Madison wolves targeted for death

By Nick Gevock of The Montana Standard

ENNIS — The hunt is on for two wolves that have attacked and maimed three heifers so badly near Ennis that they had to be euthanized. Officials with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks have issued two shoot-on-sight permits to a Madison Valley rancher whose cattle were attacked by the wolves. Officials did not name the rancher.

Trappers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services are also looking for the wolves. The predators are suspected of being members of the Wedge pack, but officials haven’t confirmed that, said Carolyn Sime, FWP wolf program coordinator. That pack got into trouble earlier this year for attacking cattle on the same ranch. Two wolves from the pack were killed to deal with the problem.

Sime said the fact that the cattle in this latest incident were yearling heifers means the attacks are serious and warrant lethal control. “They’re pretty good-sized cattle, as opposed to calves,” she said.

Federal trappers and ranch hands will keep hunting for the wolves until two are killed. Sime said FWP uses an incremental approach to dealing with wolves that are causing problems. That means while more wolves may have been involved in the attack, officials haven’t confirmed that and don’t want to over-react, which could result in killing more wolves than necessary that may not have been involved with the attacks.

“More often than not you don’t know how many were involved in the predation event, versus feeding on the carcass,” she said. “The level of response is commensurate with the level of damage.” The Wedge pack is known to roam around the property where the cattle were attacked. But Sime said in the fall wolves wander more and often branch out in smaller groups, or on their own, so the wolves could be from another pack.

The permits issued are valid until Oct. 15, when the cattle on the property are removed for the winter.

Montana Standard

Suspected wolf on Zumwalt may be vanguard in Oregon

By Elane Dickenson

Biologists have not yet been able to positively confirm the presence of a young black wolf on the Zumwalt Prairie of Wallowa County, despite a videotape taken in about mid-July by an archery hunter from Eugene, who was scouting the area. The U.S. Wildlife Service and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife have since received a couple of other possible sightings in the area, one from a fence builder about three weeks who initially suspected that the animal might have been a dog, according to Craig Ely, Northeast Oregon Regional Director based in La Grande.

Ely said that biologist spent 10 or 12 days in the evenings looking for the animal with no success, and sent a plane over the prairie in the search after that most recent report. "If it's a wolf, they move around a lot," Ely said, adding that while the animal could be a wolf hybrid, or even a dog gone wild, but it could also be a wolf. "My assessment is that, as an agency, we believe there are wolves in Oregon, we just haven't confirmed it yet�Sooner or later, Oregon will be recolonized with wolves from Idaho."

While Oregon passed it's own wolf management plan this year, the wolf is still listed as an endangered species and Ely said that federal law "is the law of the land" as far as wolves are concerned and the federal fish and wildlife service is the lead agency. He said, if biologists are able to capture a wolf, a radio collar would be placed on it and it would be released. Ely said that would allow the animal to be tracked and that ranchers - who are not allowed to shoot the federally protected wolf - be kept apprised of its whereabouts.

The suspected wolf appears to be a young "sub adult" animal, the equivalent of a human teenager, Ely said.

Wallowa County ranchers have taken the lead on opposing the presence of wolves in Oregon and county commissioner Ben Boswell was on the committee that formulated the wolf plan for the state, though he feels the plan is not completed until there is a provision for financial compensation for ranchers, a provision for ranchers to "take" a wolf under limited circumstances and the wolf is reclassified at the federal level as a "game animal with a special status" (by permit only). He said there is an attempt in the works for an amendment to the federal plan to exempt Oregon

"I'm not surprised," Boswell said about the recent unconfirmed sightings of wolves in Wallowa County. "The thing started with their introduction in Idaho. That's been remarkably successful; they've been breeding like rabbits."

Oregon has had three confirmed sightings of wolves, the most recent six years ago. One was a female with a radio collar who was tracked in 1999 from the Brownlee reservoir area in Baker County to near John Day, where it was captured and sent back to Idaho. In 2000, two wolves were killed in Oregon: one in was hit by a vehicle south of Baker City and one illegally shot near Ukiah.

"We've had over 90 sightings in Oregon since then, some with merit and some with no merit, but none of them have been confirmed," Ely said. Another recent report of a wolf sighting close to home was in the Eagle Cap Wilderness in Union County, according to Ely. In early August, someone reported seeing two adults and two pups. "A considerable amount of time" was spent following up on the report, and finally "one animal was seen at a great distance," Ely said.

Wallowa County Chieftain

Federal plan would remove Great Lakes wolves from endangered, threatened lists

By Kurt Krueger - News-Review Editor

More than a year after its initial plan was reversed in federal court, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) is again proposing to remove Wisconsin's gray wolves from the federal Endangered Species List. But this time, the agency has singled out Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota instead of lumping other states into the delisting proposal, which was overturned by a federal judge in Oregon last January.

Officials say the wolf population in the western Great Lakes region now numbers close to 4,000 animals, including more than 3,000 in Minnesota. Wolves have become well-established in Wisconsin and Michigan, with numbers totaling at least 425 and 405, respectively. In Wisconsin, the wolf population was estimated at between 425 and 455 in the winter of 2005. The 2006 wolf population count is due in April.

In August 2004, the gray wolf was removed from Wisconsin's Endangered and Threatened Species List and designated a protected wild animal. The delisting recognizes that the gray wolf has completely recovered after being extirpated in the 1960s.

"This is a landmark in Wisconsin's gray wolf history. Gray wolves join the bald eagle, osprey, fisher and wild turkey as a species again flourishing in our state," said Natural Resources Secretary Scott Hassett.

Federal delisting from both the endangered and threatened list would return all management authority to the state wildlife agencies in the areas covered by the population segment. Under federal control, state biologists have had limited, inconsistent authority to trap and kill some depredating wolves. Although the wolf will be classified as a protected nongame species, the delisting will make it easier for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Wildlife Services to control problem wolves which prey on farm animals. State officials say greater authority also may be given to landowners to allow them to control problem wolves attacking livestock on their land.

Adrian Wydeven, a DNR biologist who heads the wolf-management team, said they also can use proactive management to keep wolves in the territories where they belong. He said wolves that attempt to relocate and establish packs in agricultural areas away from large public forests could be trapped and killed. "We would have quite a few new tools for keeping wolf numbers in check and keeping wolf packs in the public forests where they belong," said Wydeven.

FWS officials said the reclassification effort will take several months and the delisting could be completed late in 2006 or early in 2007. With the Wisconsin Wolf Management Plan population goal of 350 wolves now exceeded, Wydeven said it will be important for the department to use all of the available tools for controlling wolf numbers. He said wolf depredation has increased threefold in just four years, going from eight cases in 2002 to 25 cases in 2005. "We are hearing more negative attitudes from landowners and hunters, but with this delisting proposal, our ability to control the spread of the population is looking bright," said Wydeven.

A wolf population count completed in April 2005 included 414 to 442 outside of reservations putting it as much as 26% above goal. Another 11 to 13 wolves were located on reservations, with new figures expected out next month.

While wolf numbers have grown in past years, Wydeven said the annual increase has averaged 11% in this decade compared to an average of 22% annual growth in the 1990s. "It's quite possible that the wolf population is nearing its carrying capacity in wolf range," he said. "The challenge is to keep them away from the edge of wolf range, where it overlaps with private land and agriculture."

Signe Holtz, director of the DNR's endangered resources bureau, said the goal of 350 wolves "is a number around which we can manage; in the ballpark." She said the wolf plan states that if the tools available to state biologists are not successful in keeping the population near goal, the DNR could consider a public harvest or other measures.

Hassett said there are no plans at this time for public harvest of the wolf. He said the wolf plan's 350-animal goal was established as the level at which public harvest could be considered, but specific language was not included in the plan on how such a harvest might occur. The Natural Resources Board avoided specific language on harvest in the 1999 plan after public input. Legislative approval would be required prior to any public harvest.

Public hearings on the proposed wolf delisting will be May 8 in Duluth, Minn., May 10 in Wausau, and May 16 in Marquette, Mich. The official hearings start at 7:30 p.m., but will be preceded at 6 p.m. by information sessions. The Wausau hearing will be held at Westwood Conference Center. Information about the sessions is available at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Web site, www.fws.gov/midwest/wolf/.

Wisconsin's current gray wolf population recolonized from Minnesota when the protections of state and federal endangered species acts took effect. The first Wisconsin pack was located in 1975. With considerable public involvement, the DNR developed first a Wisconsin Wolf Recovery plan in 1989, and later a Wisconsin Wolf Management Plan in 1999. The management plan, approved by the Natural Resources Board, outlines management of the wolf in the state after federal delisting and can be viewed at www.dnr.wi.gov.

Vilas County News-Review

Trappers hired to capture escaped wolf hybrids in N.H.

LEMPSTER, N.H. — One of the seven wolf-hybrids that escaped from a pen this week returned on its own, and the police chief figured the others would follow as they got hungry.

"They are lazy like us," police Chief Shady Blackwell said Friday. "We are going to go to grocery store for food, not hunt it down. They know where the grocery store is, and it's inside the pens."

