Many Wyomingites know the issue between wolves and elk in Yellowstone National Park. This issue has caused chaos with people all over the state. Hunters and wildlife managers think that ever since the reintroduction of the wolves into Yellowstone in 1995, that's why roughly 50% of the elk popluation have declined. http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2007/03/31/editorial/forum/a2181c71523ff76f872572ae006b41dc.txt
I agree with those who feel that the wolves are the reason for the scarcity of the elk. I'm one of those people who like to travel to Jackson and look over and see the National Elk Refuge filled with thousands of Elk.
The Northern Yellowstone Cooperative Wildlife Working Group gathered numbers of elk in December 2006, where there was 6,738 elk in the Yellowstone's northern range. In January 2005 there were 9,545, and before the wolves were allowed back into Yellowstone there were 19,359 elk in January 1994. I believe that the wolves are a threat to the elk population and something should be done about it.
A lot of people feel that the reason there are less elk is because of hunters and drought. But I don't think hunters or drought could make the decline of the elk go from almost 20,000 to roughly 6,000 in a little over ten years. I think hunters and drougt could have an impact on the elk population, but not as much as wolves would impact the population.
The federal government released 14 wolves into Yellowstone National Park and at the end of 2006, there were an estimated 36 packs in Wyoming, including 311 individual wolves.
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2007/03/20/news/wyoming/dbd7a179950ad5ef872572a30082f981.txt
"We have seen a downward trend (in cow-calf ratios) in many of Wyoming's elk herds over this 26-year period," Jay Lawson of the Game and Fish Department's wildlife division said in a news release. "That trend is likely due to long-term drought and other habitat-related factors. But in half of the herds occupied by wolves, we saw a significantly greater rate of decline after wolves were established compared to herds without wolves. We can't attribute that increased rate of decline to any factor other than wolves."
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2007/03/28/news/wyoming/14e4e379a5723a99872572ab0082a094.txt
Many tourists come to Wyoming to see Yellowstone and its wildlife, but with the increasing number of wolves in that area will cause people to see less elk and wildlife.
I think something needs to be done with this issue. I don't really want to see all the wolves killed, but that may be the only option, or at least take them out of Yellowstone and put them elsewhere out of Wyoming.
