Well, the numbers are in, and I suppose depending on how you look at it, the news is good.  The numbers of elk counted this year in Yellowstone National Park is about the same as last year (6,700 elk.) Which is not too bad, until you consider that pre-wolf-introduction numbers were nearly 10,000! It’s probably good that the numbers aren’t going any lower (at least not for now,) but the one-third reduction in the herd was a serious loss, as far as I’m concerned.
Now don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I’m anti-wolf (well, okay, maybe a little anti-wolf) it’s really more that I’m pro-big-game. I go for a drive every night in the spring summer and fall for about an hour. Last year there was only 2 times I didn’t see big game here in Island Park. I have to admit I really like that. And frankly, it’s hard to get excited about anything that jeopardizes that (especially something as senseless as a wolf re-introduction.)
At any rate, there are still a few elk left in Yellowstone. Go see ‘em while you can. That’s my best advice.
Actually, the latest elk count was 7105 (about 300 higher than last year and about 900 higher than two years ago). This also is just for the Northern Range herd (basically Lamar Valley, Mammoth and Paradise Valley north of the park), not for the entire park. Interestingly, these numbers are fairly close to the population of this herd pre-park, and are also close to the figures that the Park Service was keeping the herd at between the 1930′s (after wolves were artificially removed) through the 1960′s by removing animals with sparpshooters (kind of like what they are doing in Rocky Mountain National Park now). Personally I’d rather see fox, eagles, coyotes, grizzly bears and a host of other animals share in wolf kills, than have animals artificially removed. Only when this practice of using sharpshooters was stopped, due to public outcry; the lack of predators (grizzly numbers were almost nonexistant in the seventies and eighties), allowed this herd to explode to the numbers seen in the mid ninties (19,000 at one point). Ranchers in Paradise Valley were screaming that this herd was eating THEM out of house and home. It is well documented that the Northern Range was being destroyed from overgrazing. Montana started the late winter hunt in Gardiner for the express purpose of reducing this herd. Wolves were reintroduced partly for the same reason. With wolves, balance has returned. Willows and aspen aren’t being chewed to the ground. Songbirds, beaver and moose, which rely on these habitats, are making a comeback. As are pronghorn because the presense of wolves has reduced the coyote population, and coyotes are the number one predator of pronghorn young. Red fox are doing good too, also because of fewer coyotes. Twenty years ago you couldn’t go around a bend in Yellowstone without seeing elk. Today they are a little harder to see; but there is so much more to see, all thanks to wolf reintroduction. And the elk are still there! So you see, it’s not all doom and gloom!