Interesting wolf study

[gottafish]

I have been to this Island and back packed it several times. Its interesting to see that in 4 years the moose population went from 11K to 450. Now emagen oregon elk.??

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NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN WOLF STUDY

http://glrc.org/transcript.php3?story_id=2972

Gretchen Millich March 20, 2006

It's been a challenging winter for moose and wolves on Isle Royale National Park. The moose population has declined to its lowest level since researchers began observing them 48 years ago. It's the world's longest running study of predator-prey relationships. With their food supply dwindling, the wolves have responded by attacking each other. The GLRC's Gretchen Millich reports:

John Vucetich is a wildlife biologist at Michigan Tech University. He says the latest count on Isle Royale found only 450 moose. That's down from 11-hundred four years ago. Vucetich says the food shortage has led one wolf pack to invade the territory of another. During a flyover in January, he witnessed the killing of an alpha male by rival wolves.

"Just a circle of wolves, all of their noses focused on one spot, you can't even see the victim wolf at all, tails along the outside just wagging vigorously and that goes on for two minutes or so, and then the wolves walk away and there's nothing left but a bloody lifeless carcass in the snow."

The situation won't last long. Vucetich says that by next year, wolves will start to decline and soon moose will make a comeback on Isle Royale.

For the GLRC, this is Gretchen Millich.

[Bait O' Eggs]

So the 2% sick and weak that the wolves eat, must have been 2% per week, not year, as I was lead to beleive by the educated ones

[skein]

I'm currently reading the book Alaska's Wolf Man, about Frank Glaser, Alaska's main Federal Predator Control Agent from about 1920 to 1955. It was written by Jim Rearden, who was for years the head of the Department of Wildlife Management at the University of Alaska. In the forward of the book, written in 1998, he says:

Frank accomplished what the residents of the Fortymile country considered a miracle. As the 175-mile road was pushed through from the Alaska Highway to Eagle, wolves made use of it. Wolf tracks were everywhere each morning in the smooth fill following the grader. Frank had a heyday for a couple of years, killing wolves with "getters" along the new road.
Within five years there was an abundance of moose in the Fortymile country. Old-timers said there had never been so many. Game check stations revealed large takes and a high hunter success, which was surprising, for much of the Fortymile is covered by scrub spruce.
The moose didn't last though. When predator control work ended in 1957 the wolves returned and today there are few moose left. Old-timers in the Fortymile long for another Frank Glaser.

Remember, this was written in 1998 by the [retired] head of the Wildlife Management Department at the University of Alaska, and a man who also served for 12 years on the Alaska Board of Fish and Game.

Skein

[Quack Attack]

I always find it interesting the understanding people have about predator prey relationships. You know, moose, elk, deer are "predators" as well, and their prey is vegetation. Funny thing is, when herbivore species get depressed, even in a 'k' selected species it only takes a few years for them to rebound. However, when they are allowed to flourish by removing predators they destroy the plant life, which takes decades if not centuries to replenish, keeping the deer, elk, moose depressed and giving hunters reasons to complain about "predators" :shocked: We knew this in the 1930's, check out Aldo Leopolds work. We now see it all around us if you look, ie deer species in most western states, yellowstone, even snow geese in the artic. :tongue: But I guess that we as caretakers of the environment know so much that we can balance nature better than she can balance herself.

[Quack Attack]

Oh yeah, BTW it is a decline from 1100 to 450, not 11k. 650 decline, not bad, but nothing compared to the decline in moose that I saw in Utah growing up and that was due to no predators, loss of wintering ground, and overuse of vegetation...They still haven't rebounded.

[baltz526]

the only way to balance nature as you say, is to never have migrated from europe in the first place. i think we are just a little past that point.

[Rank Amateur]

So you are for the boom and bust cycles of days past, starving wolves and shredded game animals. Hey take a look at the westside vegetation, the timber companies nuke it with herbicides and in a few years it is back. The best is to create a balance, not the booms and busts IMO.

[Salmo trutta]

Classic textbook example of the effects of Island Biogeography.