On December 20, 2007, three women of the Anchorage, AK suburb Eagle River were threatened by the Elmendorf wolf pack. The women were walking their dogs along Artillery Road, which cuts through a mostly wooded area of Fort Richardson. The women themselves were not attacked, but one of the dogs sustained injury. A pet dog, a Schnauzer named Punky, was also carried off that same day and is believed to be the work of the same pack.
This appears to be another story of human-wildlife interactions that could be partially an effect of explosive development in a previously uninhabited part of the country. As of 1939, only a few hundred people lived in this corner of Alaska. After World War II, the number of residents began to steadily grow, but it wasn’t until the 1980’s that the population really exploded. During that decade, Eagle River residents more than doubled from 12,858 to 25,324. Estimates by the Eagle River Chamber of Commerce put the 2005 population around 35,000 residents. Many come to live in areas like this because they want to live close to the wildlife, but unfortunately, they don’t change their habits to coexist with the wildlife and keep it wild. Special trashcans are sometimes required, and like the case of the pet dog that disappeared, don’t leave your pets outside unattended. Even if it is the five minutes that Punky was let outside to take care of business, stay with the animal.
From the video posted on CNN.com, the footage shows a dirt track through the woods. This is not the city streets or the suburbs, but a wooded area outside town. People had even posted warnings that wolves had been seen in the area. So what did these women do to protect themselves? They leashed their dogs and brought pepper spray. I do feel sorry that these women had to go through such a traumatic experience, but from the prospective of a life-time dog owner, I’ve experienced my own dogs getting attacked; not by wolves, but by other dogs. If the dog is on a leash, there is a good chance of the dog being attacked by a dog off a leash. On the other hand, wolves have been observed to bait a dog into a chase. That chase leads the playful dog straight into an ambush by the rest of the wolf pack. So leashes, use them or not? How about this? Don’t bring your dog into wolf country?
While this seem like an isolated incidence up in a state geographically closer to Russia than the United States, this could be significant to wolf management in the lower 48. The end of a Commentary article in the Alaska Star (Eagle River’s local paper) shows the attitude of many westerners toward wolves.
"We have a resourceful and well-funded department of fish and game and the best Army on the face of the earth. So, what on God's green earth are they waiting for? If the Army and the state won't act, then hunters should be at the ready. Your services may be necessary shortly."
Yes, according to this resident THE ARMY should be going after this pack of SEVEN wolves.
Wolves are one of the sexy examples of why the Endangered Species Act works. These animals were put on the list, efforts have been made to restore them to a sustainable level without human intervention, and now the time has come to take them off the list. The issues that now arise are now on how should these animals be managed. There are still many people that believe that the only good wolf is a dead wolf and, hopefully, this ideology will not be dominant in delisted wolf management. Use of this topic towards fear-mongering for wolf hunts will just hurt everyone, especially the wolves.
The wolves of the Northern Rockies are anticipated to be delisted sometime in early 2008. With the wolves no longer listed as endangered, they no longer receive federal protection and management falls to the states. Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) has endorsed a plan for wolf hunting as population control. That plan appears to me to be humane. No helicopters, no traps/snares in the first year, no baiting, no dogs, spotlights, or fancy things like night vision goggles. According to Montana state wildlife manager Ken McDonald, there are about 37 breeding pairs in Montana and the wolf season would hope to bring that down to 15 pairs; 5 more than mandated by the federal wolf recovery plan for being delisted. A Breeding Pair is defined as an adult male and female having at least two pups. That seems to be getting rid of a lot of wolves and cutting the number of pairs pretty close to an emergency relisting under the Endangered Species Act. On the other hand, according to the Supporting Information put out by FWP, only one-third of Montana’s wolf packs qualify as a breeding pair. According to their tentative wolf season plan, each WMU (Wolf Management Area) will have its own quota for the number of wolves that can be harvested.
The Supporting Information for the 2008 Wolf Season Tentatives does hold valuable information; however, many of the published studies that would greatly help their cause and give more information about important topics like wolf-livestock contacts and the influence of wolf populations from outside Montana are not accessible because they are still in press and are not published yet. The Supporting Information does state that they have not stated quotas or the number of permits to be issued due to the uncertainty of the situation. It is unknown when USFWS will delist the wolves as well as the number of wolves present in Montana at delisting. Montana FWP seems to really be doing their homework on this hot topic (not to be confused with the boutique catering to the mallpunk crowd). The only worry with the plan is the heavy rhetoric on protection of livestock; the verbiage used there could also be used to subvert the system in the name of livestock losses. Heaven help us if wolf attacks on people are used to eliminate all the progress made since wolf restoration.
Breese, Darrell L. “Wolves continue to be aggressive, Fort Rich limits access. Dog killed, three women threatened on Artillery Road by Elmendorf pack.” Alaska Star. http://alaskastar.com/stories/122707/new_20071227005.shtml. Last modified December 26, 2007.
Crawford, Jim. “It may be time to bring out the artillery on Artillery Rd.” Alaska Star. http://alaskastar.com/stories/010308/com_20080103041.shtml. Last modified January 2, 2008.
Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. “2008 Wolf Season Tentatives.” http://fwp.mt.gov/content/getItem.aspx?id=31038. Accessed January 19, 2008.
Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. “Wolf Season Supporting Information.” http://fwp.mt.gov/content/getItem.aspx?id=31024. Accessed January 19, 2008.
“Montana wolf hunt endorsed.” Capital Press. Last modified January 4, 2008.
“Wolf attack.” CNN courtesy of KTVA. Last modified December 22, 2006. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/12/22/alaska.wolf.attack.cnn Accessed January 13, 2008
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