Writing in Response to Reading/Viewing/Listening
Grades 10 to 12
Topic: Mexican Gray Wolves
Resources
Wolves: An Uncertain Future?
When settlers first colonized Arizona, a large contingent of military troops and miners needed food. Merriam’s elk were available in mountain country and readily provided fresh meat. By the early 1900s, elk were extirpated from Arizona.
With its major prey base no longer present, and an extremely large cattle population moving westward, wolves turned to what was available—cattle. Of course, that put them at odds with the cattlemen. In the mid-1890s, a devastating drought hit the state, creating significant problems for cattle growers. With little forage for their livestock, and the threat of cattle depredation by wolves, the early ranchers and the federal government began their “war on wolves.” Shortly after the turn of the century, the Mexican wolf had been extirpated from the United States.
In the late 1970s, the federal government decided to bring the Mexican wolf back to America. It hired a trapper to catch some of the last remaining wolves in Mexico. These wolves were moved to a few select zoos around the country and a captive breeding program began. About twenty years later, the captive population was sufficient to begin releasing some into the wild. In the late 1990s, the first wolves in nearly one hundred years walked free in Arizona due, in large part, to a partnership between state, federal, and tribal governments.
Much has changed in those hundred years. Habitats have changed. Elk herds have recovered and are, in fact, quite abundant. Attitudes have changed. For many people, instead of the bloodthirsty killer of our fairy tales, the wolf is a majestic creature that symbolizes freedom and nature. However, whether it is a fear of attack or a loss of livelihood, many people still do not feel that wolves should be roaming free in Arizona. They believe the cost is too high.
Grey Wolf (Canis lupus)
Least Concern
Originally, the Grey Wolf was the world's most widely distributed mammal. It has become extinct in much of Western Europe, in Mexico and much of the USA, and their present distribution is more restricted; wolves occur primarily in wilderness and remote areas. Their original worldwide range has been reduced by about one-third by poisoning and deliberate persecution due to depredation on livestock. Since about 1970, legal protection, land-use changes and rural human population shifts to cities have arrested wolf population declines and fostered reintroduction and natural recolonization in parts of its range. Continued threats include competition with humans for livestock, especially in developing countries, exaggerated concern by the public regarding the threat and danger of wolves, and fragmentation of habitat, with resulting areas becoming too small for populations with long-term viability.
Although the Grey Wolf still faces some threats, its relatively widespread range and stable population trend mean that the species does not meet, or nearly meet, any of the criteria for the threatened categories. Therefore, it is assessed as Least Concern.
The Mexican Gray Wolf
©Jacqueline Fallon, Minnesota Zoological Garden
The endangered Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi), also known as the timber wolf, is the most endangered wolf in North America. The smallest of all the gray wolf subspecies, these wolves were once abundant throughout the western United States. Wolves are found in groups called packs, which consist of 7 to 30 individuals.
The greatest threats to the Mexican gray wolf population are human-related and include habitat loss and hunting. By the turn of the century, a decrease in prey species such as deer and elk caused many wolves to attack domestic livestock.To protect their assets, government agencies and ranchers extirpated the Mexican gray wolf from the wild by the 1950’s, and they could only be found in zoos and other facilities. In 1976, the Mexican gray wolf was declared an endangered species and in 1997, the United States Secretary of the Interior authorized the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to begin the reintroduction of the species in the Blue Ridge Wolf Reintroduction Areas of Arizona and New Mexico. In 2010 there were 59 wolves in this area; 46 of which were born in the wild!
The Canid and Hyaenid Taxon Advisory Group and the Mexican Gray Wolf Species Survival Plan ® Program manage more than 340 individuals at 47 AZA-accredited institutions. Several AZA-accredited zoos are involved in reintroducing these animals back into the wild. In hopes of re-establishing the subspecies to a portion of its historic range, 40 Mexican grey wolves have been reintroduced in the Apache National Forest in southeastern Arizona. Biologists use radio tracking methods to monitor and evaluate the population health of these animals.
