Signpost

Issue date: 9/26/07 Section: Business and Technology

Wolves, like the ones seen here, are being re-introduced into Yellowstone National Park.

The Ritchey Natural Science Lecture Series hosted Ecosystem: Effects of Wolves in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) presented by guest speaker, Dr. Douglas W. Smith.

Smith is the project leader for the Yellowstone Gray Wolf Restoration Project in Yellowstone National Park. Smith spoke about his time spent working as a biologist for the project from 1994-1997, and his experience with the program since its inception.

He has also studied wolves for 27 years, and prior to Yellowstone, he worked on Isle Royale from 1979-1992. In addition he worked with wolves in Minnesota in 1983. Smith has produced numerous publications on the subject of the wolf and the beaver, as well as contributing many hours of lecture time on both topics.

"There is no substitute for direct experience with your study subjects," Smith said."There's no substitute for getting out in the field and getting intimate with your animals. If you're going to study them, you have to know them."

Smith presented a general foundational biology lecture on Yellowstone wolves involved in his project, which includes forty-one wolves from Canada that were reintroduced to Yellowstone, in 1995 and 1996 after nearly a 70-year absence. The idea of bringing wolves back to Yellowstone deliberately without natural immigration was not received well by many people. There has been a very polarized debate that has been a constant story of wolves.

"The folklore, the misinformation about wolves is ramped - what people want to believe about them, what their value system is," Smith said.

He said contrary to what many people may think, wolves are very selective killers, who strategize and evaluate their kill and are not willing to just kill anything.

"The most interesting aspect for me was the different conclusions each side of the wolf reintroduction issue can come to, using the same data for elk population dynamics," said WSU zoology senior Katie Ricks. "It is so important to look at other possible contributing factors with issues like these."

Smith said wolves are viewed with controversy.

"They lived everywhere north of the equator originally, and they have been pretty much eradicated from most of that area because of conflicts with humans," Smith said. "They also have been in competition with human hunters and have been viewed as dangerous."

Continued...

Page 1 of 3 next >

Article Tools