They indicate significant rural resistance despite widespread public support. But wolves are already returning to Montana. Seventy five arrived naturally, migrating from the Canadian Rockies. Like glaciers of the last ice age, they are slowly expanding southward. They are drawn by the dramatic increases in ungulate populations, primarily elk and deer, created by clear-cutting in public and private forests.
Wildlife biologists consider wolves one of the easiest species to manage.
Established wolf packs stay in well defined and fiercely guarded territories. Thus they have low population densities and are easily located. Wolves are also afraid of new things and tend to avoid them. And if there is any doubt about who holds the upper hand in human-wolf coexistence, we might remember that wolves, once one of the most broadly distributed large mammals in North America, have been exterminated wherever they competed with man. A decade ago, only remnant populations existed in wilderness areas or at the sufferance of humanity.