Restoration or Destruction: The Controversy over Wolf Reintroduction
by: Barton Melissa Institution: Geology
The audience sat on the floor quietly in a big circle, squinting in the dim light. Wolves find large groups of standing people intimidating, and they dislike loud noises and sudden movements. Finally, we were deemed quiet enough, and the representatives from Mission:Wolf, a Colorado nonprofit wolf rescue facility, brought in two of their ambassador wolves on leads. As the wolves walked around the circle, occasionally sniffing audience members or licking someone's teeth (a standard wolf greeting), we were told that these are teenage wolves. They are already starting to lose interest in humans, and when fully grown they will probably ignore us.
After a few minutes, the Mission:Wolf representatives called the wolves to the middle of the room, had them jump up on tables to show us how agile they were, and do a few tricks. Finally, the wolves lay down on the floor, looking bored.
I was one of those lucky enough to have my teeth licked, which isn't as bad as it sounds. I couldn't imagine how people could look at these amazing animals and see nothing but cruel, vicious predators. My attitude is common among people who have grown up in urban environments, far from the people whose lives and livelihoods are affected by wolves.
The reintroduction controversy
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has deemed reintroduction of the gray wolf to Idaho, Wyoming, and several other northern states successful. Reintroduction of the Mexican gray wolf to New Mexico, however, has been less successful, and still faces strong public opposition.
Figure 1. Noble animal or savage killer? A collared wolf from the Druid pack, Yellowstone National Park. Courtesy of NPS/Doug Smith.
Unlike other large predators, such as grizzly bears and cougars, wolves are frequently labeled by the public with anthropomorphic terms such as "cruel" and "vicious," and often considered mere killers with no valuable role in the ecosystem. Ralph Maughan, a professor of political science at Idaho State University and president of the Wolf Recovery Foundation, thinks this is because grizzlies and cougars were never eradicated by humans and reintroduced the way wolves were they were always here.
"It's a narrative of decline, like you might see in some newspaper stories: a ranching family who's lived on the ranch for generations," says Maughan. "Their forebears eliminated the wolf threat, and now the government dumps wolves back on their land because of people far away, and carnage occurs. Reintroduction of wolves is a symbol that people in occupations who don't like wolves are no longer respected."
Although wolves killed 500 sheep in Montana in 2003, coyotes killed 11,800, and disease, weather, eagles, bears, and foxes each proved to be greater threats to livestock. Yet wolves inspire even stronger feelings of anger in ranchers than grizzly bears.
In a Defenders of Wildlife press release about a July meeting in Albuquerque to discuss the reintroduction of the Mexican gray wolf, Fred Galley, owner of Rayny Mesa Ranch, described an attack in which wolves grabbed a cow and "proceeded to eat on her till she bled to death."
At the same meeting, Jane Ravenwolf of Sandia Park asked why death by wolves is more reprehensible than death by slaughterhouse, a question many wolf activists share.
The federal government currently does not compensate ranchers for livestock killed by wolves. Defenders of Wildlife, a nonprofit wildlife organization, only provides compensation for confirmed wolf kills.
Overall documented losses of livestock to wolves are less than one percent, considerably less than losses to weather, disease, and other dangers. Wolf kills are difficult to confirm, and the losses a small ranch takes from unconfirmed, and thus uncompensated, wolf kills can be significant. Small ranches can easily lose tens of thousands of dollars to wolf depredation if located near a wolf den.
Many ranchers distrust the motivations of Defenders of Wildlife, and maintain that their methods are ineffective. The Colorado Wool Growers Organization, for example, released an official position statement on wolf reintroduction, which called the Defenders program a "publicity ploy."
For the most part, livestock loss due to wolf predation is small. Careful ranching such as changing grazing areas, using more guard dogs, and other techniques can reduce wolf kills, but little can be done to change many people's negative attitudes towards wolves.
"After wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone, a wolf attack on a cow calf received more space in the media than a local homicide," Maughan says.
Although there are no recorded wolf attacks on humans in the US, wolf reintroduction will eventually bring wolves into conflict with expanding human territory. Maughan thinks that wolves will eventually injure someone and it will make more news than 20 bear maulings.
