V. Reading Comprehension      After wolves were nearly wiped out in Washington state by hunting, trapping
and government extermination campaigns, they are beginning to make a comeback. Today,
the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife(WDFW) kills wolves only when they have
repeatedly killed cattle, a relative rare event, with about 80% of Washington wolf packs
typically staying out of trouble with people. That brings us to the wolf that Ben Maletzke,
statewide wolf specialist in the wildlife program for WDFW, likes to call The Old Guy:[Wolf
32M]. Wolf 32M lived some 12 years as the patriarch of the Teanaway pack, kicking off
the recovery of wolves in Washington despite living in cattle country, amid ranchettes. He
lost a mate to poachers, and the pack’s territory was roasted by wildfire in 2014. But still,
Wolf 32M and his family persisted, bring the call of the wild back to the Central Cascades
for the first time in a century. These wolves are what Maletzke calls stepping stones in
recovery—the animals that could help lead the way to new territory not yet recolonized by
wolves. Recovery is still in early states in Washington, with fewer than 200 wolves
documented, and no statewide presence yet established.
Wolves disperse to new territory to find mates and begin packs of their own. They have few
predators, but they can be killed by other wolves defending a territory or a kill. It is this
pack dynamic that wildlife biologists are counting on to urge wolves into areas where they
do not presently live. Wolves do everything as a pack: hunting, eating, resting, traveling,
and caring for their young. A lone wolf usually is in transition, looking for a new pack. Wolf
recovery has been a flash point for environmentalists, ranchers and politicians on all sides
of the issue. Restoring the wolf is about restoring balance to the system, for in Washington
state, all is connected in the living system, one species to another. When a keystone
predator is taken out of an ecosystem, it is not helpful. One thing all sides agree on:
despite lethal removals, the wolves are going to keep coming.
【題組】28. What is the passage mainly about?
(A) The pros and cons of wolf recovery
(B) A glimmer of hope of wolf recovery
(C) The ways in which wolves fight back
(D) The reason that contributes to wolf’s extinction