The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has officially announce their end-or-the year wolf count for 2008 – 846 wolves in 88 packs, with 39 breeding pairs. In mid-January Idaho officials announced preliminary estimates at 824 wolves in 88 packs. It is important to note that IDFG’s 846 wolf count is an estimated “minimum” number. Many feel this number could even be doubled. The truth is they don’t know.
While even “official” numbers are merely guesstimations, we can’t help but wonder if anyone knows how many wolves there are in what is labeled the Northern Rocky Mountain Distinct Population Segment.
If you will recall in September, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials, namely Ed Bangs Wolf Coordinator for USFWS, surprised everybody and announced that for the first time in 10 years estimated wolf population numbers had declined. Bangs offered nothing more than lame excuses of what, if anything, happened to all the wolves.
But that wasn’t the complete surprise. Just prior to this, the USFWS had announced that the gray wolf in the North Rocky Mountain DPS was officially removed from federal protection. For a short period of time, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming assumed management of the wolf according to each state’s federally approved wolf management plans.
It took only a matter of weeks before environmental groups were successful in getting a judge to issue a temporary injunction that returned the wolf to federal protection. In short, the feds did a lousy job of supporting their case for delisting, leaving many of us wondering if it was ever their intention to do that.
Shortly after and before the announcement that wolf numbers had shrunk, USFWS announced the withdrawal of the original proposal to delist. It was days later that Ed Bangs announced that wolves were on the decline, as I said, surprising everyone. It made little sense.
I made a quick call to a contact in Washington asking what the USFWS was doing withdrawing the proposal and why was Bangs announcing a decline in wolf numbers. Not only was this a surprise to me and many people in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, but it seems none of the higher-ups at the Department of Interior knew about this move to withdraw the wolf delisting proposal.
According to Chris Merrill of the Casper Star-Tribune, there were 1,513 wolves living in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming at the start of 2008. Bangs had predicted that by mid-2008 there would be around 2,000 wolves. The fed’s guesstimation by mid-year was 1,455. According to Bangs, not only was there a reduction in wolves from the onset of 2008, the projected growth never happened. Was this real or a political maneuver of some sort and for what reason?
With no real explanation as to why or how, this announcement became fodder for the wolf advocates yelling from the housetops that wolves need further protection because they are now shrinking in numbers. This further supported suspicions the feds were up to no good.
But lo and behold, here we are at the end of 2008 and the Idaho Fish and Game is announcing a 15% increase in their state’s wolf packs. If you factor in the USFWS projected increases, the 15% reduction in wolf numbers has become a 30% increase.
Of course we don’t have Montana’s and Wyoming’s wolf count numbers to know whether these two states saw increases or decreases. Once we have those figures, we’ll have a better sense of numbers.
Tom Remington
