Wolf Reintroduction Feasibility in the Adirondack Park

Executive Summary

October 1999

Wolves were extirpated from the Adirondacks over a century ago due largely to human eradication efforts.

The Conservation Biology Institute (Corvallis, OR) was chosen by the Adirondack Citizens Advisory Committee to examine the question of biological feasibility of reintroducing gray wolves back to the Adirondacks. By applying what is known about gray wolf ecology (in general) to the best available spatial and genetics data for the Adirondacks, we examined three basic questions:

• Is there suitable gray wolf habitat in the Adirondacks to support a viable population?
• Is there adequate landscape connectivity both within the Adirondacks and between the Adirondacks and the surrounding region to allow for reasonable gray wolf movement important to their persistence?
• What does the most recent genetics tell us about wolves in the Adirondacks?

We found that there is suitable habitat for sustaining a small population of gray wolves in the Adirondacks based on current conditions. There is adequate prey, denning areas, and core security areas — all key to wolf pack survival. We also found a high level of habitat fragmentation (primarily due to roads and towns) within the Adirondacks, but believe the most likely movement corridors gray wolves would use within the Adirondacks are reasonably secure at this time. However, we also found linkages between the Adirondacks and the surrounding region more tenuous, and we doubt if these linkages can be relied upon to maintain wolves over the long term without significant human intervention. The extended distance between the Adirondacks and other existing or potential populations of gray wolves amplifies this problem.

In addition, recent genetics evidence conducted by Wilson et al. (1999) provides compelling evidence that red wolves were the endemic wolf species of the Adirondacks, and the existing dominant coyote-like canids in upstate New York are indeed hybrids between the eastern Canadian wolf (red wolf) and the coyote. This new evidence, if substantiated by further work and review, has significant ramifications on any potential wolf reintroduction effort in the region.

Because of the new genetic evidence, the lack of favorable inter-regional connectivity for wolves, and level of uncertainty about increased development and human use of the Adirondacks, we recommend an active gray wolf reintroduction program for the Adirondack Park not be pursued at this time. That does not mean that summit predators like wolves are not important to natural ecosystems — predators serve critically important regulatory functions in nature as well as having their own inherent value. However, the situation in the Adirondacks is a complex one on many levels — more so than at most other potential wolf reintroduction sites in other parts of the U.S.

It may be that the coyote-red wolf hybrid living in the Adirondacks today (if the new genetic evidence is proven to be correct) serves the same ecological role of a pure wolf population — that is still unclear. So much more needs to be learned about the ecology and status of these animals to make that determination. There is merit to wanting wolves back in the Adirondacks on ecological and ethical grounds; however, we do not feel the conditions favor transplanting wolves from other regions to face what in our estimation would be a very fragile future both for the transplanted animals and for their potential offspring.

The establishment of wolves in as much of its former range as possible is a worthy conservation goal and should be pursued wherever possible. If certain conditions are met, the Adirondacks could still become a possible wolf reintroduction site in the future, or be part of a greater regional conservation strategy, although we believe the Adirondacks will not be a regional stronghold for wolves into the foreseeable future and should not be the place to initiate a wolf reintroduction program in the northeastern U.S.

For more information, please contact Nancy Staus .

Paul C. Paquet, Ph.D.
James R. Strittholt, Ph.D.
Nancy L. Staus, M.S.