The seven escaped from Dancing Brooke Lodge sanctuary and have been spotted in neighbors' yards. Concerned for their pets and kids, neighbors have guns ready and professional trappers were trying to capture the hybrids. The Fish and Game Department is not involved because the dogs are considered domestic animals. But neighbors said they were concerned about safety.

Neighbor Carol LaBounty said worry over her pets and children who live nearby prompted her to prepare her shotgun. She said many of her neighbors were doing the same. Blackwell said there was some initial panic as residents learned the hybrids were on the loose, but as he spread the word that the animals basically are shy and stay away from people, residents calmed down.

The sanctuary's 44 dogs are 50 percent to 90 percent wolf. All have been spayed or neutered. The animals are strictly regulated in most states and Dancing Brooke often takes in out-of-state animals to keep them from being euthanized.

Dancing Brooke president Bill Russell, a Massachussetts state trooper, says his organization is the only one set up to take in wolf hybrids. Russell and his wife, Anna, were cited in Maine in 2004 when dogs they were keeping there escaped.

Bill Russell said after two dogs escaped Tuesday through a hole in the fence, he opened the fence so the dogs could re-enter their pen. When the animals didn't return Wednesday, he closed the fence and filled the hole with a log. He believes the other five dogs moved the log and dug out around the fence and escaped sometime Wednesday night or Thursday morning. He said the escaped dogs are a father and six offspring.

Blackwell said Russell didn't immediately inform neighbors or authorities. "I'm disappointed in their initial response," Blackwell said. Russell said he didn't call local police because the dogs were close by and he believed that as a trooper, he could do a better job of searching.

The lack of communication has upset some neighbors, said LaBounty. She said she supported the sanctuary until she learned of the escaped dogs. "He's not keeping us informed as to what's going on," she said. "Now, we want them gone, we want them off this street."

Neighbors have been complaining about noise from the sanctuary since people began bringing dogs there two years ago. This month, a judge said the 44 dogs would have to be euthanized unless new pens were built for them farther away from neighbors.

Maine Today

Willow & Twister Howl at Wolf Park

YouTube

Wolves attack three heifers in Montana's Madison Valley

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) - A Montana landowner has been given a shoot-on-sight permit to kill up to two wolves, after wolves so badly injured three yearling heifers that they had to be euthanized.

Federal wildlife officials investigated the attacks on September 19th and the 22nd. The rancher's name was not released, but he resides in the Madison Valley area.

The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department authorized the killing of up to two wolves by either federal officials or the landowner. The permit is valid through October 15th. After that, the cattle will be removed from the property for the winter.

The landowner has had wolves on and around his property since July. Two wolves from the Wedge pack were killed after attacking cattle on the same ranch in July.

It's unclear if the Wedge pack is responsible for the latest attack.

KIFI-TV

Feds reject Idaho plan to kill wolves

By JOHN MILLER - ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

BOISE, Idaho -- Federal officials have rejected Idaho's plan to kill up to 43 wolves in north-central Idaho to boost elk numbers, saying scientific data gathered by the state do not justify the action. At a recent meeting, federal officials told Steve Nadeau, Idaho Fish and Game Department's large carnivore manager, that state studies of elk declines in the Lolo region didn't adequately demonstrate wolves are the primary cause.

"We agreed the wolves are playing an important role in limiting recovery. The question comes down to whether or not there's an unacceptable impact," said Jeff Foss, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field supervisor in Boise. "Based on the information that was provided at the meeting, the service didn't feel it had enough at that time to draw (that) conclusion."

The Idaho agency said the federal decision means the plan will not be put into effect this winter, but research to gather supporting data will continue.

"The department would have liked to move forward by this winter," Jim Unsworth, the department's wildlife bureau chief, told The Associated Press. "That's not likely."

Last January when the state's proposal was unveiled, conservation groups came to the same conclusion as the federal scientists. They argue that poor habitat, not wolves, is the main reason Lolo elk now number less than a quarter of the 16,500 counted in the region north of the Lochsa River in 1989.

Fires in the early 20th century cleared heavy timber there, creating good elk habitat. In recent years, however, once-grassy hillsides that supported thousands of elk have filled in with lodgepole pine, red fir and western cedar, they said.

While the Idaho Conservation League backs removing federal protections from wolves in the state because their numbers have met recovery goals in Idaho's wolf management plan, spokesman Jonathan Oppenheimer said plans to remove specific wolves such as those in the Lolo still should be scientifically sound.

"Regardless of whether they have to get the OK from Fish and Wildlife or whether they get it (through) delisting, if you want to have more elk, you've got to have the habitat to support them," Oppenheimer said.

State officials, including Gov. Jim Risch, say Idaho is collecting new information to support its aim of reducing wolves in the Lolo elk management zone on the Idaho-Montana border by 75 percent. But they said their main focus now has shifted to getting the Interior Department to lift federal Endangered Species Act protections from gray wolves in the region.

Since January, Idaho has had day-to-day management over central Idaho wolves - including the Lolo pack - that are considered "experimental, nonessential" and thus not fully protected under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service still manages wolves north of U.S. Interstate 90 in the Panhandle, where the animals are listed as endangered.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering removing federal protections in most of Idaho and Montana, where wolves number 800. If that happens, Idaho would no longer need permission from the federal agency to start killing wolves in the Lolo or anywhere else in the state.

That's the state's main desire, Idaho Office of Species Conservation Director Jim Caswell said. But he added the state is still committed to its proposal to reduce the Lolo pack - a stance he acknowledges has political risk. "It could cause people to fight against a potential delisting proposal," Caswell said. "Sure, it's a concern. It's always been a concern."

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Wolves get a little too close in Michigan national park

Associated Press

HOUGHTON, Mich. (AP) - For campers at Isle Royale National Park, sighting a gray wolf is a rare and thrilling experience. At least, until now. Some wolves got a bit too familiar this summer, wandering into camping areas and showing little of their customary fear of people. No attacks or threatening behavior have been reported. But the close encounters prompted warnings to visitors not to feed the wolves.

"Wolves are wild animals and potentially dangerous like any wild animals,'' said Michigan Tech University biologist Rolf Peterson, who has studied wolves and moose on the Lake Superior island chain for more than 30 years.

Wolves seldom target humans, although it's not unheard of, Peterson said. In fact, a wolf attacked several people at Lake Superior Provincial Park in Ontario recently before the superintendent killed it. Such incidents could happen more often if wolves begin to identify people as a food source, Peterson said.

"The best thing is that they never associate us with a speck of food,'' said Phyllis Green, the Isle Royale superintendent.

Beavers, which were once the wolves' prey, have mostly disappeared in the area due to habitat loss. So the wolves now have little to feed on except moose, whose numbers also have nose-dived recently. A census earlier this year counted about 450 moose - fewest in the 48 years biologists have monitored the relationship between the two species in Isle Royale's closed environment.

Meanwhile, the wolf population was a healthy 30. Peterson predicts it will decline because of the food shortage, which likely is what's making them less fearful of humans. In bygone days, "maybe one visitor in a thousand'' would spot a wolf, Peterson said. "Now, when I give a talk to 50 people, there will be two or three in the audience that saw wolves.''

Other words of wisdom: If you see a wolf, get away as quickly as possible but don't run. Don't follow or howl at them. If you come upon a moose carcass, don't hang around; wolves may be nearby even if you don't see them.

Houston Chronicle

Minnesota DNR sued over trapping laws

Group says endangered species vulnerable

BY DENNIS LIEN - Pioneer Press

A national animal-protection group has sued the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, contending the agency isn't doing enough to stop the accidental trapping of bald eagles, Canada lynx and gray wolves. In a suit filed earlier this week in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, the Animal Protection Institute accused the DNR of violating the federal Endangered Species Act by allowing people to use traps and snares that injure and sometimes kill those federally protected species.

At least 24 eagles were caught in Minnesota in traps set for other animals between 1990 and 2006, many of them having to be destroyed, according to the lawsuit. At least 13 lynx have been trapped since 2002, as well as an undetermined number of wolves.

"We believe the records we've obtained are just the tip of the iceberg," said Camilla Fox, the California-based institute's director of wildlife programs. "For every reported nontarget animal that falls victim to a trap, there are likely many that go unreported.''

Saying the state allows trapping in areas frequented by bald eagles, lynx and wolves, the lawsuit asks the court to stop the state from allowing the kind of trapping that harms those creatures.

A DNR spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Jay Tutchton, a Colorado-based lawyer representing the institute, said the group isn't arguing that other animals can't be trapped, just not those protected by the Endangered Species Act. Earlier this year, the institute sent a letter of intent to sue to persuade the DNR to take immediate steps to protect threatened species. But it said the agency never responded.

Pioneer Press

Beaver upsurge in Yellowstone Park a mystery

By MIKE STARK Of The Gazette Staff

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK - At dusk, a crowd of late summer tourists scrambled to the top of a roadside hill in Hayden Valley eager to catch a glimpse of two wolves in the area. While binoculars and expensive spotting scopes peered far across the valley, a lone brown beaver slipped into the nearby Yellowstone River and downstream, undetected by the hillside throng.

The moment might have been a metaphor.

