Wolf Saga

Tracking seminar offered this weekend

2006-12-06T21:46:00.000-06:00

By JOHN PEPIN, Journal Munising Bureau

MUNISING — The first of three upcoming seminars on wildlife tracking skills will be offered this weekend in Munising.

Expert wildlife tracker Jim Halfpenny, PhD. will be the instructor for the two-day Munising seminar, which features both indoor and outdoor instruction. The emphasis of the professional level sessions is on reading trails to understand animals behavior and ecology.

The program is being offered by the Timber Wolf Alliance of Northland College’s Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute of Ashland, Wis. The day-long Munising sessions will begin at 8 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Express on Saturday and Sunday. Pre-registration is required and space is limited to 40 participants.

Two additional two-day sessions will be taught on Dec. 5-6 in Watersmeet and on Dec. 9-10 in Tomahawk, Wis. The cost for the workshop includes instruction, meals, materials, and for some workshops, lodging.

“We are thrilled to have one of the world’s foremost professional wildlife trackers teach these workshops,” said Pam Troxell, coordinator of the Timber Wolf Alliance program. “It is quite an opportunity to have someone of Jim’s caliber be available to us.”

Halfpenny has taught tracking for nearly 30 years, has partnered with Timber Wolf Alliance on tracking workshops for the past decade, and is the founder of “A Naturalist’s World,” an educational tracking adventure company.

He is a former research associate at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, was an instructor at the National Outdoor Leadership School, and served as director of the Mountain Research Station.

In addition to numerous scientific and popular articles, Halfpenny is author of “A Field Guide to Mammal Tracking in North America,” “Winter: An Ecological Handbook, and the soon to be released “Scats and Tracks of the Great Lakes Region.”

The goal of the Wildlife Tracking Skills workshops is to offer quality tracking skill training and information about large carnivore ecology to participants in both classroom and field settings, Troxell said.

“Our workshops cover track and sign identification, footprint analysis, gait interpretation, trail reading, and understanding animal behavior and ecology,” Troxell said.

In Wisconsin, similar tracking sessions have helped citizen volunteers become qualified to help the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources track wolves in that state.

Cost for the Munising session is $170 without lodging, $155 for Timber Wolf Alliance supporting members.

The Watersmeet workshop will be held at the Lac Vieux Desert Casino, and the cost is $170 (without lodging), $155 for TWA supporters. The Tomahawk, Wis. sessions will be held at the Treehaven Field Station. Cost is $190 (with 1 night lodging), $175 for TWA supporters, $210 (with 2 nights lodging), $195 for TWA supporters.

For more information about the workshops, contact the Timber Wolf Alliance at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute by calling (715) 682-1223, or e-mail twa@northland.edu

The Mining Journal

Crying wolf? Committee looking to control population

2006-12-06T21:35:00.000-06:00

By Howard Meyerson - Grand Rapids Press Outdoors Editor

A citizens advisory committee looking at whether Michigan's gray wolf population might be controlled using lethal means has given the nod to holding a managed hunt, should it ever become necessary -- when and if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service takes the wolf off the federal endangered species list.

"That's the model we would use," said Todd Hogrefe, the state's endangered species coordinator with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. "But the group emphasized using non-lethal means wherever it is feasible and effective."

That group is the state's Wolf Management Roundtable, a citizens committee representing 20 different organizations across a wide political spectrum.

The groups drew from animal welfare organizations such as the Michigan Humane Society to big-game hunting groups like Safari Club International. It also included the Sierra Club, farm bureau, tribal interests and those who hunt with dogs.

The roundtable was convened last summer to develop a set of "guiding principles" for the state to use in revising its gray wolf management plan. Those principles were released this week in a report titled: Recommended Guiding Principles for Wolf Management in Michigan.

Federal officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed last March that the gray wolf be taken off the federal endangered species list for Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan along with nearby states where they may move. Final action on that proposal is expected in March.

Michigan wildlife officials say they want to be ready for that change. There are approximately 434 wolves living in the Upper Peninsula. The state's goal for the endangered wolf was to have 200 for five consecutive years. Hogrefe says that has more than been exceeded and there are 4,000 in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Those wolves also are expected to spread out over time. That, in turn, will mean more good and bad encounters with humans.

State officials say the new guidelines will help them with their wolf plan revisions. They are a clear indication of what stockholders will tolerate and support.

Wolves are protected by federal law. It is currently illegal to kill one in Michigan except when being attacked. The state also has that authority when a wolf proves a human safety concern or the wolf is sick or injured.

In 2005, Michigan lost its authority to kill them in the case of livestock predation after U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lost a lawsuit challenging its previous decision to de-list the wolf.

Hogrefe said 10 wolves were "euthanized" between April 2003 and January 2005 for that purpose and nearly $20,000 was paid to farmers to compensate them for livestock losses in 76 cases.

"We have no authority to use lethal control in these situations now, but we can use non-lethal harassment," Hogrefe said.

The new guidelines give the DNR the flexibility to use a managed hunt if it's needed in the future, but roundtable members could not agree about hunting of wolves for recreation and issued no recommendation.

"They agreed to disagree," said Hogrefe, who explained that opposing groups included the various tribes who value the wolf for cultural and religious reasons, the animal-welfare groups that were concerned about their suffering and the Sierra Club, which is not anti-hunting, but whose members did not want to see it hunted.

Other guidelines included in the report call for:

-educating Michigan citizens about wolves
-using non-lethal means wherever possible
-not setting numerical population goals, but rather maintaining a sustainable population while minimizing risks to humans, dogs and livestock
-giving the DNR authority to use lethal control for livestock predation problems as well as the livestock producer.
-not giving dog owners authority to kill wolves unless wolf attacks on dogs become a chronic occurrence and nothing else works.

Hogrefe said the guidelines have been sent to DNR director Becky Humphries for review. A revised draft wolf management plan is expected from the DNR in March. It will get a 90-day public review before being adopted.

Grand Rapids Press

U.P. wolf killings probed

2006-12-06T21:28:00.000-06:00

By SCOTT SWANSON, Journal Staff Writer

MARQUETTE — At least six wolves have been killed in the western Upper Peninsula since the beginning of firearm deer season.

Prosecution is pending against hunters in three of the incidents, while investigations are ongoing in two others, according to an official with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

A sixth animal was killed by other wolves, the official said.

In addition to a $1,500 restitution fee, a person found guilty of killing a wolf — a federally endangered species — faces up to 90 days in prison, a fee of $100 to $1,000 and a loss of hunting privileges at the discretion of the court, said Lt. Tom Courchaine of the Crystal Falls DNR office.

“You think you’re out in the middle of nowhere, but there are a lot of clues out there,” he said. “Especially during deer season, when there are a lot of eyes and ears out in the woods.”

Prosecution is pending against individuals who allegedly killed wolves near Trout Creek in Ontonagon County, southern Iron County and Dickinson County, Courchaine said.

The DNR is still investigating a wolf killed in northern Iron County, although a preliminary investigation indicated that it was shot, Courchaine said. The investigation of a wolf killed on tribal land in Baraga County is being handled by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

And a wolf found dead near Ewen in Ontonagon County was determined to have been killed by other wolves, Courchaine said.

Courchaine said that an increase in the killing of wolves during deer season is not unusual.

“Six wolves in the month of November is an increase for us from the past couple of years, but we’ve had one or two years with fairly similar numbers,” he said.

The DNR handles a potential wolf kill like any criminal investigation, Courchaine said. Wildlife biologists and conservation officers are sent to the scene to gather physical evidence and conduct interviews with hunters and other witnesses. As many as six officers at a time have been placed on wolf-kill cases.

Courchaine added that it is illegal to shoot coyotes during deer season in Michigan.

“All the people that kill a wolf and claim they thought they were shooting a coyote, that doesn’t hold much water,” he said.

Because wolves in Michigan and several other Great Lakes states have exceeded recovery goals for several years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed removing it from the federal endangered species list. A decision is expected in March.

The Mining Journal

Half-Breed Wolf Dog Hero Rescues Elderly Owners From Snowstorm

2006-12-06T21:23:00.000-06:00

By Liza Porteus

NEW YORK — When Eve and Norman Fertig rescued a sick, two-week-old half wolf, half German shepherd puppy from a breeder almost seven years ago, they'd never dreamed that the animal one day would save their lives.

"God is watching; he's watching all the time," Eve Fertig told FOXNews from her home at the Enchanted Forest Wildlife Sanctuary in Alden, N.Y.

He apparently was watching on Oct. 12, when the 81-year-old Fertigs were treating injured animals in the forest sanctuary on their property. One such animal is a near-18-year-old raven, while another is a crow who was shot, blind in one eye with two broken legs.

It was routine for the couple to feed and exercise the dozen or so animals there around 7 p.m. every night.

"While we're in there, the lights go out and I realized something's wrong," Eve Fertig said. "We go outside to see what's happening and down comes one massive tree … the trees came down across us."

The massive storm that hit upstate New York that night felled trees, blocking the Fertig's path to the other sanctuary buildings — such as the school and storage building — and to their home, which was at least 200 feet away.

"We were in big trouble. … I said to my husband, 'I think we could die out here,'" Eve said.

'The Most Heroic Thing I've Ever Seen'

The Fertigs huddled in a narrow alley between the hospital building and the aviary, where they were sheltered from falling trees. They couldn't climb over the trees without injuring themselves. Neither had warm clothes on since it was a clear, crisp fall day just a few hours ago. They hugged each other for warmth, since by 9:30 p.m., temperatures had dropped.

"I wasn't prepared for this … I thought, 'we're trapped, we're absolutely trapped,'" Eve said. "That's when Shana began to dig beneath the fallen trees."

The 160-pound dog that habitually follows her owners around — Eve likens it to "Mary had a little lamb," when the lamb went everywhere Mary went — eventually found the Fertigs and began digging a path in the snow with her teeth and claws underneath the fallen trees, similar to a mineshaft, and barking as if to tell them to follow.

A reluctant Norm said, "I had enough in Okinawa in a foxhole," referring to his service in World War II.

"'Norman, if you do not follow me, I will get a divorce,'" Eve said to her husband of 62 years. "That did it. He said, 'a divorce? That would scandal our family.' I said, 'all of our family is dead, Norman!'"

After Shana tunneled all the way to the house — a process that took until about 11:30 p.m. — she came back, grabbed the sleeve of Eve's jacket, and threw the 86-pound woman over her back and neck, which Eve described as "as wide as our kitchen shelf."

Norman grabbed Eve's legs, and the dog pulled them through the tunnel, under the trees and through an opening in a fence to the house, at which they arrived around 2 a.m.

"It was the most heroic thing I've ever seen in my life," Eve said. "We opened the door and we just fell in and she laid on top of us and just stayed there and kept us alive … that's where we laid until the fireman found us."

There was no electricity and no heat in the house, so Shana acted as a living, breathing generator for the exhausted Fertigs until the local fire department arrived the next morning.

Concerned neighbors — many of whom had children Eve taught — who couldn't get hold of the elderly couple via telephone throughout the night had called the Town Line Fire Department.

But when the fire department urged the Fertigs to go to the firehouse to take shelter along with 100 others, they told them they would have to leave Shana behind.

"We said, 'we don't go anywhere without her.' ... I said, 'we'll stay until the people are gone and we'll take Shana,'" Eve said.

So the couple stayed at home with Shana until Sunday, when the firehouse emptied out. During the three days in a house with no power, heat or hot water, Shana slept with her owners to keep them warm.

"She kept us alive. She really did," Eve said.

Also during that time, firefighters not only helped clear trees from their grounds, but they brought food and water for both human and animal.

"They kept looking at that tunnel and said, 'we've never seen anything like it,'" she said. "I can't thank them enough — they're heroes."

When they went to the firehouse Sunday, Shana followed the Fertigs everywhere, even to the bathroom. And she was 'spoiled rotten' by the fire crews there, Eve said.

