Wolves - Re-Introduction Issues
The wolves were forced into Yellowstone by an act of Congress, not by Mother Nature, says Diamond G Ranch manager Jon Robinett. He believes federal officials decided they could save a lot of money by reintroducing a population of wolves, instead of allowing them to return naturally, and compensating people for damage incurred.
Now that they have discovered the lush Dunoir Valley, the wolves have repeatedly chased cattle and killed at least eight dogs and a 2-week-old paint colt on the Diamond G.
The financial loss is somewhat compensated by the group Defenders of Wildlife, which reimburses ranchers full market value for confirmed wolf kills. Officials, however, sometimes cannot confidently determine the cause of death, so some losses are not compensated. The killings take their emotional toll, too.
"We don't want to lose our dogs to them," Robinett said. "We don't want to lose our horses to them."
Further, the threat of wolf attacks means the Robinetts must devote many hours monitoring their herds. They hire extra hands in the summer, patrol the pastures at night, and keep vigilant watch for the wolves. In 1997 they began monitoring the pack that had three radio-collared wolves in it. After continued cattle losses, the Fish and Wildlife Service decided to kill the alpha male.
Environmentalists from around the West were outraged. Some even called the Robinetts with death threats.
Cattle losses continued the next year, too. Federal officials killed the alpha female and one yearling - the two remaining collared wolves - and the pack disbanded. When the killings continued and the feds would not get all the wolves off the ranch, Diamond G owner Stephen Gordon sued.
The lawsuit is not a vindictive act against the wolves, Robinett said. Instead it is a plea for the federal government to deal with the problem it created with wolf reintroduction.
"The government has not done anything to compensate us, and that is why we sued them," Robinett said. "This is not a personal issue. But every day we wake up and we don't know who got killed." When the wolves first arrived, the Robinetts were the first to find the den. For days, they watched from a safe distance as the adults fed the young pups.
"We are not anti-wolf," Robinett said. "We're anti-the-people-behind-the-wolves."
Today there are uncollared wolves roaming the Dunoir Valley. Both Robinett and Betts have permits issued by the Fish and Wildlife Service allowing them to kill one wolf on their property. Officials issued the permits following the deaths of the dogs earlier this year. On a cloudy morning last week, Betts saw his first wolf as he snowmobiled two and a half miles from his house to the road. As he and ranch hand Dave Ingram neared the road, a coal-gray wolf leapt from the creek bottom and bounded up a nearby hill.
The wolf disappeared, but its paw prints remained in the crusty snow: four inches wide and five and a half inches long. Just the presence of the wolf makes Betts and Ingram nervous, as they lost a dog to wolves on Christmas day. A working border collie, Reba, was chased and attacked by a single wolf.
Two other dogs have met their demise at the jaws of wolves on the Absoroka Ranch, and Betts fears his children may also be in danger. Robert, 10, and Lindsay, 13, have seen the remains of dogs after a wolf attack and understand how wolves kill. Betts does not want the wolves around his property.
"If there were a wolf here, yes, I would shoot it," he said. "They are an extremely aggressive and vicious predator. These dogs have the fear of God in them now."
Like Robinett, Betts does not blame the wolves. He knows wolves live on meat, and that they are territorial. Despite that understanding, he cannot accept the potential danger they represent.
"In American society, which is primarily an urban society, wolf reintroduction sounded like a wonderful balance," he said. "But it was bound to cause these unsettled problems."
Both men live with wildlife surrounding them. They want to be able to live with wolves, but fear coexistence is impossible because of the wolves' biological need for meat.
"We have bald eagles, peregrine falcons, trumpeter swans and grizzly bears here," Robinett said. "We live here with other animals. And until you understand the needs of other animals, you cannot coexist." Such peace with wolves is unrealistic, he said.
"We use cattle as a tool to make money," Robinett said. "Wolves use cattle as a tool to survive."
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