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Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced 31 wolves to the park in 1995 and ’96, the intensive research effort has been predicated on understanding wolf ecology in the absence of human persecution.
Wolves yellowstone park beyond words full#
Lamar Valley, pictured here full of bison in June 2018, is regarded as the one of the best places on the planet to watch wild wolves because of its open sightlines, road accessibility and abundance of prey and predators. For researchers it holds a unique appeal: In the Lower 48, Yellowstone is the easiest place to observe wolves in their natural state. Yellowstone’s Northern Range is widely regarded as the best place on the planet to watch wild wolves. By going in and killing them, you stimulate reproduction.” Now this is a hypothesis, but this is what I would call an artificial stimulation of wolf reproductive capacity. “It’s broken apart the social structure, it’s messed with the hierarchy, and it’s actually produced more pups. “We have multiple females pregnant in at least two packs - Junction and Wapiti - that could be due to the mortality that we’ve experienced,” Smith said. It appears, in other words, that with their pack hierarchies disrupted by the record-setting killings, some wolves have abandoned their selective mating customs. “You lose that wolf and it opens up opportunities for other wolves.” “Usually the most dominant wolf prevents other wolves from breeding,” he said. The custom is reflected in 27 years of hard data: 85% of the time, park packs produce single litters.īut this year - in the wake of at least 25 wolves being shot or trapped just beyond the park’s boundaries - Yellowstone Wolf Project personnel observed three or four females in two different Northern Range packs “tied” and breeding, Smith said. Ordinarily in Yellowstone, only each pack’s dominant alpha male and female get the opportunity to mate. Many more wolves have been getting frisky than expected. Twice in recent months Yellowstone National Park senior wildlife biologist Doug Smith and his team of researchers have observed highly unusual mating behavior.
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Thanks for your support of WyoFile! We rely on loyal members like you to sustain our reporting and grow the WyoFile community.Ī recent spate of wolf killings just outside of Yellowstone National Park has altered fundamental aspects of the canines’ behavior, and threatened the foundations of one of the most storied wildlife research efforts in American history, according to park scientists.