Wolf populations down by a third

By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer

The wolf population in Yellowstone National Park has dropped by almost one-third, the park's top wolf specialist said Wednesday.

An end-of-the-year count turned up only 118 wolves, wolf biologist Doug Smith said.

"That's down 30 percent from last year," when 171 wolves were counted, he said.

Scientists noted several months ago that the numbers appeared to be dropping in Yellowstone. Smith estimated late in August there were 131 wolves.

Much of the decline came in the form of dead pups, and Smith said he suspects parvovirus is killing them.

Parvo can be fatal to adult canines at times, but is especially hard on young wolves.

"Pups took a really big hit, and parvo tends to hit pups," he said.

Plus, most of the deaths occurred in the late summer, when the pups had been weaned and were most vulnerable to parvo.

Of 69 pups born in Yellowstone last year, only 22 survived to the end of the year.

On the northern range, 49 pups were born, but only eight survived.

A number of adult wolves died last year, too, Smith said, but cause of death is hard to determine because the carcasses usually are decayed by the time researchers find them.

He said it's too soon to know if the smaller wolf population will result in any behavioral changes in wolves or their prey.

Smith said he hopes to catch several wolves in the next few weeks and test their blood for parvovirus, which likely arrived in Yellowstone by way of domestic dog feces.

Parvo probably is in the park to stay and outbreaks will occur occasionally, Smith said.

Outside the park, overall counts for Montana, Idaho and Wyoming are not complete yet, Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Helena, said.

But Bangs expects to see some slight growth in wolf numbers.

In the three states surrounding Yellowstone, there are 900 or more wolves, with more than half of them in Idaho, Bangs said.

The federal government has handed most wolf-management duties in Montana and Idaho to fish and game agencies in those states. It has proposed removing all protections of the Endangered Species Act, but the movement has been halted because FWS hasn't approved Wyoming's wolf management plan.

That plan allows for too many wolves to be killed in too many places, FWS says.

Scott McMillion is at scottm@dailychronicle.com

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