Research into wolf howl boxes advancing but I doubt it will reduce collaring of wolves for the benefit of livestock interests.
Idaho’s calls of the wild help improve ‘howlbox’
BY JOE JASZEWSKI – Idaho Statesman
Ken Cole
Ken Cole is a 5th generation Idahoan, an avid fly fisherman, wildlife enthusiast, and photographer. He is the interim Idaho Director for Western Watersheds Project. We do not accept unsolicited “guest” authors or advertising.
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This is a research technique that I can support. I hope all of the wolf biologists in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Denali Nationa Parks read this article.
Chasing , darting and collaring wolves in our national parks should stop tomorrow. Get a howl box.
The taxidermist who skinned Macho-B, the GPS collared and researcher-killed Arizona Jaguar, reported finding a large pus- draining abcess near the capture- dart wound. I wonder how many darted animals in our national parks suffer similar infections.
Larry, I agree, this is a very good studying tool and should be extended to other animals. Maybe this could be a good replacement for collaring someday.
I am not sure I agree. . I thought that researchers had decided that howling displaces wolf packs because they think another pack has moved into their territory . . and the researcher from Michigan who wants to see if the coyote population is affecting the deer herds should look at massive amounts of coyote research that has already been done! What the heck is wrong with science in this day of easy internet access that they don’t look around before they repeat redundant experiments. Are there just too many biologists just out of school who have to come up for a funding excuse? There is SO much we don’t know about animals it’s too bad they have to do the same things over and over.
The Wolf Recovery Foundation (I’m the President) gave this program substantial financial support because we don’t like radio collars, but do like wildlife research of a relatively non-intrusive nature.
Linda hit the nail on the head, there are to many new biologists every year coming out of school that need to make a name and get that funding, so we see a waste of a large magnitude on research, most of the time, it seems as if the funding is the driving factor over the science now a days…
Whenever I stop at a National Park or Wildlife Refuge, I find a bunch of young people with degrees in Wildlife Biology, or similar college training, working as interns. Interns usually get board and room and maybe gas money if they use their own car. There are so many of these folks hoping to land a real wildlife job, that the parks and refuges and state F&G departments can get them to work for basically nothing. This has made it possible for these employers to get college graduates to do jobs that used to go to high school students. If you see someone standing on a dumpster in Yellowstone, pointing an antenna at a wolf or coyote equipped with a radio collar, you will find that it is an intern working for food. Our colleges have produced this unemployed army of wannabe biologists that seem to have all majored in radio-collarology.