Morning Read: Are wolves returning to the Adirondacks?
We know that wild cougars, or mountain lions, have been drifting through the Adirondacks the last few years, with some biologists convinced that the predators could re-establish themselves.
Now there’s speculation that wolves, too, could once again take their place in the Park’s food chain. This from the Albany Times-Union.
A wolf shot by a hunter a decade ago in the Adirondacks near Great Sacandaga Lake was the first proven wild wolf in New York in more than a century, according to a new study Monday from the New York State Museum.
Killed in 2001 in the town of Day — about 10 miles west of the village of Corinth, Saratoga County — the 99-pound male gray wolf could portend the predator’s potential return from Canada and the Great Lakes, where its populations are growing.
So what do you think? Do you welcome the return of wolves and cougars? Are you hopeful that they can co-exist with human communities? Comments welcome below.
Tags: adirondacks, environment
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Brian,
I thought I read recently that the evidence of cougars in the Adirondacks was still only eyewitness accounts. Has physical evidence been found?
Steve – Yes, it has been confirmed that a wild cougar passed through Lake George last December.
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/State-silent-as-big-cat-passes-Lake-George-2123402.php
Brian, NCPR
There are lots of coyote/wolf hybrids around. They arent as big as wolves but they are pretty big and fill the same niche – hunting deer (and anything else).
Thanks Brian. Fascinating and encouraging that it could travel so far.
I welcome all illegal immigrants, especially those who have four feet.
Anxiously waiting for the return of the saber toothed tiger.
Bring them on, there are way to many deer, especially on the roads and the hood of my car!
I’ve lived in Arizona for 12 years in an area populated by humans about the same as the Adirondacks. We have a lot of mountain lions here and there has not been a single bad interaction between them and humans while I’ve been here. In fact, they are so shy, that even the researchers have a hard time finding them but there is no doubt that they are out there. They don’t even bother the cattle that graze here on public lands. They could probably live in the Adirondacks without causing too many problems. Of course, there are many coyotes here that stay far away from humans also but not wolves.
This is how a story grows, “hey pass it along”… Yes, we had A mountain lion pass through. This first sentence should read:
“We know that a wild cougar, or mountain lion, drifted through the Adirondacks last year, with some biologists convinced that the predators could re-establish themselves.”
Is there really sufficient prey available for wolves or mt. lions in the Adirondacks? That may be the difference in Wisconsin and Michigan. There are decent numbers of deer on the periphery of the mountains and in other parts of the state but I would guess that those areas are too populated for wolves to do well. In the Adirondacks where we see less logging and and a continued effort to return much of the woods to an old growth condition their is probably too little prey. Maybe with the return of the moose it is possible at some point in the future.
Luke, But is that part of Arizona surrounded by the serious type of urban stuff that surrounds the Adirondacks? Also, is it heavily forested? When I lived in Colorado I could easily see wolves in a place like that even a big city like Denver has miles and miles of desert and mountains surrounding it.
Well, if the gray wolf or Algonquin red wolf ever return to the Adirondacks, it would be the SECOND species of wolf in the ADK. The coyote (aka brush wolf, prairie wolf) picked up gray wolf genes (hybridized a bit) in the Great Lakes States on its way to colonize the northeast in the second-half of the 20th century – Roland Kays (the same biologist that confirmed the wolf in the posted story) and colleagues have confirmed this. The northeastern coyotes are bigger than their western cousins. They do hunt deer, sometimes in packs. Although not as large as a North American gray wolf, they are about as large as the red wolf of the southeastern US, or the gray wolf in France & Spain.
TomL, that is all true except that this is still a coyote (latrans) species and not a (lupus) wold species. They could probably breed with each other just like a wolf and a dog (familiaris) can but I still think these are considered distinct species. They do kill deer but they are still quite different than a true wolf.
Last winter, early in the am, I was on Red Tavern road, pulled over by the side of the road, suprised both a wolf and myself walking into the woods to relieve myself.
Seen Coyote a little further north in Brandon just this summer.
Should be plenty of room and food in Santa Clara Flow no?
I think wolves might make it but I doubt we have the deer population inside of the Park to sustain any sort of consistent wolf population. They would likely have to stray out to more populated areas which also have higher deer concentrations.
But I think that is up to the wolf to decide. If there is enough food they will likely end up here from Canada or Wisconsin and Michigan.
But wolves eat a LOT and need a LOT of space. I can’t imagine we don’t have some biologists who could do the math on what the size of the deer population is inside of the park and how many wolf that could support given the size of the park.
My guess is the answer is none.
Beautiful animals. I think the deer population is high, especially in part of the Tug Hill and southwestern Adirondacks regions.
Considering there were probably fewer deer in the Adirondacks when there were wolves and mountain lions in the Adirondacks, I think there are enough deer and moose for a few wolves to make a go of it.
One thing you have to give to four footed predators is something lacking in the two footed human predator. The four footed have enough sense to not overpopulate their range.
Pete, I think you’re probably wrong about there having been fewer deer back when there were wolves in the Adirondacks. I’ve just read James Wardner’s 1850s recollections of market hunting in Footsteps on Adirondack Trails– with two helpers, he delivered six tons of venison saddles that they shot in a single winter, not counting five sacks of jerked venison. They had no refrigeration, of course, so they couldn’t start until it was reliably cold enough to keep the meat frozen and they delivered the load in mid-March, so they took a whole lot of deer in just a few months.
They were hearing wolf packs at night, so they were definitely present.
Walker, if I am wrong then so too are those who say there are fewer deer in the Adirondacks because much of the forest has regrown since the good old days of a lumbering we will go. Since I wasn’t around way back when, my guess was based on the complaints of hunters who say there are too many trees.
I am happy to stand corrected and was especially pleased with “They were hearing wolf packs at night, so they were definitely present.” This would prove the wolves don’t wipe out the deer as some hunters are so fearful they will if they do make a return.
Walker and Pete,
I think that there was a substantial number of moose in the Adirondacks in the early part of the 19th century that supported the wolves. The Logging that began around the turn of the century and expanded quickly made for idea deer habitat (there were a lot of forest edges in those days). During that period we saw large numbers of deer and also the loss of the moose because of it. On the whole these factors were probably positive for the wolves. Then at the end of the 19th century logging slowed (they were just about out of easy to reach trees) and the forest began to recolonize. Slowly the deer habitat began to decline. Fewer deer no moose not good for wolves. No prey = no predators. Coyotes are opportunistic they will feed on deer, squirrels, mice, bugs anything. Wolves need a good supply of ungulates (deer, moose, or elk (or cattle!)) for survival. Like I said the wolf may come back with the moose.
They estimate that there are about 3000 wolves in Minnesota. When we get to 3000 wolves in the Adirondacks I suggest that you keep your dogs on a leash when you are hiking!
Paul, you’re right about the lumbering going on then. Wardner was at Rainbow Lake starting in the mid-1850s, and Franklin Falls, ten miles away, had been a sawmill town since about 1830. And while you’re right, too, about wolves preferred diet including plenty of deer and moose, it is a lot more varied than most people realize: they eat squirrels, mice, foxes, rabbits, ducks, snakes, and berries– a good, varied diet!
Apparently one of wolves’ favorite foods is beaver. I believe we still have a few of those on the Adirondacks.
When the moose population gets up to a couple of thousand animals (within the next decade or two, most likely), people will be happy to have wolves back.
TomL, If we have 800 moose now in the Adirondack’s it could only take a few years.
Walker, yes I agree they do have a more varied diet than I described. Like TomL says beaver is a good food source. But I think that larger prey are essential for a healthy herd to stick around. They will not migrate here from Canada for berries!