She said the fire chiefs said her story of being saved by her pet rejuvenated exhausted fire teams. "The story, they said, just gave them new hope."

A Lesson Learned

Last Thursday, Shana received the Citizens for Humane Animal Treatment's Hero's Award for bravery — an award traditionally given to humans. The plaque, complete with Shana's picture on it, hangs in the Fertigs' living room, along with other pictures of wolves the couple has worked with.

Eve, who teaches courses in Saving Endangered Species and Caring for Injured and Orphaned Wildlife at community colleges and trains animal rehabilitators in New York, said she hopes her story will help further her message of humanity toward animals and educate people about how even a wolf, if treated with care and dignity, can be a "kisser and a hugger" like Shana.

"If you're vicious to a human being, they'll become fighters," Eve said, but even wolves, "once you treat them right and raise them in your house, they're magnificent."

Eve has taught 400 adults to be wildlife rehabilitators. She and her husband are volunteers who pay for their own teaching licenses and caring for the sanctuary animals, out of their Social Security checks every year.

"I've never been on a cruise and I don't shop and I haven't seen a movie in two years," Eve said.

The only time the Fertigs go to the movies is, of course, when they are submitting to a higher calling.

"What I do to get signatures for my petitions, I go to [a] movie that's showing a wolf, horse or whale story," and she and her husband camp out outside the theater and get petitions signed to help save various animals, which they send along to wildlife organizations.

"I have a motto ... joint abilities don't create hostilities," Eve said. "I make it my business to talk to all groups, all conservationists, all hunting clubs, to let them know what they're missing out there."

Editor's Note: The Fertigs rely on food donations to help feed the injured animals they try to rehabilitate at their Enchanted Forest Wildlife Sanctuary in Alden, N.Y. They told FOXNews.com that the Oct. 12 storm completely wiped out their supply of food. The Fertigs would welcome any donations. Please contact them at 716-681-5918 if you would like to donate or volunteer.

Editor's Note II: After this story was published, Eve Fertig contacted FOXNews.com and said she received phone calls from all over the U.S. with people asking about Shana's story and how they can donate food for the Fertigs animals, toys for Shana, or money for their sanctuary. Mrs. Fertig asked that her address be published so people can send such items to them. Their address is:

Mrs. Eve Fertig

Enchanted Forest Wildlife Sanctuary

11380 Cary Road

Alden, N.Y. 14004-9547

Fox News

Wolf deaths up as management changes, numbers increase

2006-12-06T21:17:00.000-06:00

BILLINGS, Mont. - The number of wolves shot this year by government agents and livestock producers in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho has surpassed 150, about 50 more than were killed last year, federal officials say.

Wolf managers are taking a more aggressive approach with problem wolves, largely because the overall population in the three states has surpassed recovery efforts, officials say.

"We've got a recovered population so we're pretty hard on them if they get into trouble," said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Since their reintroduction more than a decade ago, gray wolves have flourished, with wildlife officials now estimating the population in the three states at more than 1,200. The Fish and Wildlife Service has declared wolf recovery a success in the northern Rockies and has turned over most management duties in Montana and Idaho to state wildlife officials. The federal agency has yet to approve Wyoming's management plan, which remains the center of a legal battle.

The vast majority of the wolves killed were shot by federal wildlife agents. A small percentage were killed by private landowners in Montana and Idaho, who can shoot the animals under specific circumstances.

So far this year in the three states, wolves have been blamed for killing 170 cows, 344 sheep, eight dogs, a horse, a mule and two llamas, FWS said.

In recent years, 6 percent to 7 percent of the wolf population has been killed after preying on livestock. This year, the rate is around 12 percent overall, the agency said.

"It's still just a small percentage of wolves involved but when a pack gets into chronic trouble, we get rid of 'em," Bangs said.

Helena Independent Record

Ranchers seek to band together

2006-12-06T21:14:00.000-06:00

By JOHN MORGAN - Star-Tribune staff writer

Wyoming ranchers will need to band together to protect their interests against potentially harmful environmental regulations regarding the wolf and the sage grouse, ranchers said at a convention this week.

"There's a whole lot of misinformation going on about wolves," said Meeteetse rancher Jack Turnell during a joint winter convention between the Wyoming Stock Growers Association and the Wyoming Wool Growers Association this week at the Parkway Plaza and Convention Centre in Casper.

"Wolves are moving in every different direction," Turnell said. "Don't tell me I have two thirds of all the wolves in the area on my property. There are way more wolves than they're saying. The way we're headed, you're going to have wolves scattered all across the U.S. in a few years."

There are at least 1,264 wolves in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, according to new figures provided Monday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, roughly a 20 percent increase over 2005. Wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in 1995 and 1996 and are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

"I don't have to tell you how fast these wolves reproduce," said state Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody. "It's very difficult to get rid of them. We have the wolf. We're never going to get rid of the wolf, I don't think."

"It's not about wolves, it's about getting rid of us," Turnell said.

Rob Hendry, a Lysite rancher and Natrona County Commissioner-elect, said another issue facing Wyoming ranchers is the possible listing of the sage grouse as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

"If the sage grouse is going to be listed, we need to have the information to be able to come back and say that the situation isn't quite as dim as it looks," Hendry said. He said he has had a consultant studying the grouse and other wildlife patterns on his ranch.

"I've got a lot of birds on my land that haven't been counted by the government," Hendry said. "We have to have the data to save both our lives -- the sage grouse and ours."

Wildlife consultant Dave Lockman said he is worried that the environmental battle could be narrowed to responsible use of the land versus no use at all. No use is where conservation appears to be heading, he said.

Randy Teeuwen, a community relations advisor with EnCana Oil and Gas Inc., said energy officials are willing to help keep the sage grouse off the listing if at all possible.

"There are 280 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the epicenter of the sage grouse habitat," Teeuwen said. "If the sage grouse is listed, the impact could be catastrophic."

Casper Star Tribune

Agents, landowners killing more wolves

2006-12-06T21:04:00.000-06:00

By MIKE STARK Of The Gazette Staff

Wolves caught eating what they shouldn't are paying a higher price these days.

A record number have been killed this year in the northern Rocky Mountains for going after cows, sheep, dogs and other domestic animals.

So far, 152 wolves have been shot by government agents or private landowners, about 50 more than last year and an eightfold increase from five years ago.

In Wyoming, one-quarter of all wolves living outside Yellowstone's protective boundary were killed after reports of attacks on livestock.

Wolf managers are taking a more aggressive tack with problem wolves mostly because the population in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho has soared beyond expectation in recent years.

"We've got a recovered population so we're pretty hard on them if they get into trouble," said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

There are at least 1,264 wolves in the three states, according to new figures provided Monday.

That's roughly a 20 percent increase over 2005, which is on top of years of steady growth since wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in 1995 and 1996.

"I'm surprised we ever got over 1,000 wolves, but in the long term I think it will be less," Bangs said. "I think we're on the top edge of that bubble and it's going to go down."

All three states saw the number of wolves grow in 2006 over the previous year. Montana's total increased from 256 to 300, Wyoming's grew from 252 to about 314 and Idaho's grew from 512 to around 650.

In Montana, the increased numbers reflect more wolves in the northwest part of the state and better reporting on the ground in recent years, said Carolyn Sime, who leads the wolf program for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

"I feel like the minimum estimates are more realistic now than anything in the last 10 years," she said.

Much of the best wolf habitat, especially in Yellowstone, is filling up. Eventually, as the good spots disappear and it becomes harder to find ample food, the population will dip back down, Bangs said.

So far this year, wolves in the three states have killed 170 cows, 344 sheep, eight dogs, a horse, a mule and two llamas, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. The kills - greater for sheep and cattle than any other year - are almost certainly higher than the numbers show because confirming wolf kills can be difficult.

But more wolves have been killed in turn.

The vast majority were shot by agents with federal Wildlife Services. A small percentage were killed by private landowners in Montana and Idaho, which were recently given more flexibility in pursuing wolves that were trying to kill livestock.

Typically, 6 to 7 percent of the wolf population has been culled by "lethal control," as some call it. This year, the rate is around 12 percent overall and 25 percent in Wyoming outside Yellowstone.

"It's still just a small percentage of wolves involved, but when a pack gets into chronic trouble, we get rid of 'em," Bangs said.

A University of Calgary study published earlier this year said killing problem wolves is only a temporary solution to livestock attacks. Once the offender is removed, another eventually moves in to take its place.

"Wolves are being killed as a corrective, punitive measure - not a preventative one," Marco Musiani, one of the study's authors, said earlier this year.

A better approach, he said, is to look at when and where depredations occur and take steps like changing grazing patterns and using guard dogs, fencing, wolf repellants and other measures.

Though wolves grab the attention, their impact on domestic animals is far exceeded by other predators.

Coyotes kill 28 times more sheep and lambs than wolves, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Foxes, dogs, bears and even eagles also rank higher, and that's not to mention weather, diseases and lambing complications.

For losses that are confirmed kills by wolves and grizzly bears, the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife pays the value of the animals lost.

"I think we're looking at a little above average year," said Suzanne Stone, who works out of the group's Idaho office.

The group has paid out $153,930 for wolf kills so far this year, more than $50,000 over 2005.

Billings Gazette

Officials don't know if predator was wolf or where it came from

2006-12-06T20:55:00.000-06:00

By MIKE STARK Of The Gazette Staff

Was it a wolf or wasn't it?

The mysterious, sheep-killing predator shot and killed a month ago between Jordan and Circle was initially thought to be a wolf.

But now, wildlife officials aren't so sure.

"Frankly, it has mixed characteristics," said Carolyn Sime, head of the wolf program for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Some clues indicate that it's not a wolf from among the 1,200 or so that live in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The animal shot in Garfield County in early November had shades of orange, red and yellow in its fur, unlike the Northern Rockies wolves, which tend more toward browns, blacks and grays.

The orangish coat may be more indicative of wolves that roam the upper Great Lakes region, Sime said.

The animal also had long claws and teeth in good condition, somewhat unusual for a 4-year-old wolf, raising the possibility it might be a hybrid that had spent some time in captivity, Sime said.

On the other hand, the wolf was fairly large at 106 pounds with a big head and hunting skills, which suggests it was wild, Sime said.

"Right now," Sime said, "we're just as curious as everyone else."

Whatever it was, it had landowners in McCone, Garfield and Dawson counties on alert for months. About 120 sheep were killed and others were hurt in a series of attacks that started about a year ago.

The animal roamed wide swaths of the landscape, occasionally attacking sheep before moving on only to circle back later. Several landowners were given permits to shoot if it was seen attacking livestock, but it was never caught in the act.

The animal eluded trackers for months until this fall, when footprints were spotted in deep snow. Agents with Wildlife Services shot it from the air Nov. 2.

The animal was initially reported as a wolf, but closer inspection raised concerns about the identification.

Muscle tissue has been sent to the University of California Los Angeles, where scientists have been analyzing DNA from the Northern Rockies wolf population and putting together a sort of family tree.

The animal's carcass was sent to the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Ore., for genetic analysis.

The work could take several months to complete.

Sime said that if the animal is a wolf that came in from the Rockies or Canada or the upper Midwest, the genetic testing should provide clear evidence. It wouldn't be the first time that a wolf has wandered hundreds of miles. In recent years, wolves from Yellowstone have been found in Utah and Colorado.

"If it's neither of those, the question becomes 'OK, what is this animal and where is it from?' " Sime said. "The uncertainty level goes up a lot."

Billings Gazette

Idaho researchers say wolves aren't decimating elk

2006-12-06T20:52:00.000-06:00

The Associated Press

MCCALL, Idaho -- A pair of University of Idaho researchers living in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness say that while wolves around their three-room cabin are making elk more skittish, they're not decimating populations of the big game animals as some hunters fear.

Wolf researcher Jim Akenson, 48, and his wife, biologist Holly Akenson, 48, live and work at the Taylor Ranch Field Station as part of what is so far a nine-year study of wolf behavior.

