NICOLE BLANCHARD and ELIZABETH WALSH
Idaho Statesman
BOISE — Just a few years after the Idaho Department of Fish and Game implemented a controversial trail-camera-based method for counting the number of wolves in the state, the agency announced it would switch to a new method.
Fish and Game officials now plan to use genetic information taken from teeth to estimate population size, a process officials believe will provide more accurate estimates for smaller wolf populations, Shane Roberts, Fish and Game’s wildlife bureau chief, told the Idaho Statesman in an interview. Roberts said modeling showed that the trail-camera-based method will become less accurate as wolf counts decline.
Fish and Game plans to whittle the number of wolves down to around 500 animals under a management plan approved last year. The agency said the new genetic method, which produced similar results as the camera method, put last summer’s wolf population at about 1,150 animals — down about 200 from the previous year.
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Officials were already taking teeth from trapped or hunted wolves to determine their age.
“We’ve always collected teeth, but now we’ve got a new use for those teeth,” Roberts told the Statesman.
Fish and Game began tracking wolf populations using radio collars after wolves were reintroduced to Idaho in 1995. It switched to a trail camera-based model in 2019. That method, also called a space-to-event model, used a network of remote trail cameras that took photos every 10 minutes or when they detected motion.
Fish and Game analyzed the thousands of photographs from the camera network using artificial intelligence to identify wolves, calculate the amount of space between them, and estimate their population. But the technique drew vocal critics, including those from the scientific community, who were skeptical of its accuracy.
An incorrect population estimate could eventually drop wolf populations and put them back on the Endangered Species Act list.
Genetic modeling ‘is producing accurate results’
Researchers have been developing their genetic modeling method for about two years, according to Fish and Game. Along with determining wolves’ ages, researchers can also extract genetic material from the teeth that provide clues on which wolves are related, said Matthew Mumma, an Idaho Fish and Game researcher.
Using the genetic information to estimate the number of different packs, combined with information about wolf biology — such as litter size, death rates and pack size — a model developed by the department can estimate population size for the entire state, Mumma said.
But since biology isn’t perfect, researchers don’t want to rely on a limiting set of biology factors for the model. Instead, the model creates numerous possibilities for the state’s wolf population size, depending on a different mix of biological factors.
First, it uses a combination of those factors to provide a range of estimates on the wolf population. From there, researchers compare the hypothetical populations to the characteristics of wolves that were hunted that year. They take the top 1% of results from the model that resembled the most like the wolf harvest, then average those numbers to produce an estimated population, Roberts told the Statesman.
“We’re not relying on any one comparison to one hypothetical population,” Roberts said.
When the department decided to pursue the new genetics method, it had years of teeth from wolves killed by hunting, trapping or depredation. Researchers were able to compare five years of results from the camera capture model with the new genetics method and found that the estimated populations were almost identical, Roberts said.
“We’re very comfortable with the genetic method that it is producing accurate results,” Roberts told the Statesman.
New method is ‘unproven,’ critic says
Still, the new method is not without skeptics. Suzanne Asha Stone, director of International Wildlife Coexistence Network, told the Statesman her organization is requesting access to Fish and Game’s data to see whether its conclusions can be duplicated.
Stone, who also co-founded the Wood River Wolf Project, which works with sheep ranchers to provide nonlethal wolf deterrents, was among the critics of the camera-based counting method. They said Fish and Game’s use of motion detection to capture wolf photos skewed its results, as did its placement of cameras near places it expected wolves to travel.
“Instead of switching to a more reliable and tested method for counting the wolf population, Idaho has again chosen an unproven method that has never been peer reviewed for the purpose of estimating wildlife populations,” Stone said in a text message.
Stone worried unreliable data would make it impossible to tell whether the wolf population was at risk of “collapse” as Fish and Game tries to cut the population by more than half.
Roberts said results from the new genetic testing only reinforce that the camera method was producing accurate estimates.
The department plans to submit the new genetics method to a scientific journal for review, but the model will be used for next year’s wolf count in lieu of the camera capture model, Roberts said.
Roberts also hopes that the method can be modified to get accurate wolf counts on a regional level, “which would be more useful for our regional managers,” he said.
“There may be things that come to light during the peer review process that we find ways to improve,” Roberts said. “But we don’t know of anything that needs to be improved right now.”
Alaska, USA – July 02, 2024 Researchers in the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve are studying the behavior of wolf pups, shedding light on their early development and social interactions. Wolves typically keep their pups at dens for a couple of months before relocating them to rendezvous sites, where they can safely rear them. These rendezvous sites, often situated closer to water sources and on gentler terrain compared to dens, provide ideal conditions for the pups to grow and explore. In a recent video, captured during an overnight trip, researchers observed seven-week-old wolf pups greeting a returning pack member at one of these rendezvous sites. The footage offers valuable insights into pack dynamics and the nurturing behaviors of adult wolves towards their young. Studies like these contribute to our understanding of wildlife ecology and conservation efforts in the preserve.
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Publish date : 2024-08-07 05:45:00
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