The dramatic return of the wolf to Yellowstone grabbed worldwide attention, but the quiet resurgence of the beaver at the same time - particularly on the Northern Range - has barely been noticed. Over the past decade, the number of beaver colonies counted in Yellowstone has grown from 49 to about 85. In the northern reaches of the park, the number has jumped from zero in 1996 to nine last year. Secretive and generally nocturnal, beavers wield a mighty influence over their environment.

Rich habitat

They build dams, changing the flow of rivers and streams and creating rich habitat for a wide array of plants, birds, insects and other mammals. "Nature thrives on diversity and beavers are a huge generator of diversity," said Doug Smith, leader of Yellowstone's wolf project who also conducts biannual beaver surveys.

Scientists agree the beavers' return has coincided with the return of the wolf and the willow, a favorite food and building material. But, like many stories in Yellowstone, it's more complex than it seems. Depending on to whom you talk, the beavers' return is related to wolves, climate, water flows, a nearby reintroduced population or some combination of those factors. Whatever the case, it's another sign that at least a few mysteries remain in Yellowstone's complicated ecosystem. "None of these stories are black and white," said Tom Hobbs, a professor at Colorado State University who has conducted studies in Yellowstone for years.

Beavers, the largest rodent in North America, have had a long-running presence in Yellowstone. Records dating back to the late 1800s indicate that the population declined in the park and elsewhere as the fur trade grew. The population in Yellowstone bounced back a bit in the 1920s as beavers received protection from killing and aspen trees were abundant. By the 1950s, the population dipped again after beavers ate too far into the aspen supply.

In the meantime, wolves had been wiped out in Yellowstone in the early part of the century, and the elk population flourished. Without a top predator for 70 years, elk didn't have to move around as much, and spent much of their time eating willows and shrubs in low-lying river areas. Over the years, many theorized that elk were eating the landscape toward disaster, barely allowing sprouts to pop up before being devoured.

After wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995 and 1996, biologists noticed that elk, wary of the predator in their midst, spent more time moving around and less time munching at one spot. In turn, willows began to grow taller and thicker. And beavers had a chance to eat, thrive and build new colonies.

Granted there are still more studies needed, but Smith said it's hard to ignore the influence of Yellowstone's most recently returned predator. "The missing ingredient for a century has been wolves," Smith said.

Using an estimate of six beavers per colony - which may or may not be the case in Yellowstone - there are today perhaps 500 or so beavers in the park. Many are congregated in the vast Yellowstone River delta area southeast of Yellowstone Lake. But the most significant increases in the beaver population on the Northern Range have corresponded with high wolf density and willows growing tall for the first time in years.

Roy Renkin, a vegetation expert at Yellowstone, shades his opinion of the beavers' return more toward the influence of climate in recent years. He doesn't discount the influence of wolves, but says willows may be benefiting from warming climate conditions around Yellowstone that are extending the growing season. Renkin said one estimate shows the growing season starts 10 to 13 days earlier and ends 14 to 15 days later in a change that has coincided with the reintroduction of wolves.

The hypothesis is that as the growing season increases, plants are able to get sugars sooner and grow and then have energy left over to produce defensive chemicals that create an unpalatable taste for hungry elk. "This is a stimulating idea," Renkin said. "It gets away from the direct wolf effect and goes more to climate."

There's some historical data indicating that the beaver population may have fluctuated significantly in Yellowstone over hundreds of years with ties to changes in climate and riparian habitat, Renkin said. Both Smith and Renkin say the beavers' resurgence was also probably intensified by the reintroduction of beavers into the Gallatin National Forest not long before wolves were returned. Some of those beavers migrated downstream from the forest into Yellowstone.

Hobbs, the Colorado State professor, said beaver may also be responding to local conditions at particular streams and rivers in Yellowstone. Although how much they're eaten by elk is a key factor for growing willows, so is the amount of water that's flowing nearby. "Willows like to have their toes wet," Hobbs said. "Where water availability is low, then the willows may not be able to get big enough for beavers to come back."

Beavers, one of nature's great engineers, could be helping themselves, too. The more they slow the water down, the more water is available for willows, which means more food and lumber for beavers to survive. "So much of life out there depends on water," Smith said. "And they're the ones that create still water."

Like everything else, beavers in Yellowstone are probably on some kind of cycle, Smith said, who cautioned against making judgments about whether the beavers' resurgence is a good or bad thing. It just is, he said. And it's an intriguing chapter to watch as it unfolds.

Billings Gazette

New format for Ralph Maughan's Wildlife Reports

Ralph Maughan has launched a wonderful new website in a blog format with all the latest news from the frontlines of wildlife issues. The new blog looks great, is well organized, and allows readers to comment and ask questions. Add it to your favorites today!

Ralph Maughan's Wildlife Reports

Rare wolf pays visit to Utah, dies in trap

Discovery, second in Utah since '02, revives talk of recolonization

By Joe Baird - The Salt Lake Tribune

A second wolf has found its way into northern Utah. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that an adult gray wolf was found dead in a leghold trap on private land in the hills north of Tremonton, in Box Elder County. The 3-year-old male was discovered Sunday by a trapper who was contracted to do predator control work for the property owner. The wolf's remains have since been shipped to Ashland, Ore., where they are undergoing genetic tests to determine the animal's lineage.

"We think the little guy probably dispersed from the Yellowstone or central Idaho packs and wandered down," said Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Sharon Rose. "Once the [trapper] found the wolf, he called wildlife services. He was doing coyote management. He wasn't expecting to find a wolf."

The discovery of the endangered Canis lupis comes nearly four years after another wolf was found alive in a leghold trap in the mountains north of Morgan. It marked the first confirmed sighting of a wolf in the Beehive State in more than 70 years and started environmentalists and biologists pondering how to welcome wolves back to the state.

At the same time, the prospect alarmed ranchers and hunters. The debate led to a chain of events that culminated last year with creation of the state's first wolf management plan.

Back in November 2002, a second set of tracks was found at the scene, though it was never conclusively linked to another wolf. But the trapped wolf was quickly identified by its radio collar and eventually returned to its home with the Druid Pack in northeastern Yellowstone National Park.

The wolf found Sunday, which was grey with black flecks, had no collar or identifying tag. All evidence at the scene indicated the wolf was traveling alone. "There were no predations or previous sightings," Rose said. "All indications are that this was a lone individual."

Fish and Wildlife Service officials declined to comment further on the circumstances around the wolf's death, citing an ongoing investigation. Utah wildlife officials were not surprised by Sunday's discovery. In addition to the 2002 capture, two wolves that had preyed on sheep in the hills east of Bear Lake across the state line in Wyoming were shot and killed by federal Wildlife Service agents in March of 2003. And there have been numerous unconfirmed sightings of wolves in northern Utah dating back to 2000.

"This is why we created a wolf management plan - because we anticipate that they are going to start showing up," said Kevin Bunnell, mammals program coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The DWR, in conjunction with various interested groups, put together a wolf management plan in 2005 after a contentious series of meetings. Wolf advocates were unhappy with the final plan, arguing that ranchers were given too much leeway in when and how they could shoot wolves harassing their livestock.

The northern gray wolf is currently afforded federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, but Utah could conceivably take over wolf management in the future if the species reestablishes itself in the state. Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have all completed mandatory wolf management plans, though Wyoming's has been rejected by the Fish and Wildlife Service and is currently in litigation. Utah's plan is voluntary.

If wolves do attempt to resettle in Utah, it will probably be in the northern part of the state, given its proximity to the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. "You look at those corridors, and they are pretty logical routes that animals follow down into Morgan and Rich counties," said Phil Douglas, the DWR's outreach manager for the northern region.

Salt Lake Tribune

Wolves disrupt Navy's plans

They've made themselves at home in a N. Carolina site pegged for an airfield

BY BILL GEROUX - TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

"Definitely, it makes a difference that the wolves are now living here. Is the Navy going to ignore the Endangered Species Act?" Doris Morris spokeswoman for a group of residents against the Navy's planned airstrip

Biologists say at least six federally protected red wolves have taken up residence in a remote swath of North Carolina where the Navy is trying to build a practice airfield for its noisy Virginia Beach-based fighter jets.

Opponents of the planned airstrip in Washington and Beaufort counties say the wolves should prompt the Navy to look elsewhere. Navy spokesman Ted Brown would not comment last week, saying the Navy had yet to receive a formal report on the wolves' activities.

The Navy chose the airfield site in the boggy woods of northeastern North Carolina three years ago despite reports that red wolves roamed the area. Environmental groups have delayed the project with a lawsuit arguing that the Navy jets would disrupt hundreds of thousands of migratory swans and geese that spend winters at nearby national wildlife refuges.

The Navy wants a remote airfield where its jet pilots can simulate landings on aircraft carriers -- a repetitive and noisy exercise that now is conducted mostly around Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.

This year, suburban encroachment of Oceana prompted a federal base-closing commission to threaten to move Oceana's jets and 12,000 jobs to Jacksonville, Fla., until Jacksonville decided it did not want the jet noise and disruption.

