Yellowstone Treasures Blog

Doug Smith, the biologist in charge of the Yellowstone Wolf Project, gave an important report on the state of Yellowstone’s wolves last week In Cody, Wyoming. Speaking at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Smith mentioned that fall is “the hardest time of the year to be a wolf, because elk are well-fed and in good shape, making them harder to catch.”

He reported that last year was a tough year for Yellowstone's wolves due to disease, especially distemper, which caused or contributed to the death of
every one of the 25 new pups in the Leopold pack. The pack's alpha male was killed by a wolf from a neighboring pack, effectively wiping out the pack.

Smith also attributed a forty percent drop in wolves in the northern part of the park to several causes, including disease, inter-pack killings, some food shortages, and a high density of wolves and other carnivores there. He believes that wolf and elk numbers may take another decade or longer to stabilize in the area and predicts that, in the long term, there will be half as many wolves on the northern range as we have now.

You can read the entire “Billings Gazette” article at: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_6b3ad89e-af12-11de-ae55-001cc4c03286.html.