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There are few animals that stir up more emotion from humans than the wolf. Its haunting howl reminds us what is truly wild. Wolves are social animals that hunt and live in packs. They can communicate and cooperate with each other to bring down much larger animals. They seem to have a collective intelligence. Wolves are fast, strong, smart, territorial, and can travel long distances in a short period of time. Wolves do not make good pets. Wolves have a strong wild protective pack attitude and instinctive hunting aggressiveness. Also, they can get larger than a german sheppard. Their large size, strength, speed, pack mentality, instinctive hunting aggressiveness, and haunting howl have made them feared, hated, admired, and loved.
In the late 1800's and early 1900's, most of the wolves in the Rocky Mountains and western part of the United states were killed. Settlers viewed them with fear. The settler feared for the safety of themselves and safety of their horses, milk cows, pigs, goats, and other animals they depended on. Cattle ranchers and sheep ranchers had to watch their livestock carefully. The cattle and sheep were easy prey and a pack of wolves could kill lots of livestock in a short period of time. So the wolves were soon nearly wiped out from most of the continental United States. However, a few packs of wolves remained in Yellowstone National Park, and the unsettled parts of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. For many decades, there had been no wolves in Colorado. However, things may be changing and Colorado may see its first packs of wolves living in the state in many decades.
For as much as they are feared and hated, wolves play a very important part of the environment and food web. In the early part of the 1900's, most of the wolves had been killed in Yellowstone National Park. Large herds of elk, deer, and bison would roam freely across the park. Since the elk, deer, and bison had few to no enemies, their populations became huge. Soon, they did not have enough food to feed all of them and were eating most every edible plant in sight. They would eat the small aspen and willow trees before they would grow up for beavers to create marshlands that many other animals depended on for survival. With no beaver ponds or plants to hold the dirt in place with their roots, erosion and water quality had become a huge problem. They had to feed the elk, deer, and bison hay bales in the winter so there was not massive die offs over the harsh winters.
However, in recent decades park managers have let the wolves come back in Yellowstone National Park and Wyoming. Wolf popualtions have grown quicker than many people thought was possible. The deer, elk, and bison population started decreasing to healthy numbers and the habitats or life zones became more balanced. There no longer is enough room to hold all the wolves in the Yellowstone National Park area.
The wolf population is doing so well that they are going to other parts of Wyoming and parts of the northwestern United States. In fact, wolves have been seen in the northern part of Colorado for the first time in many decades. Wolves will help make habitats healthier and more balanced. But they also bring conflicts with ranchers, shrinking wild areas, and the historical fear by people. Wolves are truly WILD animals and that is why we fear them and love them so much.
Sources of information and to find more information: CO Div of Wildlife, Hogle Zoo, Defenders of Wildlife,San Diego Zoo. Animal Files
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