Residents put up a fight

The Navy plans to buy 30,000 acres in the two rural counties, which are poor, lightly populated, and dominated by family farms and the swampy Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. But local residents have organized to fight the Navy. The descendants of farmers who cursed the red wolves for killing chickens now welcome the wolves as potential saviors from the roar of F/A-18 Super Hornets.

"Definitely, it makes a difference that the wolves are now living here," said Doris Morris, a spokeswoman for a group of residents against the outlying field. "Is the Navy going to ignore the Endangered Species Act?"

Derb S. Carter Jr., an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is involved in the federal lawsuit over the migratory birds, said the spread of the wolves into the site "is another fact that just emphasizes that this is an inappropriate place for what the Navy wants to do." It's also a potential legal issue, he said.

Red wolves, which have red-tinged fur, are the smallest of wolf species, with adults weighing 45 to 80 pounds. They are classified as an endangered species -- they were declared extinct in the wild in 1980 -- but they enjoy that level of protection only inside national parks and wildlife refuges.

It has taken nearly 20 years to rebuild the red wolf population in eastern North Carolina to 100, said Bud Fazio, who runs the red wolf recovery program for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, just west of the North Carolina Outer Banks. And the red wolf population still fluctuates. Since 2004, Fazio said, 25 red wolves have been killed in eastern North Carolina, most of them shot by property owners or struck by vehicles on rural highways.

Bringing back the red wolf will restore ecological balance to the area, Fazio said. Red wolves may take occasional chickens from farmers, but they provide a great service by thinning the populations of deer and destructive varmints such as nutria, he said.

Plan could drive wolves out

In the three years since the Navy chose its airfield site, Fazio said, red wolves have spread into that area and beyond, and two wolf dens have been established near the planned airfield.

A den just north of the airfield site is home to an adult pair of red wolves with three cubs, Fazio said. In a second den just off the end of the planned runway, a female red wolf has taken up with a coyote. Biologists have sterilized the coyote and plan to supplant him with a male red wolf when an opportunity arises, Fazio said.

Construction of the airfield probably would drive the wolves from both dens and into other wolves' territory, prompting a bloody conflict, Fazio said. Also, the jet noise could disrupt wolf packs throughout the area, drowning out the howling on which they rely for communication.

The Navy has spent much of the past year reassessing how an influx of Navy jets might affect the large flocks of migratory geese in the area. A federal judge found its first environmental assessment inadequate.

Brown, the Navy spokesman, said the Navy employed a biologist full-time at the site throughout the winter and will incorporate her findings. He said the Navy's updated assessment -- a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement -- will be released this fall. He said the Navy continues to prefer the site in Washington and Beaufort counties to several others in the region.

Richmond Times Dispatch

Environmentalists: Kill logging, not wolves

OTTAWA (CP) — Environmentalists are slamming a proposal to protect British Columbia’s dwindling population of mountain caribou by killing wolves and cougars. A report released Friday by B.C.-based Valhallah Wilderness Watch says the caribou are threatened with extinction because clearcut logging is eliminating their habitat, not because of predators. It says the cull, suggested in a background paper by the government’s species at risk co-ordination office, is misguided. The report says there are only 1,900 mountain caribou left, all of them in B.C. forests where they feed on lichen that grows on old-growth trees.

Colleen McCrory, a director of the environmental group, said the population could be extinct within 10 years unless current forestry practices change. "British Columbia has the world’s only mountain caribou and they’re on the verge of extinction," she said. "The populations are crashing, particularly in the southern part of the interior wet belt area." She called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to make protection of the caribou a priority.

Craig Pettitt, a wildlife biologist with Valhalla, said that of 18 mountain caribou herds, two have disappeared and five consist of fewer than 20 animals. All but one herd are in decline, he said. The mountain caribou are listed as threatened under the federal Species at Risk Act, but their habitat is on provincial land, which means the province has the lead in dealing with the issue.

Trish Hayes, a spokesman for the Canadian Wildlife Service, a federal agency, said the federal and B.C. governments are working together on a recovery plan to be completed next year. She said the prediction that the caribou will be extinct within 10 years is highly speculative and depends on precisely which population is being considered. Hayes declined to comment on proposals to protect the caribou by killing wolves and cougars, referring questions to the B.C. government. Provincial officials could not be reached Friday.

Rachel Plotkin of the Sierra Club of Canada said cull approach would drive wolves and cougars into the same predicament as the caribou.

The Chronicle Herald

Police Shoot Escaped Wolf

By: Michael Thomason

Madisonville Police killed a wolf Tuesday after it escaped from its cage on North Tellico Street. Sgt. Bill Bivins received the initial call but was busy with a funeral and called Animal Control Officer Conward Bivens. Bivens said the wolf belonged to Arie Miller but a neighbor said Miller was not at home and might have been in the process of moving.

Bivens said he approached the wolf and tried to calm it down, but each time he got closer the wolf bared its teeth. Bivens tried to entice the wolf back into its pen with food, but the wolf wouldn’t go.

Sgt. Bivins arrived on the scene and found two small dogs the wolf had killed. The neighbor also told Bivins the wolf had tried to bite her through the fence several times and she was worried the wolf was going to attack the animal control officer.

Bivins said when he walked around the back of the house Bivens was trying to calmly talk the wolf down but the animal finally bared its teeth and Bivens had to shoot it.

Bivens said he didn’t want to shoot the animal, but he was worried it might take off and endanger other people in the neighborhood.

There were no charges filed in the incident.

The Monroe County Advocate

Popular wolf thought dead, alive and well

KTVA

A Juneau-area wolf believed to have been shot dead recently is apparently alive and well. The Juneau Alpine Club says one of its members spotted the wolf, nicknamed Romeo. Romeo is well known in the Mendenhall Lake area for looking like it wants to play with dogs walking with their owners. But last year it killed an unleashed dog in the area.

An Alpine Club members says he saw Romeo in the Grandchild Peaks area on September 2nd. Romeo was seen again two days later. The wolf was seen following a hiker and his dog up a trail on Mount McGinnis trying to get the dog to play.

KTVA-TV

Isle Royale Wolves Becoming Less Fearful

By JOHN FLESHER

For campers at Isle Royale National Park, sighting a gray wolf is a rare and thrilling experience. At least, it has been. But some wolves have gotten a bit too familiar this summer, wandering into camping areas and showing little of their customary fear of people. No attacks or threatening behavior have been reported. But the close encounters prompted warnings to visitors not to feed the wolves.

"Wolves are wild animals and potentially dangerous like any wild animals," said Michigan Tech University biologist Rolf Peterson, who has studied wolves and moose on the Lake Superior island chain for more than 30 years. Wolves seldom target humans, although it's not unheard of, Peterson said Monday. In fact, a wolf attacked several people at Lake Superior Provincial Park in Ontario last week before the superintendent killed it. Such incidents could happen more often if wolves begin to identify people as a food source, Peterson said.

"The best thing is that they never associate us with a speck of food," said Phyllis Green, the Isle Royale superintendent.

Scientists believe wolves migrated to Isle Royale from Minnesota in the mid-1900s when the lake's surface was frozen. They found prey in the moose that had arrived a half-century earlier and smaller mammals such as beaver.

But beaver have mostly disappeared because of habitat loss resulting from changes in forest cover, Peterson said. So the wolves now have little to feed on except moose, whose numbers also have nose-dived recently. A census earlier this year counted about 450 moose - fewest in the 48 years biologists have monitored the relationship between the two species in Isle Royale's closed environment. Meanwhile, the wolf population was a healthy 30. Peterson predicts it will decline because of the food shortage, which likely is what's making them less fearful of humans. "They're very hungry this year," Peterson said.

Most of the sightings were early in the season, when people were beginning to occupy camping areas that had been vacant through the winter, Green said. The park is closed from November through mid-April. The boldest wolves belonged to what's known as the eastern pack, which has nine members. Some turned up near Rock Harbor, one of the most developed sections of the park and a docking site for ferryboats from the mainland.

"They were hunting (moose) calves in one of our campgrounds," Green said. "They were in there during broad daylight. One of them one time was chasing a fox."

In bygone days, "maybe one visitor in a thousand" would spot a wolf, Peterson said. "Now, when I give a talk to 50 people, there will be two or three in the audience that saw wolves."

Visitors are given a fact sheet advising them to properly stow food and garbage and to dump fish offal in deep water. Other words of wisdom: If you see a wolf, get away as quickly as possible but don't run. Don't follow or howl at them. If you come upon a moose carcass, don't hang around; wolves may be nearby even if you don't see them.

"People need to respect the dinner table," Green said. "If you're not invited, don't attend."

EDITOR'S NOTE - John Flesher is the AP correspondent in Traverse City and has covered environmental issues since 1992.

Forbes

Police investigate plot to release wolves back into wild in Scotland

ALISON HARDIE - SENIOR NEWS WRITER

IT HAS been more than 250 years since Scots were haunted by the howl of a wolf in the wild, but it may soon become commonplace again if a group of determined activists, calling themselves the Wild Beasts Trust, gets its way. Leading figures in the organisation plan to release wolves and possibly up to six lynxes from a property in the Borders back into the the wild.

