April 21, 2005
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New Alpha Male of Toklat Wolfpack Killed
The male who emerged as alpha when the previous alpha male died, was
legally shot and killed Sunday. This leaves only six surviving
members in the pack, all born in 2003 or 2004. In February, the
alpha female was killed in a trap, and the previous alpha male had died
when he was tranquilized for study.The Toklat pack is a hot issue because it is the most famous and
possibly most intensely studied wolfpack in the world. It was
studied by Adolph Murie in 1939. The pack lives on the margins of
Denali National Park where thousands of visitors may see some of its
members from the park’s tour buses each summer.The wolves cannot legally be trapped or hunted within the park, but
there are no fences to keep them in. Whenever they stray beyond
the park’s borders they are fair game. The male shot on Sunday
had joined the Toklat pack when he was transported into the park in
2001 from the Chena River as part of a predator control program to
preserve the Fortymile caribou herd.Park Service personnel and state officials are not concerned with the
possible breakup of the Toklat pack, even though it could mean fewer
wolf sightings for visitors. This leaves approximately seventy
wolves in the park, and one other pack of eight wolves was observed
last year in areas frequented by tourists. Wildlife managers say
that their concern is for overall numbers, not for individual animals.Seventy is at the low end of what’s considered an acceptable
population. I think it might be wise for someone in authority to
begin taking an interest in individual wolves.
Comments (4)
Damn, that sucks out loud.
Yeah, and the guide who aided and abetted the shooter pretty much said, so what–there are other wolves. This is like telling a couple who are mourning a dead child, hey relax, you can have another kid.
In other news, Frank the Bank is at it agin–the asshole is determined to rent a fucking jet and even Republican legislators are laughing at him.
Xgram–I wanted to get the Sears invoice stub thingie, forgot it, please post all the numbers privately for me, they STILL don’t gibe with what the computer tells me is my balance and stuff. And FYI, I made my CapitalOne payment today.
Also–do you know if there are any old BRK cataloges around, the glossy ones with retail prices only? I wanna get MSRs on some Schrades, and they don’t even list Schrade in the 2005 catalog.
Dunno if I’ll open today after all, it was raining on the way in, sky does not look clement.
Shit. Stupid people running amok again. Or is that still?
Ugh