NC State Gets a Real Wolf Pack

April 1, 2009

The Centennial Campus of North Carolina State University and the surrounding community are overwhelmed with the burgeoning deer herd that basically grows unchecked in the natural habitat within a very urban environment of Raleigh North Carolina. A plan to allow bow hunting to help control this growing problem has been met with much opposition over the past few years so a new plan has been devised. This past year a student wrote up a proposal to use a small semi free roaming pack of wolves to help control the deer population. Under this project wolves will be fitted with a GPS equipped collar and a shocking device that will discourage them from leaving the campus.
Petsafe a company that makes the Invisible Fence for homeowners to keep their pets in the yard is underwriting much of the funding for this project.

In our continuing effort to improve our product the next generation of Invisible Fence will utilize GPS and eliminate the need for underground wiring. We see this as a good test of our new system as well as way to open up new marketing avenues for our products

Today with the collaboration of North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the North Carolina State University three wolves were released with these special collars in a remote area near the new golf course that is under construction on Centennial Campus. For the first few months of this project wildlife biology students and NCWRC staff will provide round the clock surveillance and intervene should a problem arise. Wolves will hunt mostly at night and they also naturally fear man so conflicts are not expected.

In an exclusive interview with outspoken wolf critic Tom Remington he told me;

Boulderdash these are lethal weapons that have been turned loose on the citizens of Raleigh. There are a number of documented cases of wolves attacking humans and besides this is really just a publicity stunt. Next we’ll see President Obama forcing Chevy out of NASCAR

I asked Gabe Karnes noted wildlife researcher and graduate of NC State for his reaction

I’ve heard of Tom Remington and he is the “Henny Penny” of the wolf debate, to him the sky is always falling. This is a proud day here at NC State I was part of the research Team that laid out much of the groundwork to bring this project together. I was surprised at first ,but after I thought about it not, when our surveys showed a very positive response from the general public to use wolves to control the problem. NC State is synonymous with the wolf pack so having a small one here on the Centennial Campus seems very fitting.

Will continue to follow this story as it develops. Other stories I’m working on the Vatican is sending a delegation of priests to help the city of Durham rid themselves of the devil problems they are having. As well as the town of Buies Creek has announced a new “Green Public Transportation System” that utilizes camels.