A police investigation is now under way after forces on both sides of the Border warned the Wild Beasts Trust it would be breaking the law, which strictly prohibits the random release of such animals into the countryside.

Animal-welfare groups criticised the plan as a hazardous stunt that would potentially cause suffering to the wolves and lynxes, as well as native species and livestock. They point out that when activists recently broke into pens and released wild boar in Devon, the animals caused thousands of pounds' worth of damage to crops and livestock.

However, the Wild Beasts Trust prides itself for acting on the margins of the law and said it remained determined to go through with its plan. Spokesman Peter Clarke, a former Tory candidate and landowner who lives near Selkirk, claimed yesterday the trust's activities were "doing more for Scottish natural heritage than the organisation of the same name".

He added: "What we're doing is bringing the beasties back." Mr Clarke said the "Little Red Riding Hood" folk memory of the animals being dangerous was a myth and that farmers should not worry about their livestock would be eaten. The group's ultimate goal is to restore a host of species to the UK - including bison, wild bear and walrus as well as lynxes and wolves - whether it receives official government approval or has to act illegally.

Northumbria Police, which said it is investigating the claims, and Lothian and Borders Police, confirmed yesterday the move would break several laws and warned the group it would be committing a serious offence. The rural affairs department of the Scottish Executive warned that releasing animals such as lynxes and wolves into the countryside would be illegal.

But Mr Clarke claimed the benefits of reintroducing various recently- extinct species would be numerous. Most accounts say the last wild wolf in Scotland was killed on the upper reaches of the River Findhorn in 1743. Mr Clarke said: "Everyone has Little Red Riding Hood in their mental furniture, but that is far from the reality. I have been to places on the continent where they have wolves, and a wolf would prefer to eat a hare, a rabbit or a vole than a sheep."

Colin Galbraith, of Scottish Natural Heritage, said: "Anyone releasing animals, such as the lynx, into the wild in Scotland without a licence would not only be breaking the law, but would also be demonstrating a lack of appreciation towards the animals' welfare."

Meanwhile, Richard Dodd, of the Countryside Alliance, said the plan by the Wild Beasts Trust was a "ludicrous idea". He went on: "Wolves are dangerous animals. What happens if they start killing children or farmers' livestock?"

Dr David Hetherington, who studied at Aberdeen University the potential benefits of reintroducing lynxes into the wild, said: "We need to look here at what has happened in Europe when reintroduction of lynxes have been carried out clandestinely. These exercises tend to fail because there has been no communication with local communities who inevitably feel threatened by the animals and consequently shoot or snare them."

Scotsman

Our Eastern wolves not endangered — so far

Estimates of their numbers might be widely off the mark

CAMERON SMITH - Toronto Star

I defy anyone who spots what appears to be an Eastern wolf in the woods to say whether it is a hybrid — part wolf, part coyote — or a full-blooded, genetically pure wolf. And this raises the question: Does it matter what it is? It certainly matters to those concerned with species at risk, because the Eastern wolf is designated as a species of special concern (sensitive to human activities and natural events). If population estimates are off, it could mean that the wolf is far more endangered than suspected.

Just how inaccurate estimates can be is illustrated by efforts in the United States to save the red wolf, a kissing cousin of the Eastern wolf and claimed by some to be the same species, long separated from its northern counterpart. The red wolf once roamed throughout the forests of eastern North America, but by the 1960s, only a scant handful remained, isolated in a three-county area of coastal marshes in southeastern Texas and in an equally small area of forest in north-central Louisiana. They had been hunted relentlessly, their habitat had been destroyed, and they had hybridized with coyotes until almost no true wolves were left.

The trouble was, the hybrids, there and elsewhere, looked like wolves, and no one realized until it was almost too late that the red wolf was almost extinct. In 1973, a wolf recovery program was established by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Karen Lockyear, who is completing her PhD at York University on the reproductive biology of red wolves, points out that under the U.S. effort, 400 wolves were captured between 1974 and 1980 to form the core of a breeding program.
However, of them, only 43 were not hybrids, and of those, only 14 were not inbred and had enough of the classic characteristics of the red wolf to qualify. In other words, when all those that looked like wolves were tested, only 3.5 per cent were actually true wolves with solid genetics.

A ratio such as this can't be directly applied to Ontario's Eastern wolves because their situation is not as extreme. They aren't as totally surrounded and outnumbered by coyotes as were the few remaining red wolves. Nevertheless, the figures send out a warning signal loud and clear that the extent of hybridization in Ontario may be far greater than anyone expects, especially since coyotes have expanded their territories so widely. They now can be found as far north as Red Lake in Ontario and Whitehorse in Yukon.

So, the estimate of the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) that there are 900 to 1,600 Eastern wolves in Ontario may be way off. What if there are only 500? Brent Patterson, an MNR field research scientist, says population estimates are calculated from aircraft surveys, trapping and hunting reports, and data from those wolves that are fitted with radio collars and tracked. But it's at best an inexact science, he acknowledges.

He wrestles with the question of which is more important: to preserve the genetic purity of Eastern wolves, or to let natural selection take its course? If a hybrid turns out to function better in the wild as a top predator, would that be a good thing?
I'm not sure which side to take in Patterson's dilemma. However, I am sure of one thing: Allowing the continued hunting of wolves outside the protected areas of Algonquin Park and its outlying townships is simply stupid. If we don't really know how many Eastern wolves there are and their survival is already a concern, why do we allow any hunting at all?

Toronto Star

Wild wolves again might be at home in Oregon

Protected species - Biologists will try to confirm signs that wolves are back decades after being eradicated

MICHAEL MILSTEIN - The Oregonian

Biologists will set up remote cameras in the Wallowa Mountains east of La Grande next week in hopes of verifying a series of wolf sightings and other signs that protected gray wolves have moved into Oregon. The sightings include one report in mid-August from a local hunter who reported two adult wolves with two pups. If accurate, that suggests the species might have reproduced in Oregon for the first time since it was exterminated decades ago to make the range safe for livestock.

A team of biologists checking out the report saw what looked like a wolf through a spotting scope at a distance of about a mile, said Russ Morgan, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's wolf coordinator based in La Grande. They also found tracks and older droppings that might have been left by a wolf in the same area along the upper reaches of the Minam River, in the remote and rugged Eagle Cap Wilderness, he said. Another report included a videotape of what looked like a wolf in Wallowa County in late July. Wolf experts who viewed the videotape said it had all the characteristics of a wild wolf, Morgan said.

Looking for more evidence

He emphasized that it would take stronger evidence, such as a close-up sighting, photograph, signs of predation or other physical proof, to confirm the presence of wolves in the state. But he said the mounting reports point in that direction.

"We're getting to the point where it sure appears we may have wild wolves in northeast Oregon," he said. "But as biologists, we want to be certain about that."

Biologists have long expected that wolves reintroduced to Central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in 1995 would spread into Oregon as they multiply. The Idaho wolf population numbered about 500 at the beginning of this year, with packs living just across the state line from Oregon. Some animals appear to have left those packs in the last year and might have headed west. "It's not a surprise that we would start to see wolves naturally disperse into Oregon," Morgan said.

Three wolves have entered Oregon since 1999. One was removed, another killed by a car and the third illegally shot, but biologists said more probably would follow. Wolves in Oregon are protected by federal and state law, and there are no plans to remove them.

A state wolf management plan approved last year sets a goal of four breeding pairs of wolves each in Eastern Oregon and Western Oregon. It also calls for biologists to keep track of wolves in the state.

Oregon wildlife officials have stepped up monitoring for wolves in the past few years, but the recent reports are the most tantalizing so far. State biologists next week will set up scent stations with the goal of drawing wolves into an area where they would leave tracks or trigger motion-activated cameras to take their picture, Morgan said.

If biologists can confirm wolves are present, the next step would be to capture and fit the animals with radio collars so they can be more easily monitored, he said. Wolves sighted recently might be just passing through, especially if they are traveling alone, Morgan said. If some have taken up residence in mountains of eastern Oregon, biologists expect to find abundant signs such as tracks, fresh scat and rendezvous sites where packs gather.

"Certainly they've seen signs suggesting wolves are there," said Ron Anglin, head of state's wildlife division. "But we do not have hard concrete evidence of that yet."

The isolated Eagle Cap Wilderness might be a place wolves could survive in Oregon without serious conflicts with livestock, biologists said. However, the animals are known to roam long distances.

Wolves are protected by both the federal Endangered Species Act and Oregon's own state Endangered Species Act. It is illegal to shoot wolves even if they are seen attacking livestock. Only federal authorities may control wolves that injure livestock.

Oregon's wildlife agency has applied to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a permit that would allow state officials also to control wolves that repeatedly go after livestock. The state management plan calls for first using nonlethal methods to scare or drive wolves away from livestock. The conservation group Defenders of Wildlife is protesting the permit application.

Morgan has met with local ranchers to fill them in on the recent wolf sightings, he said. Authorities also have posted signs at trailheads around the Eagle Cap Wilderness advising hunters to be sure they do not accidentally shoot a wolf thinking it's a coyote.

