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It is safe to say that wolves have an image problem. Since ancient times, they are described in fables, legends and the Bible as fearsome and voracious predators. The story of the big bad wolf is perhaps the most memorable and scariest of all the fairy tales told by the Grimm brothers.
This "dark" reputation has actually produced a very real result in America in the early twentieth century. The wolves were swept from the landscape, trapped, poisoned and hunted until there was no one left in the American West.
[19659004] When the National Parks Service decided to bring wolves back to Yellowstone Park in the 1990s, it ensued from a bitter debate between defense groups of the United States and the United States. wildlife who wanted their restoration and breeders, who decided not to do so. Yellowstone always arouses strong emotions, but they have also had an impact that hardly anyone has seen coming. [19659002] In the middle of winter, Yellowstone Park is a beautiful but forbidden place. Screaming winds, sub-zero temperatures, six feet of snow. Finding just enough food to survive is a profound struggle for every animal. Waterfowl, bison, elk, foxes, they all have to work for each piece.
Yellowstone was the first national park in the world, created in 1872. And it remains one of the most visited; Millions of people come here every summer, but in the winter, they leave it pretty much to the wildlife, until the wolves come back.
Now, observations of a wolf sighting can cause a traffic jam along a kilometer and a half. Road section The park service remains open in winter.
Visitors equipped with eyeglasses gather in absolutely icy weather for a momentary view and long distance.
Doug Smith: Bill, these people came from Germany to see wolves.
Bill Whitaker: How about this?
Doug Smith runs the Yellowstone Wolf Research Program for the Park Service
Doug Smith: And nobody expected it to happen. In fact, you know, we –
Bill Whitaker: The call to come see the wolves?
Doug Smith: Yes. And it was really amazing. And we estimate that hundreds of thousands of people a year come here only to see the wolves.
"Wolf Tourism" injects $ 35 million a year into the local economy, much of which is spent in winter, a wolf of choice. watch the weather.
Glen Mai: We saw wolves every three days of our absence.
Glen Mai is a retired FBI agent in Arlington, Virginia. Kathy Lombard is a retired police officer from New Hampshire. They both paid an outfitter thousands of dollars to allow them to watch the wolves.
Bill Whitaker: So what explains the wolves who are taking you here from New Hampshire to sit down and hope to have the chance to see
Kathy Lombard: They managed to bring back wolves to Yellowstone and they prospered. So it's an awesome thing to see.
It was January 12, 1995, when the first gray wolves captured in Canada were swept away in Yellowstone Park, they attracted the attention of the country and aroused strong opposition to such an extent that armed guards were posted to protect these wolves.
Bill Whitaker: Thus, the first wolves released in Yellowstone Park were released i in this thicket?
D oug Smith: Yes. So a total of 41 over three years.
Bill Whitaker: How many are currently in the park?
Doug Smith: We have 96 packs out of ten, and about 100 wolves in the last ten years. Very stable.
These ten packs of about ten wolves are undoubtedly the most observed and studied wolves on the planet.
Doug Smith: Our goal is to keep in touch with each pack. That's our goal.
They do this by trying to tie a radio collar to at least two wolves in each of the park's bags.
Doug Smith: So you fly in the plane, find wolves in the open air. This radio plane from a helicopter waiting on the ground. This helicopter flew with a gunman on the back seat.
This shooter is almost always Smith himself.
Doug Smith: And you're flying next to that wolf. And you throw a calming dart.
Doug Smith: Five minutes, it's falling. We treat wolves. We take blood. We measure them. We look at their health. And we are attaching a radio collar. And then we follow them all their lives, with hope.
This life, by the way, lasts about five years. Yellowstone Wolves are ferocious and territorial; the main causes of death are the attacks of other wolves.
Doug Smith: And their appearance is out of control. This look says, "I will not abide by your rules, and I will die before me." And it is powerful.
The data from the radio collars helped Smith's team learn a lot about the behavior of the wolf.
Rick McIntyre, a park service employee, spends his time listening to the signals and then spreading the word.
Rick McIntyre: Do you want to see a gray wolf?
Bill Whitaker: I would love to adore.
Rick McIntyre: Okay, that's it, so it's a little to the right of the center.
Bill Whitaker: Oh, yeah. Oh, look, here's a whole package. Wow.
Rick McIntyre: Let's see if you count them all. There would be two levels of gray –
Bill Whitaker: One, Two –
Rick McIntyre: –and six Blacks –
Bill Whitaker: Three, Four, Five, Six Blacks and White
Rick McIntyre: And there should be a second gray.
Bill Whitaker: What about that?
We spotted the Junction Butte group along a ridge line about three kilometers away. Like most groups, it is led by a male and an alpha woman.
Rick McIntyre: The Gray Alpha Female Always Leads Right
Bill Whitaker: Oh yes.
Rick McIntyre: And you see how those behind her are playing. She is determined to lead them to the west.
BILL: All along the ridge, yes. It's beautiful.
