Wolves lived in America for forty million years, according to something I just read on the web. Then they were irradicated by the 1870's or thereabout, because people wanted to raise livestock. This is kind of like the argument about Americans who are proud to have killed most of the Indians and driven their buffalo off cliffs so the rest of them would starve, and the people who feel ashamed about that part of America's history. I am obviously more closely aligned with that second group, and believe in the reintroduction of wolves.
All of the wolf reintroduction programs compensate the owners of livestock that are killed. So really ranchers should feel reasonably okay about the concept, since they do not suffer financial losses. But I also just read that most livestock are killed by coyotes, and no one has ever gone on such an anti-coyote rampage as the ranchers are about the wolf reintroduction. Now a lot of ranchers are killing the wolves they suspect of killing their livestock. That doesn't really seem fair if they are also being compensated. It seems like a backhad way to make sure the reintroduction doesn't work because of wolf decimation.
Some information on wolves. This is from a UK site, but has some good general stuff as well:
About Wolves
De-myth-ing the Beast
Wolves are the epitome of evil beasts, notorious for killing people, livestock and game. This attitude arose from fear and ignorance about wolves. But...
Wolves were possibly the most important predator of ungulates in the Northern Hemisphere, being more numerous than other predators. Courtesy Parks Canada.
...scientists researching wolves in recent years find the wolf is a surprisingly different animal:-
Wolves do not generally kill people.
Wolves can live close to people.
Wolves do not inevitably kill livestock.
Wolves kill fewer livestock than presupposed.
1. Wolves do not generally kill people.
Researchers from many countries made a lengthy and exhaustive search for records of people killed by wolves (Linnell et al 2002). They found only 17 fatalities in the last 50 years in the whole of Europe, Russia and North America - a population of 1,000,000,000 people.
See this in perspective. About fifteen people are killed on average per year in horse riding accidents in England and Wales alone (Office for National Statistics). Horses are more dangerous than wolves.
Again, almost all the wolves in the US outside Alaska live in Minnesota. These 2,500 wolves have killed no one. Yet one or two people are killed each year in that state by the rarity of lightning strike (NOAA). Lightning is more dangerous than wolves.
--
For a summary of Linnell et al 2002 - and more about wolf attacks.
2. Wolves can live close to people.
People believed wolves can only live in wilderness, such as forests. But wolves are highly adaptable, living in all kinds of terrain from Arctic snow fields to Mediterranean farm fields and Middle East deserts. Some wolves even live next to towns and wander into them to scavenge for food.
Example: a wolf pack was studied (Promberger et al 1993) living on the edge of Brasov, a town of 400,000 people surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. People in the town ignored the wolves, thinking they were just stray dogs.
Commercial Street, old town, Brasov. If you see a dog - he may be a wolf. Courtesy Romanian National Tourism Office.
Wolves are found living close to towns, and wander into them, in countries as diverse as the US and India (eg Hart J 1999; Jhala 2001).
Another example: wolves studied living on farmland in Spain typically crossed busy motorways via the bridges built to take traffic over them (Blanco 2001).
3. Wolves do not inevitably kill livestock.
Wolves can live close to livestock without killing or molesting them, as research in the US shows.
Example: wolves have lived in the 250 square kilometre Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge, Minnesota, since the 1980's (Gese 2003). They make forays outside the reserve for wild deer and by-pass groups of cattle without disturbing them. The wolves live mostly on wild prey and only rarely kill livestock.
Wolf toleration for livestock is noted for wolves elsewhere in the US and western Canada (Fritts et al 1992; Mech 1995; Bangs et al 2001). Of course this does not mean that wolves are necessarily livestock-friendly everywhere. But it shows that wolves do not necessarily and inevitably kill livestock all the time.
4. Wolves kill fewer livestock than presupposed.
Most research on wolves comes from North America. Researchers there find that wolf depredation is remarkably less than presupposed and only a tiny fraction of livestock farms in wolf range suffer depredation (Fritts et al 1992).
To be conservative, these findings apply only to these wolf populations and not necessarily to wolf populations in other countries. However, in light of these findings, people cannot claim that wolf depredation is always severe.
For more see Lupine Essay Wolf Depredation.
Conclusion
The wolf is not the catastrophic slayer of myth. When people take time really to look at wolves we find an even more mysterious beast. The wolf disposition of coexisting with humans and toleration of livestock is puzzling. Explaining this mystery and understanding how we can live with a fellow top-predator, instead of exterminating it, is one of the big challenges for humanity.
References
Bangs E & Shivik J (2001): Managing wolf conflict with livestock in the Northwestern United State. Carnivore Damage Prevention News, 3, 3-5.
Blanco J C (2001): Wolf recolonization of agricultural areas in Spain. International Wolf Center Symposium: Beyond 2000 - Realities of Global Wolf Restoration.
Fritts S H, Paul W J, Mech L D & Scott D P (1992): Trends and management of wolf-livestock conflicts in Minnesota. US Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Resource Publications 181. Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Home Page.
Gese E M (2003): Ecology, Behavior, and Management Methods for Predators to Protect Livestock and Wildlife Resources. See Interactions between timber wolves and agriculture in northwestern Minnesota ...at foot of page.
Hart J (1999): Keeping the wolf from the door. International Wolf. The quarterly publication of the International Wolf Center. Vol 9 (2).
Jhala Y (2000): Human-wolf conflict in India. International Wolf Center Symposium Beyond 2000: Realities of Global Wolf Restoration. Duluth, Minnesota.
Linnell J D C et al (2002): The fear of wolves: a review of wolf attacks on humans. NINA Oppdragsmelding, 731, 1-65.
Mech L D (1995): The challenge and opportunity of recovering wolf populations. Conservation Biology, 9 (2), 270-278. Jamestown, ND: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Home Page.
NOAA: Variations by state in reported frequencies. Technical Memorandum NWS SR-193, Section 3. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Office for National Statistics. Mortality Statistics: injury and poisoning. Review of the Registrar General on deaths attributed to injury and poisoning in England and Wales. The Stationery Office, London.
Promberger C & Schroder W, eds. (1993): Wolves in Europe. Munich Wildlife Society, Germany.
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