Rich Bard is a wildlife biologist who began his career as a zookeeper. Having spent most of his adult life moving around the country working with various wild animals, he settled near the coast of Maine in 2004. Amid the striking beauty of this remote region, he passes the time with his family, hiking, snowshoeing, gardening and watching the tide ebb and flow.
| Mom’s Wisdom Could Save the Mexican Wolves |
| Saturday, 22 May 2010 | Rich Bard | Blog Entry |
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Ranchers pay very little for grazing leases that enable them to leave their cattle and sheep for months at a time on public lands across the West. Now, Apache National Forest, in Arizona, is considering a policy shift that would require ranchers to either remove, or render inedible, livestock that die of natural causes on National Forest lands inside the Mexican Wolf Recovery Area. The new policy would have no effect on livestock carcasses on private land, the adjacent Gila National Forest or anyplace outside the Mexican Wolf Recovery Area. Why Clean Up the Mess? Updated 5/22/10; originally posted 3/30/09. Copyright 2009-10 EcoHearth. All rights reserved. Reprint Policy
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Written by Vincent Domeraski , October 19, 2009
Thanks for your reply, Rich. As someone who was just passing through Apache NF and was lucky enough to see a lobo cross the road and then watch me while I took it's picture, I am far from qualified to prescribe a solution to the beef problem. I will never forget the wolf and the people who are concerned, and those not so concerned with the wolves and much less the welfare of their own cattle.
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Written by Rich Bard , October 16, 2009
Vincent,
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The Center for Biological Diversity counted 16 cows, bulls or calves dead, right near the road in one small area. Ranch hands drive those roads all the time, so they are well aware of the carcasses. They may not be able to find every one, but they could at least take care of the obvious ones. It is difficult to move the carcasses, but relatively cheap and easy to make them unpalatable to scavengers. I won't gross you out with the details, but with this method you can relatively easily treat cattle carcasses that are far from roads. You would think it would be in the ranchers best interest to keep wolves from becoming acclimated to the taste of beef in the first place, particularly at very little cost to themselves, but 99% of the ranchers in the area show no interest in modifying what they do to accommodate the wolves.
Written by Vincent Domeraski , October 16, 2009
I understand the issue that you described so well, but don't see how ranchers could be expected to locate and remove cattle carcasses more efficiently than wolves or other wild carnivores. Aside from ending the location of cattle in the NF, I can't think of a reasonable solution. And BTW, it would seem that ranchers would be likely to have an interest in eliminating wolves that, rightly or wrongly are likely to be seen as a threat to theiir livestock.
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Written by Maska 131 , April 06, 2009
Well said. The scientists who wrote the Mexican wolf Three Year Review way back in 2001 called attention to this issue, but so far, nothing has been done to improve the situation. If the Apache NF actually addresses the carcass issue in the new forest plan, that would be good news for the lobos.
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By the way, folks who are interested in learning more about Mexican wolves, seeing a short video about them, and so on, should check out the brand new (just a week old) website: www.mexicanwolves.org |
I don't know about you, but my mother taught me to clean up after myself. Most of us would agree that it's a pretty good maxim to live by. Unfortunately, many ranchers have been ignoring this advice, resulting in the deaths and removal of Mexican wolves, the endangered sub-species of gray wolf that lives in the remote mountains of Arizona and New Mexico. 
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