Doug Smith: You can see these wolves from the ground. And that's a sensation. So we learned a lot about the dynamics of the pack, the personalities and … and their social character.
Bill Whitaker: What do you mean? Describe that to me
Doug Smith: They want to be together. They are a pack animal. The power of the wolf is therefore the pack.
Nowhere is this power more evident than when a pack of wolves is searching for elk, its favorite prey. They work together because they have to do it.
Doug Smith: Your average wolf weighs about 100 pounds. But your average prey is much bigger. A bull raises 750 pounds. A cow moose 500. So, how will an animal of about 100 to 120 pounds get rid of it?
They do it, says Doug Smith, both coordinating their attack and focusing on their vulnerable prey.
Doug Smith: They'll take the weak. They earn their living with calves, old elk, injured elk.
wolves, there was an overpopulation of elk in Yellowstone and, as wolves reduced the size of their herds, an unexpected side effect occurred: the elk-feeding plants returned, which in turn has benefits for other species.
Doug Smith: All the small trees have come back since the wolf's recovery. This ravine filled with shrubs has returned since the recovery of the wolf.
Bill Whitaker: And wolves play a role in all this?
Doug Smith: Quite simply: wolves eat elk; elk eat that. When elk are reduced, they eat less, so beavers and songbirds can respond to growth and vegetation.
Doug Smith is quick to say that this is not as simple as he says, but that did not stop some environmentalists from declaring the wolves the "saviors" of the ecology of Yellowstone.
Randy Newberg: Some people will try to convince you that wolves could probably solve world peace and hunger in the Middle East.
Randy Newberg is a Montana hunter who hosts a TV show and podcast for [19659023] hunters. He remembers how the debate on reintroduction was moving between wolf hunters and wolf lovers.
Randy Newberg: Wolves are wolves. They are not the big bad wolf and they do not have a rainbow that comes off as everyone would think.
Erik Kalsta: A wolf has something romantic about it, is not it? Unless you saw her chew a live cow.
Erik Kalsta's family has been raising cattle and sheep on this Montana ranch for 100 years. He is worried from the moment the first wolves were brought back to Yellowstone, about 100 miles to the south.
Erik Kalsta: You know, they would not stay in the park. They are a wild animal. They will go where they want to go.
Bill Whitaker: I'm sure you knew it was only a matter of time before they could arrive here.
Erik Kalsta: Oh yes. There was no doubt
Erik Kalsta: And there was a series of tracks
Erik Kalsta knew that wolves would follow elk migrating from Yellowstone to his ranch and that they would attack his cattle if the opportunity arose. He began hiring riders to monitor his cattle and he bought watch dogs to help keep the wolves away from his sheep.
Erik Kalsta: Live sheep pay for things, live cattle pay for things, but not the dead.
His defensive measures kept wolves away from his cattle, but neighboring ranchers lost cattle and sheep to wolves.
Doug Smith: This who has never been watched, when I speak o these people are the nights of sleep lost, the nervousness; "I saw a wolf track at my house today" or "I actually saw a wolf." The wolves are around. " You can not measure or compensate for this.
Bill Whitaker: Are Wolf Attacks on Livestock a Serious Problem?
Doug Smith: No, it rarely happens. But if it happens to you, it's a serious problem.
It is the fear of wolf attacks that pushed breeders and settlers to eradicate them in the early twentieth century. After the adoption of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, wolves were among the first to appear on the list and a campaign was undertaken to restore them to Yellowstone Park.
After that, in the 1990s, wolves quickly spread from Yellowstone to neighboring states. There are now almost two thousand in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. After a long and tough legal battle, these states finally got the power to manage and sometimes kill wolves outside the national park.
Bill Whitaker: Has this management of wolves helped to alleviate some of these passions, …
Doug Smith: I think so
Bill Whitaker: So, to have wolves, you have to to kill wolves?
Doug Smith: In some situations, yes.
The first situation is well settled: all the wolves attacking the cattle are immediately killed
Erik Kalsta: I think it helped a lot, at least with the breeders. People feel better if they are not helpless in the face of something
Doug Smith: And then, wolves are hunted. There is a hunting season on wolves. The three states have them. Therefore, hunting wolves has likely encouraged people to share the landscape with them.
Randy Newberg: It looks like there are at least two of them.
Randy Newberg is the living proof of this: he filmed a wolf hunt a few years ago for his television show, which took him 11 days and a hundred miles of journeys through the snow.
Bill Whitaker: You went out looking for a wolf and saw how smart they are, how cunning they are, how athletic they are? [19659002] Randy Newberg: Yes. If you want to increase your respect for wolves, go hunt them in their landscape.
Hunters, breeders, and wolf enthusiasts rarely see it. But they are now hearing about at least one thing: the wolves are back in Yellowstone, for good
Doug Smith: People love that. You know, we live in an artificial world. These are shops, cars, roads and buildings. Wolves are real. And people want it. They love it. We almost have that thirst for something real now.
Produced by Rome Hartman and Sara Kuzmarov. Associate Producer, LaCrai Mitchell.
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