The Akensons concede elk have become harder to find, but they say that's not because wolves are killing them. They say the wolves' presence has made elk more leery of exposed ground. That makes hunters mad because tracking the big ungulates during fall hunting season has become more difficult.

A spooked elk in wolf country typically plunges into a river or mountain lake, because wolves are at a disadvantage in water, the Akensons said.

Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are trying to get the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove federal protections for wolves, whose population in the region including Yellowstone National Park now tops 1,200.

Eventually, the states want to hold legal wolf hunts. Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials say such hunts are needed to restore balance in areas where wolves have gotten the upper hand.

The Akensons are surrounded by three wolf packs at Taylor Ranch, but say they've never been threatened.

Wolves generally hunt in packs of eight to 12 and have killed several hunting dogs in Idaho in recent years.

Santa Fe New Mexican

Man pleads guilty to trying to poison wolves with meatballs

2006-12-06T19:57:00.000-06:00

KTVB

A former Salmon resident now living in Montana has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of trying to kill endangered gray wolves with poisoned meatballs.

Timothy B. Sundles, 48, signed a plea agreement last week admitting his activity. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mikel Williams is scheduled to take the plea and sentence Sundles on March 1 in Pocatello. He faces a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a $25,000 fine.

According to the plea agreement, on February 19, 2004, Sundles placed numerous meatballs containing aldicarb in the Wagonhammer Creek drainage on the Salmon National Forest near North Fork. Aldicarb is a poisonous pesticide sold under the name Temik.

No dead or injured wolves were found, but several other animals were injured or killed by the poisoned meat, including a coyote, a fox, several magpies and three domestic dogs.

Prosecutors are expected to ask at sentencing that Sundles spend 30 days in jail, be banned from public lands for two years, and pay veterinary bills of $128.90 for treatment of the dogs.

The gray wolf is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The case was investigated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

KTVB-TV

Snowy Yellowstone a wondrous backdrop for wolf-watching

2006-11-13T18:45:00.000-06:00

By John Flinn - San Francisco Chronicle

Yellowstone National Park · The wolves were at our door -- almost literally.

They killed a big bull elk on the steps of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel dining room the night before we arrived. Now, as we crunched across the frozen parking lot in the predawn darkness, we could hear their not-so-distant howls.

Afraid?

Enthralled was more like it. This is what we'd come for. Since their reintroduction here 11 years ago, Yellowstone National Park has become the premier venue in North America -- possibly in all the world -- for viewing wild wolves. To wildlife enthusiasts, they're a bigger attraction than Old Faithful.

It's possible to see them most times of the year, but winter is best -- especially February through April (January is usually too cold). The wolves are more active during the day, their dark gray coats stand out against the white snow, and they follow their prey from the high country down to valley bottoms more easily accessible to humans.

Winter is also when Yellowstone is at its most beguiling. The geysers are more sharply etched as they erupt into the biting-cold air. The hot, sulfurous clouds billowing out of fumaroles and mud pots gain dramatic definition. Bison, their shaggy beards coated with snow, snort steam as they use their enormous heads as snowplows.

On the down side: It's cold. Sometimes really cold.

Last winter my wife, Jeri, and I joined a wolf-watching program run by Xanterra Resorts, the park's concessionaire, and the Yellowstone Association Institute. The "Winter Wolf Discovery" package, which comes in two- and three-day versions, includes lodging at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel inside the park, several meals and daily tours guided by sharp-eyed wildlife biologists.

At a briefing the night before our first outing, our guide, Brad Bulin, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, told us that wolves once ranged over most of North America. But by the early 1920s they were gone from Yellowstone and most of the West -- poisoned or shot by bounty hunters because they posed a threat to settlers' livestock.

In the 1970s, after gray wolves had been placed on the newly created Endangered Species List, wildlife biologists began a campaign to return them to Yellowstone. Opposition from local ranchers stalled the effort for two decades, but in 1995 biologists captured 14 gray wolves in the Canadian Rockies and set them free in the Yellowstone backcountry. The following year, they released 17 more.

The wolves quickly formed into packs, established territories and began to breed. The last of the original transplanted wolves died in 2002, but their progeny are thriving. Or at least they were until last year (more on that later).

Leaders of the pack

The first morning, five minutes from the hotel, our van came across six members of the Swan Lake pack. These were the wolves we'd heard howling before dawn.

We spilled out of the van, fumbling with binoculars, spotting scopes and telephoto lenses. But we didn't really need them. The wolves were perhaps 90 yards away on a snowy hillside -- distant enough for safety, but near enough that we could watch them with our naked eyes. Wolf sightings this intimate are rare.

A pair of frisky young wolves was play-fighting: wrestling, gnawing at each others' necks and tumbling over one another in the snow. "They're starting to establish their positions in the pack," Bulin said. "It's a process of figuring out who's the future alpha."

We drove into the Lamar Valley in the northeast corner of Yellowstone. Cradled between Specimen Ridge and the Absaroka Mountains, the broad, glacier-carved valley is sometimes called "North America's little Serengeti." It's one of the finest places on the continent for spotting wildlife. There's a plentitude of elk, bison, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, moose, bald eagles and, in summer, grizzly bears. And this prey-rich valley is the best spot in all of Yellowstone to see wolves.

If you're not up for a full wolf-viewing program, you can do pretty well on your own by driving into the Lamar Valley (the road is kept open in winter) and looking for clusters of parked cars and big spotting scopes on tripods. These belong to the wolf watchers, sometimes called "wolfies" -- amateur enthusiasts who flock to Yellowstone to observe and keep tabs on the animals.

Wolf watching, they tell you, is dangerously addictive, especially once you learn to recognize individual wolves, to understand pack behavior and to appreciate the drama that unfolds as wolves battle for territory and dominance.

Wolf packs constantly encroach on each other's fiercely defended turf. As alpha males and females fall in battle, their groups disperse or reform into new packs. Last winter, for example, according to a dispatch on Forwolves.org, the Nez Perce pack disintegrated when its alpha female was killed next to Old Faithful by "the new power on the Madison and Firehole rivers, the Gibbon pack."

"Watching all this," said a wolf watcher who invited me to look through his scope, "is the ultimate reality show."

Kills and coyotes

Down on the valley floor, next to the river, a lone wolf was keeping watch on a recent kill -- an elk or a bison -- while bald eagles and ravens perched nearby. Ten or 11 other members of the Slough Creek pack had gorged themselves on the carcass -- 20 to 30 pounds of meat apiece at one sitting is normal -- and now were staggering drowsily and lying in the snow to sleep it off. Biologists call this being "meat drunk."

The wolf guarding the kill kept a wary eye on what looked like two small and timid wolves crouching low in the snow a respectful distance away. They were, in fact, coyotes.

Wolves are typically larger than coyotes. Before 1995, Yellowstone supported one of the nation's largest and most stable coyote populations. But within two years of the wolves' arrival, half the coyotes were dead, often after making the fatal mistake of trying to stand their ground. The survivors learned they're no longer at the top of the food chain and now spend a lot of time looking over their shoulders. That's how you spot the difference: Wolves strut, coyotes skulk.

For the first decade after reintroduction, Yellowstone's wolves multiplied and thrived. From a start of 31 wolves, the park's population had grown to 171 by 2004. It was, according to Dan Stahler, a Yellowstone wolf biologist, a "very healthy population."

"With the wolves here," he said, "Yellowstone feels more whole, more together. For the ecosystem to function as nature intended, wolves were the last missing piece of the puzzle."

A few wandered out of the park and were killed by ranchers, many of whom still see the predators as a menace to livestock. But a program run by a private group, Defenders of Wildlife, has somewhat defused the situation. Ranchers who lose sheep and cattle are compensated at market value.

A year ago, Yellowstone supported one of the highest wolf densities ever recorded anywhere, according to Stahler. But the census conducted at the end of 2005 brought troubling news: The population had fallen by almost one-third, to 118. Only 22 pups had survived, compared with 69 the previous year.

Biologists aren't sure of the reason, but a leading suspect is canine parvovirus, the same disease that affects household dogs.

"What are we going to do about it? Not much," Stahler said. "Our feeling is that it's best to let nature take its course. Potentially, this is a mechanism for saying that the ecosystem had more wolves than it can support."

Because Yellowstone's wolf population had been so large and healthy, Stahler believes it will probably bounce back quickly to a sustainable number.

"We're concerned about this, and we need to stay on top of it," he said, "but we're not alarmed. At least not yet."

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

(Virtually) Run With The Wolves

2006-11-13T18:37:00.000-06:00

Minnesota Zoo Computer Program Allows Users To Live (And Maybe Die) In The Wild

Mary Tan- WCCO-TV

(WCCO) Apple Valley, Minn. The Minnesota Zoo is developing a video game that simulates being in a pack of wolves in the middle of Yellowstone National Park. The computer-animated simulation, called Wolfquest, is designed to put players in real-life situations in the middle of the wild where the wrong decision may make all the difference between life and death.

"We want our players to gain an empathy for wolves -- what it is to be a wolf, [to] gain an emotional connection, to be with them," said Grant Spickelmier, a naturalist at the Minnesota Zoo.

The object of the game is fairly straightforward: find food, care for your offspring, avoid predators and otherwise stay alive.

The backdrop of Yellowstone was chosen for its scenic and natural beauty.

The game is designed as an educational tool for children -- boys and girls -- from 9 to 13.

"We want to make a game that's attractive enough that they would pick it up on their own," said Spickelmier, adding, "they get hooked and, hey, maybe they'll learn something about wolves."

The game is expected to be finished and beta-tested by December 2007.

The goal is to put Wolfquest on the zoo's Web site and free for anyone to use.

Local zoo educators are also working with the Phoenix Zoo, the National Zoo in Washington D.C., and the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minn.

WCCO-TV

Endangered wolves on display at Minnesota Zoo hopes to breed wolves

2006-11-13T18:32:00.000-06:00

Three of North America's most endangered wolves went on exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo on Thursday. Zookeepers hope the captive-bred female Mexican gray wolves will breed with the zoo's four male wolves already on exhibit on the Northern Trail.

Mexican gray wolves were wiped out in the United States by the middle of the 20th century, but the subspecies found a sliver of hope in the late 1970s after a trapper working for the government captured five wolves in Mexico.

The zoo has been part of a two-nation effort to breed those captive wolves and return their descendants to the wild; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked the Apple Valley zoo to help in 1994.

One of the zoo's former wolves was released into the Blue Mountain Range in Arizona earlier this year.

With only about 60 Mexican gray wolves left in the wild, international wolf experts rate recovery of this species as the highest priority of gray wolf recovery programs worldwide

St. Paul Pioneer Press

Italy claims Swiss are killing protected wolves

2006-11-13T18:28:00.000-06:00

By Peter Popham

ROME - Italy is this week to call on its European neighbours to put a halt to the "extermination" of wolves, which it claims is putting at risk decades of effort in bringing the beautiful but ferocious mammal back to the wild. Despite theoretical protection under EU law, wild wolves continue to be targeted in Europe; the most recent kill was in Goms, Switzerland, at the end of last month.

According to Italian conservationists, "decades of conservation work" are now at risk from the hunters, who despite the legislation do not hesitate to shoot wolves dead on sight. Tomorrow, at a meeting of the Convention of the Alps in Austria, Italy is preparing to take up the cudgels on behalf of the predator.

After disappearing from most of Europe early in the 20th century, wolves have gradually returned in small numbers and are found now in most parts of the Italian peninsula and in France, Switzerland and Germany. The species is protected by the Bern Convention of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, of which all EU members are signatories.

But this has not deterred hunters and farmers in France and Germany from attempting to wipe out the hated sheep-lifter all over again.

It is a repeat of the fate that befell Bruno the bear, whose unhappy story made news day after day in the summer. The brown bear happily and safely resident in Italy made the mistake of straying across the border into Baviara, where it was shot by a hunter, despite its status as a species theoretically protected across the EU.

