Other views: The history of the wolf is a complicated one

Published 12:34 pm Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Dunham

The gray wolf has become quite a controversial animal in the West. Do you know the history of the wolf that is here now and the historical wolf which used to inhabit the Western states?

According to Edward Goldman, the wolf subspecies known to have historically inhabited much of the Rocky Mountain region around Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Eastern Oregon and Washington was Canis lupus irremotus, a medium to large wolf commonly called the Timber wolf. Just to the east of that was a wolf subspecies Canis lupus nubilus, that inhabited the Central Plains. There are variations on this toxicology, but this is a commonly accepted one. Although both smaller than the largest wolf subspecies, they were capable of taking down large mammals and, as settlers moved west, they learned that domestic livestock was an easy prey.

They were also known to be quite dangerous to humans and adapted to killing not only European settlers but native Americans for centuries before that. I have a 14-page list of people killed by wolves in locations worldwide and many in the states. Recent history lists Kenton Carnegie. who was killed by wolves in Saskatchewan just north of Montana in 2005, and a woman jogger in Alaska shortly after that.

The wolf, which was captured in Canada and brought down to be released into Yellowstone National Park and in Idaho — which did not approve the dump of wolves — was Canis lupus occidentalis. It is the largest of the subspecies of wolves on the North American continent. Their jaw size and strength are far greater than any of the other subspecies. There were other wolves similar to the irremotus that they could have captured, but they chose this biggest of the wolves, who can easily weigh 150 pounds.

If you really want to know the story of how that all transpired, look up wolf expert Jim Beers. He worked for the National Fish and Wildlife Service for decades, and investigated how state firearm taxes were stolen by this agency. It trapped and transported the 60-plus wolves that were brought down from Canada because the government wouldn’t authorize the money to do it legally. The money amounted to over $40 million and was never repaid. The story reeks of government corruption by environmentalists who filtered into the agency.

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In less than 20 years, the wolves in Yellowstone killed almost the entire herd of 19,000 elk. There are very few left that even stay in the park. Guides and packers were put out of business in that area and hunting was ruined. The wolves dumped in Idaho also decimated the elk herd in the central state and hunting has almost stopped in many areas around there.

The other expert to look to is Val Geist, a professor at the University of Calgary, and a 50-year expert on wolves. He was not anti-wolf, but had the common sense to say that the wolf does best when it is in unpopulated or very thinly populated areas. He regarded them as dangerous to humans, not only because they can be habituated to consider humans as food, but because they carry some very dangerous diseases, That includes rabies and a canine tapeworm that can spread to herbivores and humans in the form of Hydatid disease (larval stages can form cysts in human organs).

He was also concerned that the introduction of wolves to human-inhabited areas would lead to crosses with dogs that would ruin the genome of the pure wolf. He also felt that active wildlife management of wolves and ethical hunting of game animals were a better way to keep biodiversity in ecosystems and save wildlife the brutality of being eaten alive by wolf packs. He was an expert witness on animal behavior, environmental policy and wildlife law enforcement, so his work is considered valuable.

Lastly, it’s been said that the only thing that will change our state legislature’s opinion on protecting wolves is an attack on a wolf supporter’s child or pet when they start coming into the suburbs of Portland or Salem. Our children, pets and livestock don’t matter over here. We have a choice ahead of us: manage the wolf population and protect the rights of people to preserve their livelihoods, or risk the collapse of our economic base and see all services shutter their doors.

Then no one will enjoy the beauty of this wonderful area except the wolves.

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