The season of rebirth has not been a good one for the caribou of Unimak Island or the biologists who study them. The biologists engaged in trying to determine the animals' fate had hoped to radio-collar dozens of calves this spring to track their fates. They got collars on only 15.

"We tried to work on Unimak, but the weather was so bad," said Lem Butler, the King Salmon-based area wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Just getting to the 1,500-square-mile island from the community of Cold Bay 35 miles to the northeast proved a challenge in almost constant wind, rain and fog.

And so little more is known about Unimak caribou than was known last winter then the animals became a wildlife species of interest because of a precipitous decline in number -- from more than 1,000 at the start of the decade to less than a few hundred near the end. Both wolves and grizzly bears -- Alaska's most charismatic megafauna -- were implicated in the crash.

The state, in turn, caused a national stir in the spring when it announced plans to go in and take out a wolf pack near the caribou calving grounds to give soon-to-be-born caribou a better chance at survival. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the island as part of the Izembek National Widlife Refuge, immediately said no-no. There would be no organized wolf hunting on the island -- aerial or otherwise -- until an environmental assessment was complete, said refuge manager Nancy Hoffman.

The state subsequently sued to open the refuge to aerial wolf hunting.

Most lawyers gave the suit a chance of success somewhere between zero and nothing, but it is an election year so the suit pressed on. For incumbent Gov. Sean Parnell, the Republican successor to half-term Gov. Sarah Palin, the suit played well in the Interior where many believe past governors have been too quick to succumb to pressure from environmentalists, both Outside and in Alaska, opposed to any sort of invasive wolf management.

As predicted, the state's suit failed in federal court. The Fish and Wildlife Service is now in the midst of completing its environmental assessment. And Butler continues to study, as best he can, the caribou of Unimak.

What he has found is that the animals are still dying.

Of the 15 calves biologists did manage to get collars on this year, he said, "12 of them died within about a month." Predation is blamed, though what kind of predation is difficult to determine. Grizzlies have proven very efficient at killing caribou calves in their first days after birth. Calves are vulnerable to wolves in the weeks that follow.

There are believed to be about 400 bears on the island and somewhere between 20 and 30 wolves, though those numbers are just guesstimates. Both species are extremely hard to census. The bears, for their part, are omnivores that can survive without killing caribou, though all indications are they really like the taste of calves. The wolves are carnivores that need to kill something to avoid starving.

Despite what fictional tales about living among wolves might indicate, the animals cannot survive on mice, although small game can help tide them over until they can do some serious killing or scavenging. Aside from caribou, Butler said, Unimak wolves survive on "marine mammal carcasses" and "some pretty good salmon runs."

Salmon have increasingly become a focus of biologists studying wolves in Alaska. The scientists are finding that even in Denali National Park and Preserve, wolves are feeding heavily on salmon runs that have now been high in Alaska for decades. There is a growing consensus that strong salmon runs might have helped boost wolf populations, as they have bear populations, leading to increased pressure on prey species like caribou and moose in many areas of the state.

On Unimak, Wade Willis, a critic of state wildlife management, has pointed out this might be normal. Himself a biologist, Willis recently pulled out and dusted off a pioneering caribou study from 1968 done by Ron Skoog, who would later serve a stint as the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.