Wolf Update 2018 Pt 2
I'm Bob Larson. Up 6 percent in 2017, the Washington wolf population grew for the 9th straight year. But some groups are worried the wolves are too concentrated in one area, in northeast Washington, and some might need to be relocated.
But, Fish and Wildlife wolf specialist Ben Maletzke says patience will likely be the key to the wolves expanding their turf ...
MALETZKE ... "Wolves do have an incredible ability to disperse. We've had wolves travel from Washington all the way to Yellowstone. We've had them go several hundred miles into BC and over into Montana. They have an innate ability to move over long distances and so biologically they'll make it to these areas. I think that they can travel those distances and it's just the timing and finding each other in those areas that aren't colonized yet."
Maletzke says physically picking them up and relocating wolves to other parts of the state would probably be a waste of time and money ...
MALETZKE ... "I think they can definitely do it. It's how long, the time we want to wait to kind of reach those recovery objectives. And, you know, it'll go a little bit quicker, but moving wolves there's a lot of troubles with that too. There's a high mortality with that. They're not necessarily going to stay where you put them. And, just the logistics of doing that and the expense, it's pretty spendy when, if we just give it another year or two they might just get there on their own."
Maletzke says one lone wolf has been confirmed and collared in Skagit County and a wolf was struck by a car and killed on I-90 near North Bend in 2015, further proof wolves are making their way west of the Cascades.
