pronghorn antelopes heart wolves

As I hope you know, the US is delisting grey wolves in several states - removing the ban on killing them - and the wild canids will soon be legal game for hunters. Beginning in the late 19th Century, wolves in the Americas were hunted nearly to extinction. Since receiving federal protection in the US 30 years ago, these magnificent animals have made a comeback, although in limited numbers.

Wolves in Alberta are also being killed, supposedly to correct another human-caused wildlife imbalance, but possibly so human hunters won't have any competition.

My most recent posts on wolves are here and here.

I recently saw this little item about how wolves benefit the environment, and wanted to share it. It's no longer online, but it was from Zoe Cormier, who writes "The Green Report" in the Globe and Mail.

Higher numbers of wolves in the Rocky Mountains could benefit an unlikely recipient: the pronghorn antelope. A new survey from the Wildlife Conservation Society says the survival rate of pronghorn fawns is three times higher in areas of western Wyoming with high numbers of wolves and coyotes. The reason? Wolves - unlike coyotes - seldom prey on pronghorn fawns, which are too meagre a meal for a wolf pack, but they do keep coyote numbers down, either through preying on them, or by competing them out of a region. The WCS says that pronghorn have increased by 50 per cent since wolves were introduced to the region in 1995.

Changes in one part of the food web can have unexpected consequences, and top predators can actually be essential for maintaining biodiversity.

Another stupid human attempt at environmental balance coming up.