolf are afraid that making it legal to hunt them would eventually make them an extinct animal. This shows us a type of supply and demand, where the supply is the wolves in their natural environment and the demand is where the people live and want to live in harmony with the wolves.

Their population has changed throughout the years. At one time, they disappeared from 48 states but then returned mainly to Alaska, the Great Lakes, Northern Rockies, and the Pacific Northwest. As of 2016 their population in the Western Great Lakes totaled 3,765. In the Northern Rocky Mountains, it totaled 1,782. In Alaska, they totaled 7,700 to 11,200 wolves. Since the gray wolf was removed from the endangered species list in several states three years ago, Predator Defense estimates about 2,800 wolves have been killed in 6 states. And there are only about 5,000 grey wolves left in the lower 48 states! Wolf hunting is allowed in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Critics say wolf hunting is vicious and violent, and

In 1995 the gray wolf (Canis lupus) was reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park. The park had been without resident wolves for 70 years prior, when they were killed off in the 1930’s. This meant that in those 70 years there was no research on the effects of wolves on the park’s ecosystem. In the decades since the reintroduction, research has been able to proceed and has found some amazing results. Not only did the reintroduction of wolves impact animal life, but it also had an impact on plant life. “In the past it was thought that an ecosystem was built from the bottom up... with plant life as the basis from which everything grew. Almost all conservation and reintroduction efforts were based on this idea.” (Mission: Wolf Education vs Extinction)