Restoration, not extermination
On the other side of the debate, scientists and wolf lovers support a restoration movement. They speak of returning the ecosystem to its natural state, and of the beauty, loyalty, and other admirable qualities of wolves. For some, such as Native Americans, wolves are an important spiritual animal.
Contrary to the beliefs of people who dismiss wolves as vicious killers, wolves do play vital roles in the ecosystem. After wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming scientists found that aspen and cottonwood groves recovered not because wolves were killing all the elk, but because elk stopped standing around grazing like domestic livestock.
Similarly, wolves, by preying on elk and moose populations, have helped willow and fir groves to recover in other parts of the US and Canada. Willows, aspens, and cottonwoods all grow in fragile stream areas, which are extremely sensitive to over-grazing.
Now that the elk are not eating the trees to the ground, beavers have become more common in Yellowstone. The beavers create more ponds, which provide habitat for streamside trees, which creates more habitats for nesting birds, and so on. This is what ecologists call a "trophic cascade", where one organism can create cascading effects in a complex ecosystem.
Contrary to the fears of hunters, wolves do not seem to cause significant declines in elk or deer populations.
A recent study by Chris Wilmers, a UC Berkeley doctoral student, and Wayne Getz, a UC Berkeley professor of environmental science, policy, and management found another important trophic effect of wolves on the ecosystem. Like many predators, wolves do not eat their entire kill. Unlike grizzlies or cougers, though, wolves leave the remains of their kills behind. This makes wolf kills available for many species of scavengers, ranging from bald eagles to coyotes.
What should be done?
The vital role wolves play in the ecosystem is clear, and scientists generally agree that wolf reintroduction is an important goal. Controversy is not easily avoided, however.
"I think it's very important that wolves are part of the ecosystem and continue to be protected," says Getz. "But it's complicated when they leave Yellowstone and impact ranches."
Because wolves threaten their livelihood, ranchers are the main opponents of wolf reintroduction. One solution is to pay ranchers for their losses, which Defenders of Wildlife does. This doesn't really solve the underlying problem, however, and it is expensive.
"The Defenders of Wildlife also work with interested ranchers to change their ranching strategies to reduce losses to wolves," says Maughan. "This is effective, and it probably has as much effect as paying people for their losses. One of the most effective things that can be done is to convince several ranchers to change their views, because they have more influence with other ranchers."
It is possible for humans to learn to live with predators. Rural dwellers have already learned to deal with bears, cougars, foxes, and coyotes without eradicating them. However, people are currently prohibited by law from killing or harming wolves that threaten them, their livestock, or their pets, which increases resentment towards wolves, wolf activists, and wolf-friendly government programs. Although some wolf activists would prefer otherwise, effective wolf management does require killing wolves that cause problems.
Emotions run strong on both sides, and this is not a simple case of following the science. While wolves are a natural part of the ecosystem, that should not make the concerns of ranchers unimportant. Wolf recovery efforts to date have been largely successful; much of the controversy in Idaho, for example, has died down.
Misinformation is widespread, but with communication, thoughtful efforts, and more people experiencing a wolf greeting with open minds, we may yet learn to live with wolves.
Video
Lobos of the Southwest http://www.mexicanwolves.org/index.php/videos
The three different performance tasks included in this module all use the same reading, listening, and viewing stimuli.
Performance Task Resources and some assignments are those used in SBAC Grade Grade 10 ELA.10.PT.2.07.157 C2T7 Performance Task, draft
Writing about Reading/Viewing/Listening
Assessments
CCSS Reading Standard # 7: Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
CCSS Writing Standard #2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
Grades 10 - 12
Your assignment:
You will read four passages, “Wolves: An Uncertain Future?,” “Grey Wolf (Canis lupus),” “The Mexican Gray Wolf, Restoration or Destruction: The Controversy over Wolf Reintroduction,” and watch one video, “Lobos of the Southwest.” http://www.mexicanwolves.org/index.php/videos