Will genes from Idaho and the Yellowstone area finally begin to mix?
Former Idaho wolf B271M has been wandering around the Yellowstone area for over two years now. He had little success finding a mate in the Park, but has paired with a radio-collared female in Sunlight Basin to Yellowstone Park’s east.
So far there has been no genetic evidence that wolves from Idaho or NW Montana have produced offspring with the wolves that were reintroduced to Wyoming.
The Idaho wolf orginally came from a pack on the western edge of the Sawtooth Mountains of south central Idaho.
Story: Idaho, Cody wolves ‘pair’. By Angus M. Thuermer Jr. Jackson Hole Daily.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He has been a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and also its President. For many years he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
We have to hope that some dork doesn’t shoot him.
Let’s hope nobody shoots either one of them.
One lawmaker asked why a wolf should be allowed to roam Wheatland cornfields — considered unsuitable habitat — just because “he was on his way to a mosh-pit genetic connectivity event.”
Gotta love our elected officials!
This pairing, if they den, will be the the “one” event that the delisting faction latch onto to further the cause. This will be pushed, during the lawsuit hearings, by ID, MT, and WY as “The” single (soup of the day) reason to delist, period. Funny how the last delisting was derailed because the lack of genetic transfer. Expect this to get huge media coverage in the three states.
pffffft, the genetic diversity argument is soooooo 2008. You’re either on the bus or off the bus, it’s the “WE NEED A NATIONAL PLAN” for 2009.
Eric T,
Absolutely, just like one cold, wet winter justifies the denial of global warm….er climate change. What’s your point?