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Wolves not pushing elk herd to extinction, officials say LIVINGSTON (AP) - Federal officials say the northern Yellowstone elk herd is doing fine, despite claims by a Paradise Valley wildlife group that reintroduced wolves are hunting it into extinction. The northern Yellowstone elk herd has remained stable since last year, according to data from the National Park Service and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. During airplane surveys taken last February, 11,742 elk were counted in the northern range. That is far from the picture painted by Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd. "The wolves have the northern Yellowstone elk herd on the verge of extinction," said board member Bob Fanning. "This is the greatest ecological disaster in the history of the U.S. - including the Exxon Valdez at Prince William's Sound." The group has been collecting petition signatures to pressure the state to address the impact of wolves on the Paradise Valley's game herds. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates there are about 160 wolves in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Although federal and state wildlife biologists do not argue that wolves are eating deer and elk, a Yellowstone National Park researcher disputed the group's assessment of the impact of wolves on the herd. "No one has ever claimed wolves wouldn't eat elk. They were predicted to be one of their primary prey," said John Mack, a wildlife biologist at Yellowstone National Park. "But we are not seeing elk going extinct - elk have lived with wolf predation for thousands of years." Mack said the elk herd faces a much more complex future than just wolf predation. Along with wolves, elk numbers are affected by other predators, severe weather, disease and hunters, Mack said. In the last five years, an average of 1,780 reproductive female elk have been shot during the Gardiner late hunt, Mack said. The top Gardiner harvest of 2,465 elk followed the vicious 1996-97 winter, which killed a significant number of elk, he added. But those numbers will not keep Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd from taking their case to state officials. The group has scheduled meetings this week with Gov. Marc Racicot's office and Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials, said member Don Laubach. If the group cannot find a solution, it may consider legal action, he said. "All we ask is that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Yellowstone National Park and the wolf recovery team tell us the truth," Laubach said. "We're not against wolves, I personally have no problem seeing them here, but they do have to be controlled - there has to be some predator/prey balance." Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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