Wolves hinder fight on illness in elk herds

JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — Wolves have hindered efforts to keep elk and cattle separated in the Buffalo Valley area, where the state game managers recently noticed a spike in brucellosis prevalence among elk.

Since Dec. 20, state Game and Fish Department officers have hazed between 50 and 150 elk out of Buffalo Valley into nearby Spread Creek in an effort to keep the elk from mingling with cattle.

Bill Long, North Jackson game warden, said officers used firecrackers and snowmobiles to chase the elk from two cattle ranches in Buffalo Valley.

"I go up every single day," Long said. "It's just a matter of if the elk are in a bad place or hitting a hay stack."

Long said he has been hazing elk in the Buffalo Valley on a regular basis during his 17-year career.

But problems with elk hitting cattle feed has increased since wolves entered the area in recent years, he said.

"There's a new wild card there, and everything we do can be undone overnight," Long said.

"Before we had wolves, you could put elk on a feed ground and they would stay," he said. "Now they chase them off and they make the commingling problem even worse. That's the brave new world. Wolves have their place, clearly, but they have certainly caused some problems in terms of damage and commingling."

Wyoming Game and Fish officials announced a jump in brucellosis rates in elk in the Buffalo Valley area in late December. Officials detected the jump shortly after elk were fed on an emergency basis last February.

Studies of brucellosis rates in Buffalo Valley from 1987 to 2005 showed the disease in 2.7 percent of the animals. After emergency feeding last year, brucellosis rates jumped to about 20 percent. Officials say the jump is likely not caused by the emergency feeding, but rather is a result of differences in testing methods.