May 18, 2007

Wyoming Wolves

Swen, the "coyote at the dog show," (and I bet he says coyote with two syllables), summarizes current developments in the Wyoming wolf-management brouhaha. (Scroll down a little.)

He ends with this wry observation:

Meanwhile, the wolf population continues to grow, and managing those wolves continues to be the feds' problem. And an expensive problem it is. Funny that the grizzly reached its population target years ago and the feds are just now getting around to considering removing them from the endangered species list, yet wolves were just reintroduced a little over a decade ago and the USFWS can't wait to wash their hands of them. It couldn't be that the grizzly has caused few problems, while the wolves are becoming a major pain in the butt, could it?

At Querencia, Steve Bodio posts excerpts from a paper by noted mammalogist Val Geist including this:

"The politically correct view about wolves, currently vehemently and dogmatically defended, is that wolves are “harmless” and of no danger to humans. This view arose from the early research of eminent North American biologists who, confronted by historical material contradictory to their experiences, greatly mistrusted such. Due to language, political and cultural barriers they could access such at best in part, but they were nevertheless convinced that the old view of wolves, as enshrined in Grimm’s fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood was incorrect and based on ill founded myths, fears and superstitions. They were greatly aided in this by premature conclusions about free-living and captive wolves, as well as by a brilliant literary prank by a renowned Canadian author and humorist, which illustrated wolves as harmless mouse eaters.

If I ever see the whole thing online, I will link to it.

1 comment:

synjones said...

I Have read the article its great about the Wyoming Wolves.

Synjones

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