Turf war!
Alaskan Fish and Game officials killed an entire pack of wolves in February, managing to piss off the National Park Service, and proving how smart the government is.
The wolves were killed when they wandered off the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve into an area targeted for “aerial predator control,” where Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game is trying to boost moose and caribou numbers, reports The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
The National Park Service has been studying wolf behavior on the preserve for 20 years and had fitted the alpha pair that was killed with tracking collars.
Yukon-Charley Superintendent Greg Dudgeon told the News-Miner the predator-control efforts reduced the population in the preserve by more than half since last spring. “With the loss of packs and collared animals, frankly it makes it difficult to do that work and maintain those sets,” said Dudgeon.
State officials don’t seem concerned. Doug Vincent-Lang, acting director for the Alaska Division of Wildlife Conservation, told the News-Miner the wolves are fair game outside the boundaries of the preserve.
“This is basically within our predator-control program in an area we’ve seen benefits from that predator control program,” Vincent-Lang told the News-Miner.