"In Italy the wolves must be protected," commented Italy's environment minister, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, who also heads the Green Party. "In France and Switzerland on the other hand they are massacred. The situation is unsustainable. I have already raised the issue at the Council of European Ministers and with Stavros Dimas, the EU's Environmental Commissioner, who has taken on the task of drafting a directive for the protection of the species across borders.

"We have got to get out of this surreal situation as quickly as possible," the minister went on. "The EU finances the protection of the wolf and the EU member states kill them. This is no good. We don't accept a repetition of the Bruno saga, the bear which Italy succeeded in protecting but which, as soon as it set foot in Bavaria, was shot."

The appeal to the minister to do his bit to save wolves straying across Europe's borders was launched by Legambiente, Italy's largest environmental organisation. "One can't protect them by day and kill them by night," said Damiano di Simine, head of the organisation's Alpine observatory.

"In Bavaria no bear had been seen in more than a century and the first to arrive was riddled with shot. With chronometrical precision Switzerland does away with all wolves, and is charged with the killing of at least 25 wolf cubs, which amounts to a generalised licence to kill. France is proposing to eliminate six wolves."

Italy's own record is not spotless. "We ourselves have a problem with poaching," Alberto Meriggi told La Repubblica newspaper, a researcher at the University of Pavia and an expert on the distribution of wolves in the northern Appenines.

"But our decision to apply the law protecting wolves without exception has allowed the Appenine wolf to return vigorously throughout the peninsula. The first traces were in 1986 in the province of Genoa, then three years later in the maritime Alps, in the province of Cuneo. Today once again the Italian wolf is in resurgence. We must be careful not to allow the destruction of decades of work."

INDEPENDENT

5 wolves killed after attacks on cattle

2006-11-13T18:15:00.000-06:00

By The Associated Press

AVON - Wildlife officials killed five wolves this week on private land south of here, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said Thursday. The agency authorized U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services to kill the animals after a series of attacks on livestock. Since February, three cattle were confirmed to have been killed by wolves, and one calf was probably killed by wolves, FWP said.

Wildlife Services investigated the most recent depredation on Sunday and killed the wolves the next day.

"The Spotted Dog pack territory is mostly comprised of private lands managed for livestock production, both cattle and sheep," said Carolyn Sime, FWP wolf program coordinator. "Previous lethal control in September left at least nine wolves in this large pack. Removing additional wolves is part of our incremental approach to addressing confirmed livestock kills."

A collared female and up to five other wolves remain in the pack, the agency said.

USDA Wildlife Services is a cooperating federal agency that investigates injured and dead livestock to determine the cause, and carries out the field response at the direction of FWP.

Both agencies work to help reduce depredation risks and address wolf-related conflicts, FWP said.

Billings Gazette

Sanctuary installing security measures after poisonings

2006-11-13T18:04:00.000-06:00

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. A Broken Arrow animal sanctuary is installing security measures to protect its animals after three wolves were poisoned to death. Safari's Interactive Animal Sanctuary handlers believe trespassers threw poisoned meat over the fences where the wolves are kept. At least three died and the deaths of two other animals earlier this year are thought to be suspicious.

Safari's president and founder Lori Ensign said yesterday that the sanctuary hadn't had any problems in its 11 years of existence. Ensign is spending thousands of dollars for lighting, higher fencing and other security measures for the animals, which include everything from raccoons to bears.

Safari's and its supporters also are offering a $1200 reward for information leading to an arrest in the October killings. Authorities say investigators are still waiting on toxicology results to determine what kind of poison was used to kill the wolves.

KTEN-TV

No scientific basis for current wolf control program

2006-11-13T17:58:00.000-06:00

By Gordon Haber

Alaska’s aerial wolf-killing program now covers five areas equal to about two-thirds the size of Wyoming. Wolf control using snowmachines, other non-aerial methods, and even by allowing hunters to shoot adults while they are raising dependent pups at spring-summer dens and rendezvous sites is effectively under way over additional, much larger areas as well. Altogether, at least 1,500 wolves are killed annually in Alaska.

For most of this killing, state biologists and the Board of Game avoid the public process and written findings required for control programs by claiming they are merely providing wolf “harvesting” opportunities. However, they are unable to avoid these requirements for the five areas where airplanes are used. The details are revealing.

Foremost, the available information does not support the underlying claims about moose, caribou, and related hunting problems.

For example, state biologists continue to mislead Alaskans about the need for predator control in the McGrath area, where local hunters have enjoyed among the highest moose-hunting success rates in the state for at least 14 years. This is reminiscent of claims about the nearby Nowitna area in 1979, where state biologists insisted moose had declined from 2,000 to 1,000 and began an aerial wolf control program, only to determine a year later that there were actually 3,500-5,000 moose in the area. This past spring, state biologists convinced the board that it was necessary to triple the size of the Fortymile aerial wolf control area to boost caribou numbers — where caribou numbers have already doubled since 1997!

The only condition that might necessitate killing wolves to provide a sustainable ungulate harvest is the so-called predator pit, a low stable state that can occur at varying densities both naturally and via human causes. Because ungulate recruitment increases and decreases in counterintuitive ways across wide ranges of population densities, merely showing that there is low calf survival or that survival increases following a predator reduction does not suffice to identify a predator pit. Low calf survival and similar responses to predator reductions can also occur at high populations.

Recruitment information must be interpreted with good population estimates, and vice versa, in order to confirm a predator pit. But there are few if any reliable estimates of populations and their trends for the control areas, and the available information provides more reasons to question than accept the claims about current predator pits.

Game Management Unit 20A, south of Fairbanks, illustrates the importance of identifying this condition accurately and not otherwise jumping to conclusions about negative impacts on moose and moose-hunting even when wolves are at natural levels. Moose in 20A were overhunted into a likely predator pit in the early-mid 1970s, then rebounded during wolf control from 1976 to 1982. According to state reports, wolves recovered to natural or near-natural levels by mid 1983 and for the most part have remained there since. Yet during this period of relative wolf abundance — 1983-2006 — moose numbers increased another two-to-three-fold (within an upper “stable state”) and 20A has become the best moose-hunting area in Alaska.

In contrast to 20A wolves, 20A bears have remained at low levels, due to past heavy hunting and for other reasons. Thus the 1983-2006 observations also debunk the notion (e.g., at McGrath) that unchecked wolf predation during the winter will undo early calf-survival gains from reductions in bear predation.

Data from neighboring Denali National Park (in my doctoral dissertation), based on all the ungulates that two groups of wolves ate during 2,666 miles of their travels over a series of mild, severe, and average winters, help to explain why. The wolves scavenged rather than killed 60-77 percent of the moose they ate (47-48 percent of the moose, sheep, and caribou they ate combined) and killed only 2.0-8.9 percent of the moose they encountered. The state’s findings for the control areas are full of speculation about predation impacts but mention nothing about this Denali research, the most detailed and extensive body of wolf foraging information ever published.

I invite readers to consider the details of these and related arguments. They appear in a 67-page scientific review — with citations to 81 other reports — that I submitted to the Board of Game at the March-May 2006 meetings (as RC-35 and RC-201). The board neither considered nor even mentioned this and other scientific opposition during its subsequent deliberations.

Once again, agency biologists and the board have been able to avoid meaningful review and sell their gratuitous control programs to Alaskans under the guise of “science.”

Gordon Haber, Ph.D., has studied wolves and wolf-ungulate systems in Alaska since 1966.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Wolf Saga returns

2006-11-13T17:56:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the interruption in posting to Wolf Saga. Personal and technical demands required my attention.

Yellowstone Wolf Report- Agate, Slough, Druid News

2006-10-15T21:28:00.000-05:00

Wolf watcher Cindy Knight posts an interesting report on some Yellowstone wolf packs on Ralph Maughan's new Wildlife News site:

Ralph Maughan's Wildlife News

Wyoming sues U.S. Fish and Wildlife over wolf plan

2006-10-15T21:20:00.000-05:00

By CAT URBIGKIT - Star-Tribune correspondent

The chasm remains vast between the state and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wyoming’s attempts to have wolves removed from federal protection. That gap widened further Tuesday when state officials filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking an order directing the federal agency to proceed with delisting the gray wolf in the Northern Rockies.

In July, the federal wildlife agency rejected Wyoming’s petition for delisting, continuing steadfast in the agency's demands that for delisting to proceed, wolves must be:

* Classified as trophy game animals.

* That the state commit to maintaining some wolf packs in northwest Wyoming outside national parks.

* And that the state change its definition of what constitutes a wolf pack so that Montana, Idaho and Wyoming all use similar definitions.

The minimum recovery goal for wolves in the Northern Rockies is a total of 30 breeding pairs and at least 300 wolves, with Montana, Idaho and Wyoming each sustaining a minimum of 10 breeding pairs and 100 wolves for a minimum of three consecutive years. This goal was attained in 2002. Last month, Fish and Wildlife estimated the tri-state area contains a minimum of 1,229 wolves and 87 breeding pairs, including 309 wolves in Wyoming, with 24 potential breeding pairs.

The federal rejection of the Wyoming wolf petition prompted Game and Fish to prepare a technical analysis of that rejection in preparation for the filing of the lawsuit. Game and Fish Director Terry Cleveland sent the analysis, along with a cover letter, to Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Director Mitch King last week, asserting that the rejection of the wolf petition was “flawed in various aspects and is lacking depth and understanding of several issues brought forth in Wyoming’s petition.”

Cleveland accused Fish and Wildlife of delaying delisting with reasoning based on “unrealistic assumptions, misinterpretation of data, misrepresentation” and said the agency used “infeasible or highly unrealistic” hypothetical examples.

The state wildlife agency took Fish and Wildlife to task in its 60-page analysis of the rejection of the state’s petition. Game and Fish noted that when wolf reintroduction was examined in an environmental impact statement in 1994, that analysis examined the impact of a recovered wolf population of 100 animals in Wyoming. Now that Wyoming has a minimum of 300 wolves, Fish and Wildlife only discusses impacts as a rate per 100 wolves, rather than the impact of the total wolf population, which is at least three times that original number.

Wyoming Game and Fish says the federal agency “has a permanent, legal obligation to manage wolves at the levels on which the wolf recovery program was originally predicated, the levels described by the impact analysis in the 1994 EIS.”

Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank said Tuesday that the state is eager to have a judge review whether the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to reject the management plan was warranted. "We've alleged all along that they've failed to follow the best science mandate, and the rejection of our management plan was based on political considerations, especially fear of future lawsuits by environmental groups," Crank said.

Crank said the state has concerns about the growing wolf population. "It's a very serious issue with regard to the health of our other wildlife herds. It's a serious issue with regard to our livestock producers," he said.

The lawsuit also seeks a court order to force the Fish and Wildlife to act on state proposals to limit the wolves' effect on wildlife and livestock. Crank said the proposals include allowing state wardens to intervene if wolves harass elk at state winter feedgrounds.

Eric Keszler, public information officer for Game and Fish, said Tuesday the department estimates there are now about 30 wolf packs in the state. "The number of wolves has been growing by about 20 percent a year since they've been introduced," Keszler said.

Keszler said the department doesn't have any conclusive studies about the effect of wolves on Wyoming's elk and deer herds. But he said, "There are lower cow-calf ratios than there have been in previous years in some of the elk herds where we know wolves are present."

“Despite research findings in Idaho and the Greater Yellowstone Area, and monitoring evidence in Wyoming that indicate wolf predation is having an impact on ungulate populations that will reduce hunter opportunity if the current impact levels persist, the (Fish and Wildlife) Service continues to rigidly deny wolf predation is a problem," the Wyoming Game and Fish analysis says.

Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, said his group and others, known as the Wolf Coalition, strongly support the state lawsuit. "We're seeing tremendous growth in the population," Magagna said. "And each year we're seeing more wolf predation of livestock, and they are more dispersed over a geographical area."

Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator with the Fish and Wildlife Service in Helena, Mont., said Tuesday that his agency had expected the state lawsuit but was sorry to see it filed nonetheless. "I guess the bottom line is I'm kind of sorry to just see this court stuff just go on and on and on," Bangs said. "We'll do our best to see all the information presented, and defend our position, if that's the right thing to do."

Bangs said that once Wyoming has a federally approved wolf management plan in place, the state will be able to take over management of the animals.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has already turned management of wolves over to state agencies in Montana and Idaho. About 400 wolves have been killed in those states for preying on livestock and for other reasons since 1987, Bangs said earlier.

Jackson Hole Star-Tribune

Kempthorne likely to seek Endangered Species Act changes

2006-10-15T21:06:00.000-05:00

By FAITH BREMNER - Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Conservation groups expect Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to seek major changes next year to a federal law that protects plants and wildlife from extinction, picking up where he left off nine years ago when he was in the U.S. Senate.

In 1998 as a senator from Idaho, Kempthorne nearly pushed a bipartisan bill through Congress that would have updated the now 33-year-old Endangered Species Act. The measure would have given landowners an incentive to work with federal authorities to help endangered species. It also would have given landowners more say over plans to protect species habitat and would have required more scientific review before species could be listed.

The bill fell apart when it was blocked in the House. Shortly afterward, Kempthorne became the governor of Idaho.

Critics complain that the endangered species law is too punitive and does not do enough to encourage landowners to protect and restore vital habitat. About 90 percent of endangered species in the United States exist on private land. The act forbids federal agencies from taking actions that jeopardize endangered species and it prohibits the public from harming them without a federal permit. The act helped save bald eagles, wolves and grizzly bears from extinction.

Environmental groups now say they expect Kempthorne to again try to push his ideas through Congress and change department regulations. While his earlier proposal was considered moderate by many, environmental groups worry the new version would tilt more toward landowners and developers.

But if Democrats win control of the House in November, Kempthorne would have to act more cautiously, said Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive vice president of Defenders of Wildlife and former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under President Bill Clinton.

"The election will matter hugely," Clark said. "There should be no illusions about what could happen, particularly since it's the last two years (of the Bush administration). A lot of mischief could occur in two years."

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said he supports updating the act, but any legislative proposal for change would have to be balanced between Republicans and Democrats or it won't pass.

"I want to ensure that any further reform is a common-sense solution that protects both wildlife and private property rights at the same time," Baucus said.

Kempthorne has not said whether he plans to try to change the Endangered Species Act, department spokesman Hugh Vickery said.

Since taking over Interior's reins from Gale Norton in June, Kempthorne has been holding a series of public listening sessions around the country on cooperative conservation, along with the secretaries of Commerce and Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator and the head of the Council on Environmental Quality — the White House's environmental office.

During his Senate confirmation hearing, Kempthorne said he looked forward to "again being at the table discussing ways to improve the act and make it more meaningful in helping the very species that we're trying to save."

But environmentalists are wary of Kempthorne's record, opposing federal programs to recover threatened grizzly bears and endangered wolves when he was Idaho governor, said Liz Godfrey, program director for the Endangered Species Coalition.

"Given his record, it's potentially dangerous to open up the Endangered Species Act," said Godfrey, whose group opposed Kempthorne's 1998 bill. "I don't think (the act) needs to be changed. It needs to be funded. It has been consistently under funded over the course of the years."

Great Falls Tribune

Utah offers bounty for dead coyote ears

2006-10-15T21:02:00.000-05:00

Written by Mark Watson

In an effort to help increase the deer population and also protect grazing sheep in Utah, the state provides money to eight Utah counties to pay bounties for killing coyotes.

Most of the money comes to the state from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The bounty program has been in place in Utah since 2000 and receives positive reviews from ranchers and members of the Utah Division of Wildlife. Some environmental groups call the practice immoral and ineffective.

County leaders learned at the Sept. 26 commission meeting that there will be over $7,000 available for those who kill coyotes in Tooele County.

"The bounty is there to help protect pheasants, chuckars and deer. It also helps ranchers protect their livestock," said Commissioner Dennis Rockwell.

He said the county will pay $20 per coyote. If someone kills a coyote they should call the county for further instructions. Sometimes there are designated wildlife specialists who want to see the animal. Most the time all that is needed are the ears of the coyote to receive the $20. The county pays out the money and is then reimbursed through the state. The commissioner said the county paid for nearly 500 coyotes last year.

"Coyotes are a problem, but it is a manageable problem," said Leland Hogan, president of Utah Farm Bureau.

Mike Tamllos is an agent for the USDA in Vernon. He also said the government participates in reducing coyote numbers near sheep herds. He said that wildlife organizations are more active in eliminating coyotes to protect deer and pheasant populations than are sheep ranchers.

"Back in 1927 there were 2.7 million sheep in Utah, now there are about 300,000," Tamllos said. The government used to poison coyotes, but that practice was banned in 1972, he said.

"Raising sheep in Utah is a dying business. It is more difficult because of environmental movements and complaints about over-grazing. And people don't go into the sheep business unless they inherit the business. There used to be a lot more sheep than cattle in Utah, but now there are 350,000 head of cattle and dwindling sheep numbers," Tamllos said. The United States receives most of its wool from Australia, Tamllos said.

Central Region wildlife information manager Scott Root said there is a debate among wildlife biologists as to whether cougars or coyotes kill more deer fawns. "We used to think cougars killed more deer, but coyotes may kill more. They are everywhere & in the mountains and deserts. Sometimes when I'm up in the mountains I can hear 20 coyotes howling. Controlling coyotes helps the deer population."

Hunters are allowed to shoot coyotes at any time during the year.

"Utah Environmental Congress strongly opposes the county offering bounty for coyotes," said Kevin Mueller, executive director for UEC. "First it is immoral and second it is not sound biological. It does not reduce the number of coyotes."

He explained that when members of a coyote pack are reduced, it stresses the pack and instead of one or two females bearing litters, additional females have litters and numbers increase.

"Then you have more juvenile coyotes which creates more problems for wildlife," Mueller said.

"Also, ethically speaking, it is a horrible way to treat animals," he said. Quoting Mahatman Ghandi, Mueller said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

Tooele Transcript Bulletin

Wolves have made huge comeback in U.P.

2006-10-15T20:46:00.000-05:00

MARQUETTE, Mich. It's Wolf Awareness Week in Michigan, and the state is hoping to clear up misinformation about the animals.
Nearly exterminated from the state during the 1970s, wolves began to return to the Upper Peninsula through Wisconsin and Ontario in the late 1980s. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources says as of last winter, there were 436 wolves in the U-P and 30 more on Isle Royale.

While many fear wolves, D-N-R wolf coordinator Brian Roell says no wolf attacks against humans have ever been documented in the lower 48 states.

Roell says the state is updating its wolf management plan to reflect that wolves have moved beyond recovery in Michigan.

WLNS-TV

Targeted Vaccinations Could Save Ethiopian Wolves

2006-10-15T20:27:00.000-05:00

GLASGOW, Scotland, October 12, 2006 (ENS) - Specific groups of Ethiopian wolves must be targeted for rabies vaccination in order to prevent the world's rarest carnivore from the infectious disease, scientists said Wednesday. Rabies nearly drove the Ethiopian wolf to extinction in the 1990s and conservationists fear future outbreaks could wipe out the species entirely.

"Theoreticians have devoted a lot of effort to working out how to vaccinate populations in ways that prevent epidemics getting started, but this requires coverage that is impractical in wild populations," said lead author Dan Haydon, a University of Glasgow scientist. "We've looked at vaccination studies that don't prevent all outbreaks, but do reduce the chances of really big outbreaks - ones that could push an endangered population over the extinction threshold. These strategies turn out to be effective and a lot more practical.'

The study, published in the journal "Nature," suggests that vaccinating 30 percent of the wolf population that comes most in contact with domestic dogs would prevent a widespread outbreak of the disease.

The findings are important for a species at major risk of extinction. Found in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia, the species is at risk from habitat destruction, but rabies has proven a more imminent threat.

First exposed to rabies via contact with domestic dogs, the wolves suffered an outbreak in the 1990s that killed nearly 75 percent of the population. Another outbreak in 2003 hit the species hard, leaving only about 500 wolves spread across six subpopulations.

In the wake of the 2003 outbreak, an emergency vaccination program was introduced. Analysis of that program by Haydon and other British researchers with the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Program (EWCP), suggests that a targeted vaccination program is a far more effective strategy that a blanket vaccination effort.

Blanket vaccinations are too difficult because the wolves live in remote, inaccessible mountain enclaves.

The alternative strategy adopted by the EWCP is an effective reactive response to outbreaks, whereby Ethiopian wolves living in the mountain valleys close to infected packs are targeted.

The researchers suggest that in the event of a single suspected case, monitoring should be intensified and once two rabid carcasses are found, vaccination teams should be dispatched to target subpopulations living in connecting valleys.

Additional measures, such as vaccinating between 10 and 40 per cent of wolves in affected packs, if targeting the particularly large and highly connected packs, can further reduce overall mortality due to these outbreaks.

"We have shown that the vaccination of Ethiopian wolves, when appropriately and strategically used, is a safe, direct and effective method of reducing extinction threats," said coauthor Karen Laurenson, a University of Edinburgh researcher. "With the advent of new generations of oral vaccines, such methods are becoming ever more feasible and cost-effective."

The researchers note that vaccination of domestic dogs is also critical to protecting the wolves.

"Canid diseases, such as rabies and distemper, transmitted from domestic dogs pose the most immediate threat to their persistence, and targeted reactive vaccination intervention presents a useful tool to protect the remaining small wolf populations from extinction," said Dr Claudio Sillero-Zubiri, from Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU).

Researchers with the WildCRU have been studying the wolves for two decades and in 1995 established the EWCP to address the most urgent threats to the species' survival.

"The WildCRU's aim is to put innovative science to practical use," said WildCRU Director David Macdonald. "These discoveries would have been impossible without long-term field-studies, and they show how cutting-edge science can have down-to-earth practical significance both for the protection of a very rare, and spectacular, wild species, and also for human well-being."

Environment News Service

Forest Workers Evacuated After Hearing Wolves

2006-10-15T20:19:00.000-05:00

KETCHUM, Idaho The sound of howling wolves prompted two "very scared" U.S. Forest Service employees from Utah to call for a helicopter evacuation from the Sawtooth wilderness, officials said.

The employees became frightened Sept. 23 after seeing wolves chase a bull elk across the meadow and later hearing the animals howl, said Ed Waldapfel, a spokesman for the Sawtooth National Forest.

The news shocked a wolf expert at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

"Holy moly - sounds to me like someone's read too many of Grimm's fairy tales," Steve Nadeau said. "I'm flabbergasted that (the Forest Service) would go to that extent over wolves howling in the woods because wolves howl in the woods all the time. That's how they communicate."

Waldapfel did not know the employees' names, but said they were from the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Ogden, Utah, and were conducting a forest inventory in the Sawtooths.

"They called on their radio or satellite phone and asked their supervisor if they could leave the area," Waldapfel told the Idaho Mountain Express.

"No matter which way they went they said they could hear the wolves," he said. "They admitted they were very scared and wanted to get out of the area."

The employees' supervisor called national forest officials and "asked for a helicopter to come in and retrieve them," Waldapfel said.

The wolves never made any aggressive moves toward the pair. There are no documented cases of wolves attacking humans in Idaho, though the employees may not have known that, Waldapfel said.

"They're not part of our regular work force and so they hadn't had training for this kind of wildlife encounter," he said.

Howling, especially in rocky, mountainous areas, can echo, said Lynne Stone, a Stanley resident who regularly observes wolf behavior.

"There are great wolf-howl acoustics. They probably weren't surrounded by wolves," Stone said. "I'd be more afraid of running into a moose cow with calves, or a black bear with cubs, than encountering howling wolves."

