Wolves don't appear to cause as many problems as believed

Published Sunday, November 26, 2000


Surrounded by agricultural land including 25 ranches, some residents feared for their livestock. Federal biologists had even initially recommended that the area be kept ''wolf free.''

But a new study suggests that worries about livestock kills may have been overblown. According to a sample of wolves, the animals spent most of their time far from humans and their feces showed deer was their overwhelming food source.

''I think people have had this idea that wolves are a wilderness creature,'' said Andreas Chavez, a wildlife ecology graduate student from Utah State who has studied wolf packs with U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials. ''They are very adaptable and opportunistic. They are able to tolerate living near people.''

Biologists spotted wolves in the Agassiz area in 1981 for the first time since the 1930s or 1940s. They'd been keeping a curious eye on the packs ever since, but weren't able to track the animals until a grant came through in 1998. During the spring, summer and fall of 1998 and 1999, they tracked seven radio-collared adult wolves around the clock.

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