Out of the woods?
Once over-hunted, are wolves returning to their roots?
The original range of the grey wolf has been reduced by around one-third globally. One of the prominent reasons for wolf population decline is the fragmentation of habitats, as it affects their prey species. Disrupting the delicate balance of predator and prey can have dramatic effects on an ecosystem. It works like a seesaw: by removing wolves from one side of the seesaw, the deer numbers on the other side go up. This becomes a problem for the environment the deer live in due to overgrazing. The opposite scenario, where wolf populations increase, is equally problematic, and this is where their conflict with human begins.
When the wolves’ natural food sources run low – either due to disease or as a result of human hunting – they are forced to look for food elsewhere. Wolves will naturally target the weakest and slowest members of a herd, so livestock grazing in fields become easy pickings. This inevitably leads to the persecution of wolves by farmers as they seek to protect their livelihoods. As a result, these canines have been branded as the ‘big bad wolf’. However, when predator and prey populations are balanced they are less likely to cross into human habitats in search of alternative meals.
As human habitats have expanded, wolves’ territories have become increasingly fragmented. Primarily due to the threat they pose to livestock, wolves have faced eradication across North America and Europe, Germany in particular. However, since 1970 legal protection for wolves across the globe has helped combat this decline, and increased conservation efforts are helping to rebuild wolf populations.
However, not all of these projects work as planned. Despite being reintroduced to the east coast of North America in 1987, the critically endangered red wolf continues to decline and is predicted to become extinct within eight years unless more is done to help.
Contrary to fairytales, wolves have no interest in humans and will actively avoid us. This makes tracking them an evidence-based endeavour. Using wolf scat, track marks and camera traps, biologists can monitor the population sizes, different packs and most importantly their health, with DNA collected from scat samples acting as a genetic ID tag for each wolf.