Sawtooth National Forest officials will review training procedures to better prepare out-of-area Forest Service personnel for the wildlife they may encounter while in Idaho.

KUTV-TV

Madison wolves targeted for death

2006-09-25T19:20:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-25T19:13:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-25T19:06:00.000-05:00

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.

2006-09-25T17:12:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-23T21:57:00.000-05:00

YouTube

Wolves attack three heifers in Montana's Madison Valley

2006-09-23T21:53:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-23T21:45:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-23T21:38:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-23T21:31:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-20T13:53:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-20T13:44:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-18T19:48:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-18T19:45:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-18T19:41:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-11T20:05:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-11T20:02:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-11T19:53:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-11T19:48:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-11T19:19:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-11T19:13:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-11T19:08:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-11T19:03:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-11T18:58:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-09-06T20:11:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-06T19:59:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-06T19:55:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-06T19:52:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-06T19:36:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-06T18:10:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-04T12:14:00.000-05:00

You Tube

Niabi beats PETA to punch: Zoo requested investigation in wolf’s death

2006-08-31T14:33:00.000-05:00

By Kurt Allemeier, kallemeier@qconline.com

A request for an investigation into the death of an escaped Niabi Zoo wolf made by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is a day late, the zoo's director said Wednesday.

Onya, a 7-year-old gray wolf, was shot and killed by a Rock Island County sheriff's deputy early Saturday morning about a mile west of the zoo, after escaping from its enclosure, eluding searchers for a day and a half, and getting past Niabi's perimeter fence.

On Monday, zoo director Tom Stalf contacted the U.S. Department of Agriculture and also the American Zoological Association about the wolf's death. A USDA inspector visited the zoo Tuesday and a report on the incident is expected as early as today.

"We are a pro-active zoo," Mr. Stalf said, "not reactive."

PETA sent out a press release dated Wednesday calling for an investigation by the USDA.

"When animals like Onya — who have been denied their basic needs — see an opportunity to escape their dreary lives, they often take it," Debbie Leahy, PETA director, said in a release. "The zoo didn't do its job and Onya wound up paying with her life."

The release also notes the death of a lion cub at the zoo in September 2005 that was also investigated by the USDA.

Mr. Stalf thinks PETA undermines the importance of zoos in education, conservation, research, and recreation.

"We have animals in captivity so we can learn how to protect wild animals in wild places," he said. "PETA doesn't believe in that, and it is unfortunate."

The USDA inspection following the wolf's death included an examination of the perimeter fence surrounding 70 acres of zoo property. Zoo employees have been unable to find where the wolf got off zoo property, and the USDA inspector was unable to locate an escape path either, Mr. Stalf said.

A fence contractor has been hired to do some general repair to the perimeter fence, but no significant holes that could allow an animal to escape are evident, Mr. Stalf said.

Mr. Stalf has made it known to other zoos that Onya's companion, Nanook, is available. The zoo director has said he won't reopen the exhibit as it is.

Both wolves were discovered missing Aug. 24, and officials kept the zoo closed the following day as employees searched for them. Nanook was captured the morning of Aug. 25. He also escaped from the exhibit in March 2000.

The exhibit is popular and the wolves have been popular as part of Naibi's "adopt an animal" program. Mr. Stalf has scheduled a meeting with contractors to discuss changes in the exhibit. Possible changes include expanding the enclosure and adding a foundation that will not allow the wolves to dig under the fence.

Quad Cities Online

Hunting: Wolf threat hits home in Marinette County

2006-08-31T14:26:00.000-05:00

Sturgeon Bay man's hound killed during bear training

By Kevin Naze - Press-Gazette correspondent

Dick Baudhuin of Sturgeon Bay has been hunting black bears in the vast forests of northern Wisconsin for more than 40 years, but what he saw Saturday in Marinette County reinforced his belief that animal rights activists need to check out the wilderness. Baudhuin, 70, was with four of his eight bluetick and redtick hounds, taking advantage of the final weekend of bear dog training before the Sept. 13 season opener.

Even though no one in his party has a Zone B kill permit this year, Baudhuin knows it's only a matter of time before they get wind of someone who does. "We're always looking to get out there," Baudhuin said. "The thrill isn't necessarily in the kill, it's in the hunt."

Baudhuin's 3-year-old bluetick hound, Dixie, was trailing a black bear early that afternoon west of Athelstane, not far from McClintock Park on Parkway Road. When three of his other dogs returned to the truck — and Dixie's radio-tracking collar showed no signs of movement — Baudhuin and another hunter walked in. Baudhin found Dixie mutilated, her hide stripped off, and partly eaten.

"It wasn't a total surprise, because I've seen pictures," Baudhuin said. "As soon as I saw it, I knew what it was." It was a wolf kill, confirmed later by a U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services employee.

"It was a letdown," Baudhuin said. "It's an unfortunate situation that has happened to a number of friends of mine, and now it hit home."

A Green Bay-area hunter, along to get a taste of what hound hunting for bears was like, was shocked at what he saw. "He had no clue that this kind of thing happens," Baudhuin said. After reporting the loss, Baudhuin waited while another hunter went in to check out the scene. The wolves had been back, leaving little uneaten.

Dixie wore a bell, something that was believed would help deter wolf attacks.

"A lot of people would like you to think the wolves are protecting young ones, but (the pups) are born in March," Baudhuin said. "As far as I'm concerned, they're already in the hunting mode, and probably a player in the kill."

Adrian Wydeven, a state Department of Natural Resources wolf expert, said wolves have killed 12 bear hounds and injured six others in Wisconsin this year. While Baudhuin's loss was the first confirmed wolf kill on a dog in Marinette County history, seven of the 12 bear hound deaths were caused by the same pack in western Bayfield County, near Drummond. Two years ago, a different pack in Ashland County, near Glidden, killed nine dogs.

"It's always an upsetting situation," Wydeven said. "It seems to vary so much year to year, and pack to pack." The state's gray wolf population was estimated by wildlife biologists to be close to 500 animals before pups were born this spring, with some 115 packs and at least 12 loners.

"I think it's good to have wolves, but now we've got an overpopulation, with no method of control," Baudhuin said. "I think it's just a matter of time before we have problems right here in Door County."

Hunters are reimbursed at the current market value for their hounds, up to $2,500. "I projected Dixie was a $5,000 dog," Baudhuin said. "I say that based on a good bloodline and because from start to finish, whether bear, bobcat or coyote, she was head and shoulders above your average hound."

Wolves are listed as a protected wild animal by the state. However, the federal government lists wolves as an endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in March its intent to remove wolves from the endangered list in Wisconsin and adjacent states and return all management authority to the states. Once that's done, likely early next year, special permits from USFWS for lethal controls on wolves will not be needed.

Green Bay Press-Gazette

Wolves complicate Navy's airfield plans

2006-08-31T14:14:00.000-05:00

by Wade Rawlins, Staff Writer

Endangered red wolves prowl the pine bogs and farm fields of Washington and Beaufort counties where the Navy wants to build a jet landing strip, according to federal tracking data released Wednesday by an environmental advocacy group.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, which is challenging the Navy's plan to build the airfield near a national wildlife refuge, said eight wolves in several packs have moved onto the refuge and surrounding private farmland near the proposed landing field site in the three years since the Navy studied the area.

The presence of red wolves, an endangered species that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been trying to reintroduce in the wild for two decades, could further complicate the Navy's plans to locate an airfield near the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.

"It's another strong reason backed up by the Endangered Species Act that the Navy should look for an alternative site," said Derb Carter, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center.

The Navy wants to acquire 30,000 acres in Washington and Beaufort counties and build a $230 million runway for jet pilots to practice landing on aircraft carriers.

A spokesman for the Navy's Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., said Wednesday evening that the Navy had not seen the Southern Environmental Law Center study.

"It would be inappropriate to respond to information that has not been received," Lt. Cmdr. K.C. Marshall said. "The Navy continues to work with agencies to update information in the supplemental environmental impact statement."

Navy's ideal site

Navy officials say the sparse population and lack of development make the Washington-Beaufort county site ideal for its planes, which will be based at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia and at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock.

Environmentalists have long argued that the site's proximity to a wildlife refuge, home in winter to more than 100,000 tundra swans and snow geese, conflicts with the mission of the refuge and poses a severe risk of bird-aircraft collisions.

The environmental group sued, and federal courts found deficiencies in the Navy's original environmental studies. As a result, the Navy is conducting additional environmental assessments.

Mike Bryant, manager of the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, where the Red Wolf Recovery Program is housed, confirmed the environmentalists' assertion that red wolves roam the area where the airstrip is planned.

"There are wolves that use the area regularly, as I understand it," Bryant said. "Obviously, the red wolves are highly mobile but they are territorial. They generally work a particular area."

On endangered list

Red wolves were declared extinct in the wild in 1980. The national red wolf recovery effort has been under way since 1987, when Fish and Wildlife released a pair in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in Dare County.

Their recovery is considered important because they help keep the populations of deer, raccoons and small rodents in check.

Now, the wild population in Eastern North Carolina stands at about 100 animals that move in packs through a five-county area. About 70 wolves are outfitted with radio collars, allowing wildlife biologists to track their movements.

"We would have concerns about any impacts on wolves in the recovery area," Bryant said.

Because the reintroduced wolves carry the classification of an experimental population, Bryant said the protection of individual wolves might not be required for the survival of the species. But he added: "It's important for the recovery of the species that they do well in this county."

Law center's letter

The Southern Environmental Law Center obtained the radio-tracking data on the wolves from the Fish and Wildlife Service.

In a Wednesday letter to the Navy, the environmental group said eight red wolves used the proposed landing field site near the refuge. One red wolf den with three pups was directly off the north end of the proposed runway.

Carter said the radio-tracking studies show that 12 red wolves inhabit another proposed Navy site in Hyde County. He said construction and operation of a landing field at either site would harm the red wolf and reduce the likelihood of recovery of the species.

Because the reintroduced red wolf population is found on a national wildlife refuge, Carter said, it has the full protection of the Endangered Species Act, which bars federal agencies from taking actions that would jeopardize continued existence of the species.

News & Observer

Complete Yellowstone wolf update

2006-08-30T18:38:00.000-05:00

Ralph Maughan presents a thorough update of the status of 13 Yellowstone wolf packs at his comprehensive website:

Ralph Maughan's Wildlife Reports

Wolves return to eastern Germany as people leave

2006-08-30T18:35:00.000-05:00

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - A century after they were wiped out by hunters and a burgeoning population, wolves have returned to parts of eastern Germany as factories close down, businesses fail and people move out. A few dozen wolves have formed a beachhead in Germany's Brandenburg state just west of the border with Poland and enjoy special protection from authorities delighted by the return of the shy animals so deeply entrenched in German folklore.

It's a surprising comeback in one of the world's leading industrial nations where 82 million people are squeezed into a country the size of the U.S. state of Montana. The wolves, who arrived from Poland or other neighboring countries, live in a largely vacant area of abandoned strip mines and vacated troop training grounds southeast of Berlin. They serve as a living testament to the profound changes taking place in eastern Germany, once a center of industry and mining, now fallen on hard times. Other species, like the crane and the white-tailed eagle -- have also flourished in the east as the human population decreases - an unintended result of German unification in 1990.

"The wolves were gone for over 100 years and first started coming back a while after the Berlin Wall fell," said Matthias Freude, head of the Brandenburg state environmental office, who estimates there are now about 20 wolves in two packs in Germany. "They swam across the Neise river or walked across the ice in winter," he added. "There are hardly any people left there now. The wolves' biggest predator is hunters. But it's against the law to hunt them in Germany."

SHY CREATURES

More than 1.5 million people have left eastern Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall -- about one-tenth of the population of the communist state that was proud to be one of the Soviet bloc's leading industrial nations. While Communist East Germany wanted nothing to do with wolves because they did not see any place for them in a modern industrial country, the Brandenburg state government set up after unification welcomed their return to the forests.