The Oregonian

Black Mountain woman works with wolves

by Lindsay Nash, lnash@citizen-times.com

Name: Nancy Brown.

Age: Today is her 50th birthday.

Residence: Black Mountain.

Family: Three children — a son in Greensboro, a daughter in Germany and another daughter in Brown’s hometown of Toledo, Ohio.

Occupation: Owner and founder of Full Moon Farm, a nonprofit sanctuary for abused and refused captive-bred wolves and wolf dogs.

Job description: Brown takes care of the 84 wolves at the facility, feeding them, cleaning up after them, and working to rehabilitate and enrich the animals.

The facility does not adopt out the wolves like a dog rescue, Brown explained. They do not have a state shelter license that would place restrictions on the facility, which is not in the best interest of the animals, Brown said. But they do offer lifetime foster agreements, where the facility retains ownership of the wolf dogs.

Education/training: Brown went to an agricultural school in Ohio, but she left to get married and work at a horse farm. Later, she and her now ex-husband started breeding dogs but began running into problems with purebreds and turned to wolf dogs.

“We were looking for a healthier animal, and found the wolf dog,” she said.

Salary: Because the farm is a nonprofit, Brown receives no salary. The farm runs on her volunteer work, as well as the work of several other volunteers — many who come from Warren Wilson College’s service program.

For her “real job,” Brown works as a real estate agent for Mountain Vista Properties in Black Mountain.

What exactly is a wolf dog? Wolf dogs are any canines with wolf heritage in the last five generations, Brown said. “They’re just tremendously misunderstood,” Brown said. “The big bad wolf is a myth, a fallacy. They are timid by nature, not dangerous.”

Favorite part of job: “Watching an abused animal blossom into a real animal learning to trust again,” she said. “A good majority of them have been abused. And abuse can be termed as neglect.”

Least favorite part of job: Dealing with dog dumpers, she said. “In the rescue business, it’s not an animal problem, it’s a people problem … Wolf dogs aren’t for everyone. It’s a matter of education.”

Favorite outdoor activity: Working with wolves, especially the more social ones, the ones that have people skills. “I love being able to take them out for a good hike in the woods.”

Favorite spot in WNC: “My own property,” she said of the 17-acre farm.

What she finds meaningful about the job: “The opportunity to make a difference in either the dog’s life or a human’s life,” she said. “I like working with animal control and having them learn and see firsthand that their image of a dangerous dog is wrong.”

“I am pro-education and pro-licensing, but to outright ban a breed because of what they are is saying that all kids that wear baggy pants are gangsters.”

Learn more: Brown is hosting a “Howl-In” with a barbecue potluck at 5 p.m. today at the farm. It’s $5 per person, with proceeds going to the care of the wolf dogs. Full Moon Farm provides the meat and the drinks, and each guest is asked to bring a side dish or dessert. Learn about the animals, the farm, and hear the wolves howl under the full moon. Call 669-1818.

On the Net: www.fullmoonfarm.org

Ashevill Citizen Times

Idaho rancher loses 34 sheep to wolves

124 others missing, says Weiser man

BOISE (AP) - A sheep rancher in Central Idaho said 34 lambs and ewes were killed by wolves and he's missing another 124 animals he fears also fell victim to the predators. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has authorized federal trappers to shoot two wolves, or half the new Lick Creek pack, made up of four to five adult or sub-adult wolves. It may be establishing itself in a rugged, mountainous area of spruce and red fir on U.S. Forest Service territory just southeast of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area.

Rancher Ron Shirts, a 39-year-old Weiser resident, said he began finding dead sheep from his flock of 1,000 ewes and 1,500 lambs starting Aug. 26 after noticing many were missing when he began collecting them to be sold.

Idaho reintroduced the predator to its central mountains starting in 1995 and now has an estimated 600 wolves. They sometimes attack sheep and cattle, in addition to wildlife including deer and elk. Control actions aren't uncommon: In 2004, the state's largest wolf pack at the time, with nine members, was exterminated after authorities said it killed more than 100 sheep near McCall in Central Idaho.

"This is the first wreck we've had," said Shirts, who has grazed sheep north of the towns of Weiser and Payette along U.S. Highway 95 for 25 years. Herders found half-eaten carcasses scattered across a mountainside overgrown with trees and brush. "You might walk a couple hundred yards, find three or four more," Shirts said. "There were enough there, you had to keep hunting them down. The killing had to have gone on for a long time." Shirts said he wants Idaho to kill the entire pack, not just two wolves.

But Steve Nadeau, the statewide large carnivore manager for Idaho Fish and Game, said his agency is still trying to determine how many wolves were involved in the attacks. Though Idaho in January assumed day-to-day control of wolves in the central part of the state, the animals are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act and control actions must be justified, Nadeau said. "If you can get two animals returning to the carcasses, your chances of catching offending animals are pretty good," Nadeau said. "We'll continue to remove as many wolves as necessary to control the conflict, until the killing is done."

In all of 2005, 27 wolves were killed legally by officers and ranchers, with about that number already killed in 2006. In 2005, federal wildlife agents investigated 93 rancher complaints, with wolves confirmed or suspected of having killed 181 sheep, 18 calves, six cows and 11 dogs. That compares to 2003, when wolves were blamed for killing 118 sheep, 13 calves and six dogs. Every year, thousands of sheep also fall victim to coyotes, Nadeau said, adding last week in Eastern Idaho, a black bear caused the deaths of about 100 sheep. Shirts will be compensated for losses, Nadeau said.

Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation group that maintains a fund for ranchers hit by wolf predation, has paid out nearly $700,000 since 1987. It covers 100 percent of market value of confirmed wolf kills, and 50 percent of probable wolf kills. And the Idaho Office of Species of Conservation has a separate $100,000 annual fund, which covers the remaining 50 percent of probable kills, Nadeau said.

Idaho and Montana, with federally approved wolf management plans, are pushing the U.S. Interior Department to remove federal wolf protections in the two states, but the agency has so far balked because neighboring Wyoming's management plan is mired in legal battles.

Capital Press

Heed lessons from 1960s island wolves

NED ROZELL - ALASKA SCIENCE

The killing of wolves to boost moose and caribou populations in Alaska has made headlines all over the country. Back in 1960, a government program to stock an Alaska island with wolves received less attention.

Alaska had been a state for one year when its Department of Fish and Game conducted a wolf-planting experiment on Coronation Island in Southeast. The remote 45-square-mile island exposed to the open Pacific had a high density of black-tailed deer and no wolves. In 1960, biologists from Fish and Game released two pairs of wolves on the island.

The experiment was the only wolf-stocking effort undertaken in Alaska and probably the whole world at that time, said Dave Klein, a professor emeritus with the University of Alaska's Institute of Arctic Biology. Klein, who had studied deer on the island, helped the state make the decision to introduce wolves there:

"Alaska had just become a state and you had a brand new Department of Fish and Game staffed with young biologists who wanted to do things based on biology rather than a mix of politics and science. It'd be much more difficult to do it now."

In 1960, Fish and Game biologists released the two male and two female wolves at Egg Harbor on Coronation. Before they left, they shot five deer to provide food for the wolves.

Biologist Paul Garceau visited the island in May 1961 and found tracks, deer remains and wolf scats containing deer hair and bones, showing that the wolves had adapted to life on the island. Two months later, a commercial fisherman shot the two adult female wolves, but Garceau saw tracks of wolf pups on the island when he returned later that summer. The females had given birth before they died and the pups had survived.

In 1964, Fish and Game biologist Harry Merriam explored for eight days and saw 11 adult wolves and the tracks of two pups. He estimated that at least 13 wolves lived on the island and three litters of young had been born since the first wolves arrived.

The next summer, Merriam spent 10 days there, seeing wolf tracks on all beaches. He saw no sign of deer on the north side of the island but found deer tracks on the steep slopes of the south side, where rough terrain and dense brush may have provided the best chance to escape wolves.

In February 1966, Merriam saw only three wolves on the island, and their tracks suggested they were the only ones left. He examined more than 100 wolf scats; six of those contained wolf remains only, suggesting the animals had resorted to cannibalism. Deer remains in the scats were less than one-half of the previous spring; fragments of birds, seals, sea creatures and small mammals constituted the rest.

In August that year, Merriam and his partners collected seven wolf scats, compared to 201 a year before. They found just three sets of fresh deer tracks. By 1968, one wolf remained on the island. Biologists who inventoried the island's animals in 1983 found no evidence of wolves, but the deer were once again plentiful.

Alaska's only wolf-stocking experiment taught biologists the importance of habitat size. They concluded that a 45-square-mile island was too small for both deer and wolves. The study also showed that a lot of factors play into the dynamics of a wild animal population, which is a point Klein said many people miss in current arguments about wolf control.

"The relationship between wolves and their prey is very complex," he said. "Sometimes wolves are the key predators of caribou or moose, sometimes bears. Sometimes severe weather is the main factor, sometimes food availability.

"The main problem with these kinds of controversies is people are unwilling to look at the complexity of the ecosystems involved. Things are not simple in nature."

Anchorage Daily News

Rule delisting wolves in Idaho, Montana imminent?

