Huckleberries Online

Wolves Or Caribou?

Posted by DFO

June 1, 2010 4:03 p.m. • 4 comments

No one can predict how the endangered Selkirk woodland caribou will fare if another animal extirpated in large parts of its historic range — the gray wolf — moves back into their territory. In the last two or three years, wolves (likely moving south from BC or possibly east from Montana) have been documented on both the British Columbia and Idaho sides of the Selkirk Mountains near caribou recovery areas, Wakkinen said. That could be good — or bad — for caribou, depending on how things play out. If wolves get established, stick primarily to eating white-tailed deer, and run off the mountain lions that have been preying on the Selkirk herd, that would be good for the woodland caribou. Or wolves could might drive the mountain lions to higher elevations, even deeper into caribou strongholds. Or the wolves could start preying on the caribou themselves/Jennifer Langston, Sightline Daily. More here. (AP Photo/British Columbia Forest Service. Garry Beaudry)

Question: Should Idaho take steps to protect endangered woodland caribou from endangered wolves? Or let nature take its course?

Four comments on this post so far. Add yours!

JamesBond on June 01 at 4:13 p.m.
I am going to leave this issue for the environmentalits and animal people to figure out. :-)
brentandrews on June 02 at 10:12 a.m.
Interesting that the wolves have moved “possibly east from Montana” to get to Idaho - must’ve been a very, very long trip involving marathon swimming sessions and confusing languages.
coeurgenx on June 02 at 10:14 a.m.
OMG- great that means more Epic snowmobile country will be closed off. We ride a lot up North and have yet to see a single Caribou or a Caribou track, but we have seen a few wolves and too many wolf tracks to speak of. That means some environmentalist pushing paper in an office who has never been to this part of the county will enact some law banning more snowmobiling in OUR BACK YARD!
Arpie on June 02 at 10:20 a.m.
“We ride a lot up North and have yet to see a single Caribou or a Caribou track,”

I read this a lot and always wonder if the irony is completely lost on the riders. CGX Does it occur to you that there is a relationship between the riding “a lot” and the lack of tracks?

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About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.