"They're following ancient migration routes back to Germany, partly because of the growing numbers in Poland, Slovakia and other parts of Eastern Europe (which) means they have to spread out and go somewhere," said Roland Melisch, head of the species conservation section at the WWF in Germany.

Brandenburg state, which surrounds Berlin, not only made it a crime to shoot wolves but offers farmers cash compensation for any farm animals that fall prey to the wolves. It also provides subsidies to farmers to buy electric fences to keep wolves out.

Freude said that so far only one of the 14 sheep killed in the last six years and reported to authorities by farmers seeking compensation was actually attacked by a wolf. The others were killed by dogs or other animals, he said. "We're all thrilled that the wolves are back," Freude said. "They belong here. The forest is a more exciting place when you know wolves are in it. They're difficult to see because they're very shy."

Wolves have also been returning to other countries where they were nearly extinct, including Italy, Austria, France and Baltic states, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). After a campaign of extermination lasting centuries, Germany shot the last of its wolves near Hoyerswerda in 1904. Wolves were also wiped out in most of the rest of northwestern Europe, although small populations survived in Spain and Italy.

ANCIENT MIGRATION ROUTES

Big, bad wolves feature prominently in European fables and fairy-tales like "Little Red Riding Hood" about a girl's encounter with a wicked wolf disguised as her grandmother. Many of these tales were recorded by Germans Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the 19th century. "It was an undeserved rap," said Melisch. "The fact is we can live in harmony with wolves. They're predatory but there are ways to limit dangers to sheep or goats. Wolves have it good in Germany now and their population will surely keep growing."

The WWF said there are in fact no documented cases in Europe of a healthy wolf living in the wild ever intentionally attacking and killing a human.

Wolves might be feared in other countries but Freude said Germans are fascinated by their return. "The main reason they're here is because they are by and large undisturbed in Germany," he said. "They won't be hunted here because so many people have left. Depopulation is certainly an important factor for their return."

Reuters

Ruling hurts control of wolf

2006-08-30T18:20:00.000-05:00

WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge’s recent ruling that barred wildlife officials from killing problem wolves in Wisconsin has saved the lives of at least five wolves preying on livestock in northern Wisconsin, the state’s coordinator of the wolf management program said Tuesday.

Since the judge’s decision Aug. 9, wolves killed sheep and calves on four farms in Douglas and Bayfield counties, said Adrian Wydeven of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Until the ruling, wolves causing problems for the farms would have been trapped and euthanized with a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The permit allowed for the killing of 43 such wolves this year. Up to 10 wolves might have been trapped and killed by now, Wydeven said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his office in Park Falls.

That practice was halted after U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, D.C., sided with animal welfare and environmental groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, in a lawsuit that argued the killing violated the federal Endangered Species Act.

‘‘It has made things a lot more difficult for us,’’ Wydeven said. ‘‘A lot of farmers are concerned and disappointed and fearful that wolf attacks are not going to be slowed down.’’ Eighteen wolves were killed with the permit before the judge issued her ruling, he said.

Eric Koens, a director of the Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association and a critic of the number of wolves in northern Wisconsin, hinted people may be killing wolves illegally to save their animals. ‘‘Landowners will attempt to resolve the problems themselves, that’s pretty much understood, at least by those of us in the livestock business,’’ Koens said. ‘‘People are going to have less tolerance toward wolves if these problem (wolves) are not controlled.’’

Wolves were wiped out in Wisconsin in the 1950s after decades of bounty hunting. Since the animal was granted protection as an endangered species in the 1970s, wolves migrated back from Minnesota, and about 500 live mostly in northern and central Wisconsin.

Earlier this year, the DNR announced that wolves killed or injured livestock on 25 farms last year — triple the number from four years ago — diminishing public support for wolves in the state. Last year, 29 problem wolves were killed under the special permit.

Wydeven said Tuesday that the trapping of problem wolves planned to resume with a new strategy. A $300 shock collar will be put on the wolves before they are released. When the wolf comes within about 200 yards of a triggering device in a pasture or field, a collar would shock it.

The Mining Journal

Yellowstone wolf update

2006-08-29T17:38:00.000-05:00

Kathy Lynch, veteran wolf reporter for Ralph's website, persents her wrapup of the summer in Yellowstone:

Ralph Maughan's Wildlife Reports

Wyoming wolf pack update

2006-08-29T17:32:00.000-05:00

Ralph Maughan's website has the latest news about the wolves in the Jackson Hole area, pup counts, and new packs:

Ralph Maughan's Wildlife Reports

Two men charged in wolf killing; slain animal likely not 'Romeo'

2006-08-29T15:51:00.000-05:00

Two men were charged Sunday for the killing and disposing of a black wolf found on Thane Road last month.
The Alaska State Troopers received a tip from a confidential informant that led to officials charging Troy A. Portis, 34, and Patrick Peterson, 49, both of Juneau, with crimes associated with the animal's death, said Steve Hall, a sergeant with the troopers' Bureau of Wildlife Enforcement.

Portis is charged with taking a wolf when the season is closed, failing to salvage the animal's hide and unlawful possession and transportation of the animal. Peterson is charged with unlawful possession and transportation of game.

All are misdemeanor charges and can carry a fine of up to $10,000 and a sentence of one year in jail. The two men also can lose their hunting privileges and any firearms used in the incident can be confiscated. Peterson and Portis are scheduled to appear in court Sept. 7.

Both suspects were unreachable by phone. Peterson told local radio station KINY that Portis did not realize the season was closed when he shot the wolf, and out of panic, he discarded the carcass. The shooting occurred on July 16 near Glacier Creek at Taku Inlet, according to state troopers.

Though similar in appearance, officials at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game investigating the case said the slain animal is most likely not "Romeo," a local celebrity wolf often spotted trekking across a frozen Mendenhall Lake in the winter and playing with dogs accompanied by hikers.

The department has received a report of a black wolf sighting in the Mendenhall Valley since the slain animal was found last month, said Doug Larsen, Southeast regional supervisor for the Division of Wildlife Conservation. Hair samples collected from the slain wolf and from the wolf that frequents the Mendenhall Lake area are being analyzed for a DNA match, but results will not be known for several months, Larsen said. "Even without the DNA results, we feel confident that the wolf in Thane was a different animal," he added.

The way the animal was disposed was the most unusual aspect of the case, Larsen said. "Normally, you don't find a dead animal killed by humans lying on the road," he added. The wolf was fatally shot three times and its throat was slit, according to the department.

Alaska Sled Dog Tours and a separate group of Juneau residents were pledging a combined $9,000 for information leading to the prosecution of the wolf-killers. That offer still holds, whether or not the wolf was Romeo. But neither group has heard from troopers about the source of the tip.

"We're a little bit in the dark about it," said Joel Bennett, one of the group members. "We're really pleased if the reward was the catalyst for the person coming forward. "(The pledges) just reflect how much people care about local wildlife here," he said. "I think there was this undercurrent of outrage that something that valuable could be snuffed out by some clueless person."

Juneau Empire

Two groups file lawsuit to stop Alaska aerial wolf control

2006-08-29T13:46:00.000-05:00

Associated Press

Two conservation groups filed a lawsuit today asking the state's Superior Court to halt aerial wolf control. Defenders of Wildlife and the Alaska Wildlife Alliance also want a stop to the state's bear killing plans, saying they too are based on faulty science and violate state law.

The state of Alaska resumed aerial wolf control three years ago. Under the program designed to boost moose and caribou numbers in several areas of the state, more than 550 wolves have been killed. The program now is operating in five areas of Alaska.

KTVA-TV

Wolves escape from Moline area zoo

2006-08-29T13:42:00.000-05:00

Niabi Zoo in trying to get back to normal in Coal Valley. That's after an escaped female gray wolf, Onya, was shot and killed early Saturday by a sheriff's deputy about a mile from the zoo.

The zoo's two wolves went missing on Thursday. The male, Nanook, was captured Friday morning.

On Sunday, kids of all ages were back to enjoy the animals and activities. The free admission day sponsored by Deere and Company always attracts a big crowd.

But while families find plenty to see and do, it's been a tough few days for zoo staffers. They say it's good to see the guests back but hard to deal with the situation.

"It's in the back of our minds what's going on," said Tom Stalf, zoo director. "Our investigation is still continuing on what we're going to do with the wolf exhibit as well as making sure that it doesn't happen again."

Stalf said he will work to find a new home for the male wolf.

WQAD-TV

Wolf Comeback in Scandinavia Stifled by Public Outcry

2006-08-18T18:23:00.000-05:00

James Owen for National Geographic News

The call of the wild can once again be heard in forests in Sweden and Norway, heralding the recovery of the gray wolf. The wolf had been driven to extinction during the last century, and the animals' comeback since the 1980s has the elements for a conservation success story. But the growing presence of wolves in Scandinavia has polarized residents there and put the mammal's long-term future in the region in doubt.

Many rural communities have brought strong opposition to wolf conservation, saying the wild predators kill their livestock and hunting dogs. Public opinion in Norway, which has a large rural population, has tended to side against the wolf, and in Sweden the carnivore also appears to be losing support. Increasing numbers of gray wolves are being killed illegally, researchers say. At the same time the population has been isolated and, as a result, weakened by inbreeding.

With the Swedish countryside seen as a key battleground in what's expected to be a close-run general election in September, the wolf debate is at the top of the political agenda. "All the political parties are now saying you must listen to the people living with the wolves," said wolf researcher Olof Liberg of the Grimsö Wildlife Research Station in Riddarhyttan, Sweden.

According to Stockholm-based ecologist and commentator Petter Hedberg, the wolf in Sweden has become "a symbol for the way the political power in Stockholm dictates the way people live in rural areas, without [the politicians] having to face the consequences of their decision."

Controversial Conviction

Gray wolves were thought to be extinct in Sweden and Norway by the 1960s following centuries of persecution. Unexpectedly in the 1980s a single breeding pack was discovered in south-central Sweden.Studies suggest the pack came to the area naturally from the Finnish-Russian border region more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) away.

The wolves had been granted government protections since the 1960s in Sweden and the 1970s in Norway that made it illegal to shoot wolves in the wild. The latest surveys by Swedish and Norwegian researchers with Skandulv (the Scandinavian Wolf Research Project) indicate that the wolf population is currently growing at a rate of about 20 percent annually. Latest estimates suggest there are around 125 gray wolves living wild in Sweden and about 25 in Norway.

The population's stronghold is the densely forested central southern region of the Scandinavian peninsula (map of Sweden). But as wolf numbers increase, the animals are moving closer to human territory, and conflicts are on the rise.

Last year a sheep farmer from Dalsland in central Sweden was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for illegally shooting a wolf that he claimed had recently attacked his flock. The conviction was followed by a successful campaign by the farming and hunting lobby to allow farmers to kill wolves that pose an immediate threat to fenced livestock. "Before, you had to wait until the wolf had actually put its teeth in the animal," Liberg said.

This month Swedish media reported that rural campaigners are seeking to petition the Swedish Parliament for a further relaxation of wolf protection measures. Their proposal would allow wolves that attack hunting dogs or livestock outside of fenced areas to be shot.

Maximum Number

Governments already place limits on the number of breeding packs or individuals that can exist within their borders. Norway, which has around two million free-grazing sheep, wants just three reproducing packs. The government there has established a wolf zone next to the Swedish border outside of which wolves may be shot.

Sweden has a preliminary population target of 200 wolves. Liberg, coordinator of Skandulv, is now doubtful whether this figure will be increased. "If you had asked me five years ago, I would certainly have said, Yes," the researcher added. "Now I'm not so sure, because the wolf issue has become hotter politically." If the Swedish wolf population continues to grow at the current rate, he says, this will probably mean licensed culling.

According to a new Skandulv study yet to be published, fatalities of radio-tagged wolves suggest that up to 20 percent of the Scandinavian population is killed illegally each year. "That's about 25 to 30 wolves," Liberg added. "It's a very heavy drain on the population." Wolf researchers are also worried about the health of a population founded by just a few individuals. Such packs have little genetic diversity and are vulnerable to inbreeding. As result, Skandulv says, litter sizes are decreasing.