By JOHN MILLER - Associated Press writer

BOISE, Idaho -- A rule to lift federal Endangered Species Act protections from gray wolves in most of Idaho and Montana but not Wyoming could be made public by winter, state and federal officials say. The ruling would help clear the way for controlled hunts of the predators that have thrived in the northern Rocky Mountains since their 1995 reintroduction.

Wyoming, unlike Montana and Idaho, hasn't won approval for its management plan. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn't agree its plan is adequate to keep wolves from going extinct again.

Under the ESA, all three states normally would have to have such plans, before protections are lifted. Still, there's concern Wyoming's plan will be tied up in court for years.

As a result, the U.S. Interior Department, led by Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, is "seriously considering" alternatives suggested last year by Kempthorne while he was Idaho governor, and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, "that would reward states that are doing good jobs at management and have plans in place," said Ed Bangs, Fish and Wildlife's gray wolf recovery coordinator in Helena, Mont. "We can only wait so long," Bangs said. "It's time to move forward. We think a viable option could be delisting by state."

The rule may also include eastern Oregon and Washington and a small part of northern Utah, Bangs said, though wolves haven't settled there.

Once a rule is introduced, it would take months for public comment -- or potential lawsuits. Protections wouldn't be lifted on wolves north of U.S. Interstate 90 in Idaho and Montana, which are listed as endangered.

Fish and Wildlife estimates gray wolves in the northern Rockies now number more than 900, with 600 wolves in central Idaho, up from just 35 introduced in 1995 and 1996. Montana has about 170, and Wyoming has about 250.

As a plan to delist wolves in Idaho and Montana takes shape, wolf advocates are concerned. "In the past, Fish and Wildlife has rejected the idea (of delisting by state), because at that point, it did not match the intention of the Endangered Species Act," said Suzanne Stone, a spokeswoman for Defenders of Wildlife, which has reimbursed ranchers $700,000 for wolf-related livestock losses over 10 years. "Our question will be, if it wasn't legal earlier, why is it legal now?" she said.

Her group would oppose a delisting area that includes Oregon, Washington and Utah until there are actually wolves there -- along with management plans to protect them. Stone also fears once Idaho assumes control, the state could eliminate many of its 59 existing packs, because it's only required to manage for 15 packs.

In July, Fish and Wildlife reiterated it can't lift protections from Wyoming wolves until the state sets firm limits on how many can be killed and agrees to a minimum population. The state responded in August by saying it would sue.

Meanwhile, calls for delisting are growing stronger in Idaho, where ranchers fear wolves are killing their livestock, hunters complain the predators hurt big game populations of elk and deer, and Gov. Jim Risch calls wolves a "nuisance." This week, a rancher near the Hells Canyon National Recreation area said he suspects wolves have killed as many as 158 of his sheep in the last week.

Jeff Allen, policy adviser for the Idaho Office of Species Conservation in Boise, said he "wouldn't be surprised to see a (proposed federal) rule shortly." "Personally, I'm as optimistic as I've been in years, about the potential for delisting," Allen said, adding Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall told Idaho and Montana recently that he's showing proposals to the U.S. Department of Justice, "to get its solicitors comfortable with the notion of delisting by state."

In the northern Midwest, Fish and Wildlife is also hoping finalize a rule soon to remove federal protections from wolves in habitat spanning Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Caspet Star-Tribune

Lethal option off table for Michigan wolf control

By JOHN PEPIN, Journal Staff Writer

MARQUETTE — Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials have again resorted to a range of hazing techniques to deal with problem wolves, after federal officials recently curtailed the state’s ability to use lethal means of control. Earlier this year, Michigan and Wisconsin were issued damage control permits by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to use lethal measures to remove wolves depredating livestock.

But a recent federal court decision, granting a preliminary injunction to stop Wisconsin’s lethal control, has resulted in the Fish and Wildlife Service removing Michigan’s ability as well. “We still have the permit, but they took away the lethal control portion,” said Brian Roell, statewide wolf coordinator with the DNR in Marquette.

Gray wolves are currently federal endangered species and threatened species under Michigan law. Permits for managing endangered species are provided for under the Endangered Species Act. Under the wolf damage control program, permits are issued to the state, with control actions carried out by the DNR or USDA Wildlife Services, acting as an agent of the state. Under the federal permit, Michigan had been allowed to kill a maximum of 40 wolves until the permit expired in Dec. 31.

Since May, the state had killed seven wolves in Ontonagon and Iron counties. Officials had killed wolves when attempts to scare them off with numerous hazing devices ranging from shining bright lights to firing loud “cracker” shells had failed. Under the federal permit, wolves were only able to be killed after numerous conditions were met — ranging from verification wolves were involved in depredation to a conclusion being drawn that depredation at the site is likely to continue in the immediate future.

“Lethal control is one of those important things in the tool box we just don’t have anymore,” Roell said.

Meanwhile, state officials are concerned some citizens might begin killing problem wolves on their own. “That’s always a concern,” Roell said. “When they see that their state agency has been taken away a tool that we could use to control depredation, it certainly does open that door.”

Michigan currently has at least 434 wolves in the Upper Peninsula, up from an estimated 405 wolves counted in 2005. Since 1989, wolf populations have risen every year expect in 1997, when a small decline was noted.

Roell said the DNR wants those with wolf depredation problems to continue to contact the state for help. “We still have options and we’re trying to work with what we have,” Roell said.

Currently, state officials were not sure whether the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service planned to appeal the court injunction or wait as a separate process to take the wolf off endangered and threatened species lists in the Great Lakes Region continues. If that status shift was to occur for wolves, lethal control measures would again likely be allowed because the wolf would no longer be an endangered species.

Roell said he thinks the judge issuing the injunction based the decision on the fact the wolf is an endangered species and not the science behind the situation, documented by state officials. “To me, the judge didn’t look at any reports that the state wrote,” Roell said.

State and federal officials expect more lawsuits against using lethal control, even if the wolf is delisted.

The Mining Journal

NO-OLF lets red wolves take up the fight in North Carolina

Navy practice pad would ‘jeopardize species,’ lawyers say

By NIKIE MAYO, Staff Writer

The latest force in the fight against the proposed outlying landing field for the border of Washington and Beaufort counties is an entity that can’t speak: endangered red wolves that roam Site C and the neighboring proposed site in Hyde County.

“Several packs of endangered red wolves now inhabit two of the Navy’s proposed (OLF) sites in northeastern North Carolina, including the Navy’s preferred site,” reads a press release from the Southern Environmental Law Center. The Chapel Hill-based firm handles the case against the Navy’s proposed OLF, representing groups such as the National Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife and the N.C. Wildlife Federation.

“Consequently, if the Navy plans to proceed with the project, it must formally consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and take no action that will jeopardize the species’ continued existence,” the firm’s release states.

The Navy plans to put a concrete practice pad, which would be used to train its pilots, on Site C. The project encompasses 33,000 acres. The bulk of the acreage is in Washington County, and about 5,000 acres are on Beaufort County’s tax books. The land is about halfway between military air bases in Cherry Point and Virginia Beach, Va.

At least eight red wolves — from three packs — have made Site C their hunting ground since the Navy’s first environmental impact statement about the proposed OLF was prepared, according to the firm. “One pack has made the site its exclusive home and one den with three pups was located within the site off the northern end of the proposed runway,” according to SELC’s release.

Red wolves were reintroduced in eastern North Carolina in the late 1980s. They had been declared extinct in the wild in 1980.

“This (discovery) is significant new information that bears directly on the Navy’s preferred site. ... The Navy must thoroughly analyze impacts to these red-wolf populations in the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement,” SELC attorney Derb Carter said.

Navy spokesman Ted Brown was mum on whether the wolves would impact the Navy’s plans at Site C.

“We’ve received the press release from the SELC, but we’ve not received anything yet from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” Brown said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “It would be inappropriate to comment until we receive something from our cooperating agency,” he said.

The Navy is preparing the court-ordered SEIS related to putting an OLF in the region.

“We’re still tracking for fall,” Brown said.

Washington Daily News

Wolves kill 13 dogs being trained for Wisconsin's bear hunt

Associated Press

SPOONER, Wis. — The state is warning bear hunters about the danger of training dogs for the hunt in four northern Wisconsin areas that include parts of eight counties, after wolves killed 13 dogs and injured four others in the past two months. According to the Department of Natural Resources, most of the incidents happened when dogs being trained for bear hunting entered the rendezvous sites where wolves were raising pups.

Wolves are extremely defensive of pups at those sites and will attack dogs or other predators that get too close, according to Adrian Wydevan, a DNR biologist. Wolves use the sites in raising their young from June through late September.

The DNR said one caution area includes parts of Lincoln, Taylor and Marathon counties, another is in parts of Bayfield and Douglas counties, a third is in Marinette County and the other is in Sawyer and Rusk counties.

The caution areas are posted on the DNR Web site.

