Beyond 2000 Symposium

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Conflicts Between Wolves and Humans - Friday Session

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Beyond 2000:
Realities of Global Wolf Restoration

23-26 February 2000
Duluth, Minnesota USA

Livestock depredation and wolf control in the northern Rocky Mountain states

Thomas Meier, Edward Bangs, Joseph Fontaine, Diane Boyd, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 100 North Park Street Suite 320, Helena, MT 59601, USA; Michael Jimenez, Brian Cox, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 170 North 1st Street, Lander, WY 82520, USA; Curtis Mack, Nez Perce Tribe, PO Box 365, Lapwai, ID 83540, USA; Carter Niemeyer, USDA/APHIS, Wildlife Services, PO Box 982, Helena, MT 55635, USA

Depredation on livestock can be a major obstacle to wolf recovery. For wolves in the three recovery areas in the northern Rocky Mountains of the United States (northwest Montana, central Idaho and the greater Yellowstone area), livestock depredation will increase as the wolf population expands from remote public lands to areas closer to humans. Wolf recovery in Yellowstone and Idaho, resulting from the reintroductions of 1995 and 1996, has been more rapid than predicted in the 1994 environmental impact statement, with each population numbering nearly 170 animals in winter 1999-2000. To date, confirmed livestock depredation in those areas has been less than predicted in the EIS. In northwest Montana, depredations peaked after the severe winter of 1996-1997 sharply reduced white-tailed deer populations, resulting in more livestock depredation and lethal wolf control by government agencies. Wolf and prey populations have still not recovered to 1995-1996 levels. After 20 years of natural wolf recovery in northwest Montana, the population still numbers fewer than 100 animals.

A graduated system of wolf control is used to reduce wolf/livestock conflict. A single instance of livestock depredation might result in aversive conditioning, harassment or the capture and radio collaring of one or more wolves, but no translocation or lethal control. Repeated depredations are met with increased levels of control, up to the lethal removal of whole wolf packs. It has been shown that wolves can live for years in close proximity to cattle without killing them. The purpose of the control plan is to remove chronic depredating wolves to promote local public tolerance and allow for the survival of non-depredating wolves. However, the size of wolf pack territories and the seasonal movements of both natural prey and cattle ensure that almost all wolf packs outside of parks and designated wilderness areas will be exposed to livestock, primarily cattle, at some time. Some level of depredation is inevitable. The presence of sheep is an even stronger invitation for wolf problems. Wolf attacks on dogs and other domestic animals also occur where wolves live in proximity to humans.

It remains to be seen at what level the existing practices of livestock and wildlife management will allow wolves to recover in the northern Rocky Mountain states. Control techniques that have allowed wolf recovery to progress in the Midwestern states may not work in the presence of low-density, fragmented wolf populations, migratory prey populations and widespread range cattle. The movement of deer and elk into low-elevation winter range brings wolves into seasonal contact with people and their livestock. The presence of range cattle across vast areas of public land in summer makes depredation more likely, and harder to detect. Range cattle are not often monitored closely, and some are undoubtedly killed and consumed by wolves without ever being discovered. The discrepancy between "confirmed" wolf losses and the numbers of calves and adult cattle simply missing at roundup is becoming the most intense source of controversy in western wolf management.

A number of possible solutions have been proposed to promote the coexistence of wolves and traditional western ranching. These include chemical and electronic aversive techniques, expanded efforts to move rather than kill offending wolves, subsidies to provide multiple guard animals or herders to watch livestock, and increased compensation for wolf losses. The latter could include a pro-rated allowance for suspected, unverifiable livestock kills or increased payments to ranchers who allow wolves to live on their property or allotments.