DNR: http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

When a wolf strikes, it's no picnic

Holiday weekend ends in chaos as animal attacks families at Northern Ontario beach

HAYLEY MICK

Brenda Wright says she and her two children had just eaten their turkey sandwiches and settled onto their beach towels when the horror began. Her son, Casey, 12, noticed a black, dog-like animal running across the Northern Ontario beach where the family was enjoying the last day of summer vacation. In a sudden and unrelenting attack, the animal ripped into Casey's buttock, tore his mother's hands and leg, and bloodied his 14-year-old sister's scalp, lunging after the family of six as they fled screaming into Lake Superior.

"I was trying to fight him off and he grabbed my finger. I thought he pulled it off. . . . Honest to God, it looks like hamburger meat," Ms. Wright said yesterday from her mother's home in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Ms. Wright's family was not the only one to face the 33-kilogram wolf. The attacks Monday by one Canis lupus ended with the animal dead and six people, including a three-year-old girl, bloodied, torn and terrified.

For Jerry and Rachel Talbot, it started at around 4 p.m. The Wawa, Ont., couple, on their way to a wedding in Sudbury with granddaughters Leah, 3, and Madison, 5, pulled off of Highway 17 for a quick swim at a popular day picnic area in Lake Superior Provincial Park. According to park staff, more than a dozen others were enjoying the end of the Labour Day weekend at Katherine's Cove when the Talbot family wandered onto the beach and began to remove their shoes.

Mr. Talbot noticed a black animal chasing a girl across the sand. Too slow for the girl, the animal veered off and grabbed a slower, smaller target: Leah. It clamped its jaws around the blond toddler's left upper arm and began dragging her away from her grandmother and sister, said Leah's mother, Josee Morgan, who told the story yesterday from Marathon, Ont. The girl was dragged about six metres before the wolf dropped her on her back, startled by the shrieks of her grandparents and those who had jumped in to help.

"[Leah] started to run, but she was in sand and she was in shock and all that, that she couldn't get her feet going," Ms. Morgan said yesterday. The wolf grabbed the hood of the little girl's black jacket. This time, Ms. Talbot's advances and screams caused the wolf to drop the girl momentarily and Ms. Talbot lunged forward, scooped up the child and raced to her vehicle. Mr. Talbot and Madison were close behind.

The attack on the Wright family occurred on Bathtub Island, a large rocky area within wading distance of the mainland and about 100 metres south of Katherine's Cove. Ms. Wright, on a day trip with her sister-in-law, two children and their cousins, aged 10 and 13, said her family was probably attacked first. (Park officials say they aren't sure about the order of the attacks.)

She said the animal nipped the ankle of her 13-year-old nephew, Jake, then clamped down on her son's buttock, carrying him about half a metre before dropping him and lunging at her. The wolf's teeth tore into her hands and her leg as she fought back and the group raced into the shallow swimming area. Ms. Wright said the wolf followed them, this time going after Emily Wright, 14. "[Emily] was a real fighter. . . . She got mostly claws in her head and her arm," her mother said.

Alerted by the screams, two strangers raced over and managed to scare off the wolf. As families hid in the trees, the wolf returned minutes later and rifled through their picnic stashes, Ms. Wright said. Park superintendent Bill Elliott, a 17-year veteran of the park and seasoned hunter, was alerted by two other visitors who rushed over from Bathtub Island. He said a woman was bitten in a third incident Monday.

At about 6:30 p.m. Monday, Mr. Elliott shot the wolf twice on Highway 17, about a kilometre north of where Leah had been attacked. The wolf's head has been sent to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Ottawa, where it will be tested for rabies. Mr. Elliott said that the young, full-grown male was limping, possibly from an older injury caused by a vehicle.

Brent Patterson, a scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, said that wolves, who generally travel in packs and who prey on moose and beavers in Ontario, rarely attack or even show themselves to humans. "It is abnormal behaviour for a wolf to be fearless," he said. Wolves who attack people are usually sick or injured, he said. According to the ministry, there have been few instances in Canada where wolves have bitten people; no one has ever been killed by a wolf attack in North America.

Yesterday, Leah was recovering with her family in Wawa. She belted out You Are My Sunshine in hospital after getting 15 butterfly clips in her arm and told a local reporter: "When I was on the beach going to the water, a wolf bit my arm, and then I cried." The attack hasn't fazed her, her mother said. "She's smiling. She knows something happened, though, because she'll often say 'I love you, I love you.' "

As for Ms. Wright and her children, who all have stitches and various puncture wounds, the shock has not worn off. "You continue to see this wolf's face and you relive it. . . . I think it's going to take some time," Ms. Wright said.

Globe and Mail

Friend of the wolves- Arctic wolves in Oregon

Coastal sanctuary provides home for those rescued from illegal captivity

By THERESA HOGUE - Corvallis Gazette-Times

TIDEWATER - Wolves sometimes trigger primordial fears in humans, with their eerily piercing eyes and heart-wrenching howls. On the other end of the spectrum, humans sometimes forget that wolves aren’t tame dogs with which to frolic.

The six purebred Arctic wolves that live at the White Wolf Sanctuary in Tidewater have never experienced the freedom of their northern cousins. Born illegally into captivity, their histories are varied but equally sad, from Ventana and Nepenthe, who were destined to be slaughtered and turned into fur collars at age 6 months, to Havoc, who was being intimidated by his owner, who used a crowbar to make him cow.

Throughout the years, these wolves have made their way into the care of Lois Tulleners White, who says they have turned from fearful sad creatures into joyous, humor-filled scalawags. “All these wolves were born in captivity and were in dangerous situations,” White said. Without the skills to hunt and survive in the wild, re-entry into native habitat is impossible. These wolves will have to remain confined for their lives, but White is making that confinement as pleasant and as natural as she can.

White first fell in love with wolves 23 years ago, when her boyfriend adopted a wolf-canine hybrid. She was at first fearful of the hybrid, but learned to love him, and through him learned about wolf behavior. Long after the boyfriend departed and the hybrid became her canine companion, White began working at wolf sanctuaries in California, and began dreaming of the day when she could open her own sanctuary, and help some of the captive wolves she knew needed rescuing.

“I just became obsessed, and realized they are the most persecuted animals on Earth,” she said. “I started volunteering to do anything around the wolves. I’d pick up scat and was thrilled. I left my other career and gradually got more and more into it.”

White left behind a job making exercise equipment as well as a life as a musician, and threw her whole attention toward wolves. “I guess if you live long enough you can have several careers,” she said with a laugh.

Eight years ago, White found the perfect location for her sanctuary, 45 acres nestled in the Oregon Coast Range, surrounded by national forest and far away from neighbors who wouldn’t like the sound of wolves howling all night. “We have wonderful howling choruses between the wolves and the coyotes at night,” she said.

The sanctuary can only be reached by a two-mile, one-lane gravel road with a locked gate. At the top of the property are the enclosures, each holding one of three pairs of Arctic wolves. The pairs include clowning Odot and his shy sister Journey; lazy Havoc and his cautious mate Willow; and smiling Nepenthe and his regal sister Ventana. Willow is the newest arrival.

On Easter Sunday, White’s first and oldest wolf, Kyenne, passed away. White keeps the group at six wolves, just enough to stretch her resources and not crowd the enclosures, which each include enough acreage for them to run at full bore.

The wolves are not altered, as that would change their scent and cause the other wolves to attack them. Instead, during the brief period of estrus in February, the males and females are briefly separated to prevent more little wolves from appearing. Because Arctic wolves are an endangered species, White said, someday scientists may wish to breed her wolves, but for now she’s keeping them pupless.

The reason one of the wolves is named Odot is because of the relationship the sanctuary has with the state Department of Transportation and other agencies. White has a permit that allows her to harvest deer and elk road kills from nearby highways to use as part of the wolves’ diet. “The dead deer make up about 10 percent of the wolves’ daily diet, and the ongoing partnership between ODOT and the White Wolf Sanctuary has inspired similar cooperative efforts between the sanctuary and other state agencies,” notes ODOT’s Web site.

White makes sure the wolves rotate through their various, expansive enclosures so they don’t get bored with their surroundings, and each enclosure has ponds, trees and wolf houses for lounging.

Oddly enough, she said, the wolves’ favorite possessions are their blankets. “They use them for tug of war; they’ll put their meat on them. The only place they won’t take them is in their houses,” she said. “Ventana and Nepenthe have a game I call the magic carpet ride. Nepenthe will lay down on the blanket, and Ventana will grab it and pull him around the habitat and give him a free ride.”

The sanctuary operates solely on donations. Volunteers help staff the sanctuary. Visitors are welcome and help provide donations to run the sanctuary, and wolf education is a crucial part of White’s program. However, visitors are not allowed within the wolf enclosures, as any bite, however minor, from a wolf, would mean that the wolf would have to be killed, and the sanctuary shut down. A locked gate across the sanctuary’s only entrance also prevents strangers from interfering with the wolves or allowing them to escape.

White lives on the property within view of the enclosures and seldom leaves. Vacation isn’t a concept that she embraces anymore. “A volunteer asked me last week, ‘If you could go anywhere you could choose, where would you go?’ and I said, ‘Here.’ I traveled a lot when I was young, so I’m pretty much done,” she said. “I’m pretty happy with my plight.”

Corvallis Gazette-Times

Tristan Howls at Wolf Park

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