And further wolf migrants from the north are being prevented from coming to the rescue, Liberg says. "The northern third of Sweden [part of Lapland] is a reindeer husbandry area, and the Saami herders say they cannot tolerate any wolves at all," he explained.

Proposals to import new blood from Finland or Russia are seen as too controversial, Liberg adds. "The politicians are not ready for that," he said. "In the long run we need new wolves," he added, "Sooner or later the litter sizes will be so small they will not compensate for mortality."

National Geographic

Interview: Doug Smith on Making Room for Wolves

2006-08-18T14:18:00.000-05:00

NOW on PBS-TV

Doug Smith has worked with the Yellowstone Wolf Project, which he heads, since its inception in 1994. A biologist, Smith has studied wolves for 27 years. David Brancaccio sat down with Smith to talk about his experiences reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone National Park. This is an edited transcript of their conversation.

BRANCACCIO: What challenges did you face in bringing wolves back to Yellowstone?

SMITH: Wolves were eradicated from this area, and a lot of people felt that was for a good reason. Many people have grandparents that were doing some of the eradication, and they felt that the West was settled on the idea of eradicating predators; primarily, wolves. That was in the twenties, and the thirties, and the forties. The idea of bringing wolves back was an insult to many people.

BRANCACCIO: So, there was lots of pushback on this notion of, "What should we do about, perhaps, reintroducing them?"

SMITH: A lot of pushback. I don't think this is an overstatement. Given the mythology of wolves; the stories of wolves; the culture of animosity that goes back, not hundreds, but thousands of years, I would say that wolves are one of the most controversial wildlife species in the world ... To some, wolves symbolize waste and destruction, and killing. To others, they symbolize wilderness and a healthy ecosystem.

And wolves just want to be wolves, like other wildlife. So, their biggest problem is the baggage that comes along with them. The further I travel; the more I read; the more I talk to people, the more that's apparent to me. The distribution of wolves goes across the top of the globe, the Northern Hemisphere. So, they are a lot of places where people are. And almost every place where they co-exist there are problems. And so, you cannot overestimate or overstate the problem that we faced trying to bring this animal back.

BRANCACCIO: What is the argument for bringing them back, given that kind of animosity?

SMITH: The argument for bringing them back is rooted in the Endangered Species Act ... That states, simply, we don't have the right to, through our human actions, to completely destroy, eradicate, eliminate, another plant or animal species. In other words, it is trying to strike a balance between human activities, and other life forms.

Wolves were literally eradicated and they roamed all of the U.S., except a few places in deserts, and the tip of Florida. They were eradicated from everywhere except the extreme northern portion of northern Minnesota. The population went from millions to 500. The Endangered Species Act ... gave us the teeth to bring back wolves in a suitable habitat.

BRANCACCIO: What is the role of wolves in the ecosystem?

SMITH: Wolves are a top carnivore. They sit atop of this food web, or chain, that we learned about in grade school. And scientists believe that ecosystems are structured by forces at the top, like predators. [They believe] that their influence trickles down to the bottom. Others feel that ecosystems are structured by the food at the bottom and that it flows up. Still others feel that it's both. And some others, yet, feel that it can switch back and forth; or operate simultaneously. Regardless of whose right, wolves have something to do with that ... They're the top carnivore in North American ecosystems. We wiped them out and it has to have had an influence.

BRANCACCIO: What was involved in getting them reintroduced?

SMITH: Wolves are actually really easy [to reintroduce]. They adapt very well and are opportunists. We brought in wild wolves, not captive ones, from Canada. Other programs that have used captive stock have had trouble. Our wolves were masters at life in the wild. We acclimated them a brief period; then turned them loose. Yellowstone provides a great core habitat [as] we don't have poaching in the park. That got the population established solidly. From there, they could move out and establish in other areas and that's what they've done.

BRANCACCIO: And how has it worked?

SMITH: It's worked extremely well. We are in the twelfth year and have more wolves than we thought we would. They are here in enough numbers that they are being integrated into the ecosystem. They interact with the other animals. We didn't think we'd be here ten years into it. We thought post-five years we would even be struggling, getting the population established.

BRANCACCIO: Can we say that it's now a permanent thing, that the wolves have reestablished their presence in the U.S?

SMITH: I think so. There are about 3500 wolves now in the [contiguous] U.S. Thirty years ago, there were about 500. That's a tremendous success story. That's excluding Alaska where there are probably seven to nine thousand wolves. Wolves have increased their numbers and range. Wolves are in Michigan, Wisconsin, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico. Red wolves are in North Carolina. Those are all great success stories. So that's the good news.

The bad news is, every one of those places I mentioned, wolves are still a struggle for humanity. We can't seem to accept them fully and embrace them like other wildlife ... Wolves raise the emotions of people like no other animal does.

BRANCACCIO: That's one of the challenges here. Is that the wolves can't read the sign, as to where the park boundary is. And so, they go out of the park boundary. And increasingly, they're mixing with ranches, and other populations, who do not want them around.

SMITH: That's true. And the reintroduction was designed to be boundary-less. We did not expect the wolves to pay attention to the boundary. And we told everybody that. And that's a point of contention. Because many, many people have said to me, "I have no problem with wolves in Yellowstone Park. But, when they come out of it, I want them moved back in, or killed."

BRANCACCIO: You have a lot of experience talking to ranchers, some of whom just hate these wolves. What do you tell them? They have a point that wolves do kill some of their cattle, which costs them money.

SMITH: The ranchers do have a point as wolves do occasionally prey on livestock. There are a couple of things that I tell them. For one, I acknowledge their problems. One of their biggest problems is not what the wolves kill, but just having wolves around. The sleepless nights. The stress on the cows. The stress on the families. The extra money it costs to spend more time with your livestock, because the wolves are around. You need to guard them more. All those are intangibles that the compensation system doesn't pay for.

In areas that are heavily 'agriculturalized,' we shouldn't have wolves. They should just be killed. And on the flip side, in wild land areas, like national forests, wilderness parks, wildlife refuges, we should vigorously protect wolves and other carnivores. The tough part becomes an attention zone in between.

NOW on PBS-TV

Blaming wolves: Ranchers' claims need further proof

2006-08-18T14:16:00.000-05:00

Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

Most ranchers and sheepherders don't like wolves. You might even say they are the predators' natural enemies. That, of course, is because wolves occasionally dine on a calf or lamb and sometimes even on an adult animal, and that means a financial loss to the rancher.

Advocates for the reintroduction of wolves in the West don't dispute that ranchers can prove some wolf depredation. But their claims that range animals are failing to gain weight because wolves are lurking seem implausible and in need of further study.

Ingrained and often overblown animosity toward wolves resulted in their eradication from the West by cattlemen, sheepmen and their hired guns, who trapped the animals, shot them and poisoned them until the last wolf was killed off in the early 20th century.

More than a decade ago, wolves were reintroduced to rebalance the ecosystems that were upset when the species at the top of the food chain was eliminated. Conservationists and biologists predicted that wolves would reorder natural, beneficial relationships among plants and animals. Studies have proven them right.

The reintroduced wolves have thrived and spread into Wyoming, Idaho, Montana. But their prosperity has fostered a renewed hostility among ranchers, despite private and federal programs to compensate them when they can verify livestock lost to wolf attacks.

The Idaho Office of Species Conservation has agreed to pay for financial losses from animals becoming so nervous they can't eat because they sense the presence of wolves. The nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife rightly says much more research is needed to confirm wolves are to blame since there are many other factors affecting livestock weights.

Biologists point out that sheep and cattle aren't apt to stop grazing when wolves are merely roaming. It makes more sense that livestock would react when a wolf pack is hunting them but revert to normal behavior when there is no threat.

Wolves are a natural component of a healthy West and rightly protected by law. Compensation is due ranchers only when they can prove wolves responsible for a financial loss.

Salt Lake Tribune

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? Western cattle scared skinny

2006-08-18T14:12:00.000-05:00

BY JESSE HARLAN ALDERMAN

BOISE, Idaho -- Since wolves returned to roaming the Northern Rockies more than a decade ago, ranchers say they've observed a trend: Fear of the predators is causing sheep and cattle to be scared skinny. The wolf jitters could mean skimpier lamb chops and porterhouse steaks that show more bone than beef on dinner tables across the country.

''When the cows are scared, they bunch together, they don't spread out like they're used to. They don't eat and drink -- you can just tell they're losing weight,'' said Lloyd Knight, head of the Idaho Cattle Association.

Wildlife officials reintroduced endangered gray wolves into Yellowstone National Park and the central Idaho mountains in 1995. Though cattle ranchers and wool growers first fretted that the wolves would kill cows and sheep, a decade later, they say their presence wreaks as much havoc as their bite.

Calves fetch $1.45 a pound on the market. So if the howl of wolves inspires just a few lost pounds on each head of cattle, that quickly mounts into large financial losses, Knight said.

Efforts are being made to measure the extent of the problem. In Idaho, the Office of Species Conservation, an agency that compensates ranchers for wolf-related losses, has agreed to pay any rancher who can demonstrate weight loss through record-keeping.

Not everyone agrees. Proving that animal weight loss stems from wolf jitters, and not some other factor such as rangeland health or migration patterns, is difficult if not impossible, said Curt Mack, a biologist with the Nez Perce Indian tribe that has a hand in Idaho's wolf oversight.

AP

Sun-Times

Howling with the wolves on their own territory

2006-08-18T14:09:00.000-05:00

By Diane Daniel, Globe Correspondent

MANTEO, N.C. -- Zacary Hunter, 8, was dressed for the occasion. His red T-shirt was adorned with an embroidered face of a red wolf and the lettering SAVE ME! His mother, Tricia, had made the shirt for him as part of a school project back home in Telford, Pa.

"It was a project on endangered species, and he got assigned the red wolf," Tricia explained. "We went online for his report and learned that a lot of red wolves are in North Carolina."

So when she, Zacary, and his brother Jacob, 5, came to the Outer Banks in late June on vacation, they immediately signed up for a Red Wolf Howling Safari, a two-hour educational program at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Although visitors usually do not see the wolves (few people ever do), with a little luck and some human-produced howls, the wolves will howl back.

The refuge, on about 152,000 acres of forested wetland just east of Manteo and west of Columbia, is home to an abundance of wildlife, including bears, deer, otters, alligators, and at least 200 species of birds. But the most famous animal here is the red wolf, an endangered species that was declared extinct in the wild in 1980. In a reintroduction program, the US Fish and Wildlife Service captured the few remaining red wolves to breed them in captivity and reestablish the species in the wild. Though there are 38 spots in the country that conduct captive breeding programs, the only place in the world where red wolves roam wild is here in eastern North Carolina, across 1.7 million acres in five counties.

Wild, however, does not mean without human intervention. As part of the Red Wolf Recovery Program headquartered at the Alligator River refuge, more than half the wolves wear radio transmitter collars that emit frequencies so biologists can study their movement and behavior. Scientists do aerial tracking as well. And when they trap wolves to attach the collars, they inoculate them against heartworm and other diseases.

In 1987 the Fish and Wildlife Service released four pairs of captive-bred red wolves in the refuge, and today nearly 20 packs comprising 100 wolves roam the area. (There are places in New England to see red wolves in captivity: Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence and Beardsley Zoological Gardens in Bridgeport, Conn.)

Before Zacary and Jacob went off to howl with the 100 or so other visitors, they visited a table staffed by Diane Hendry, recovery outreach coordinator, who showed them pelts from a red wolf and a coyote. Red wolves, about 4 feet long and weighing 53 to 84 pounds, are larger. Despite their name, they are mostly brown and buff, sometimes with a reddish color on their ears, head, and legs.

The boys next zipped over to the table staffed by Kim Wheeler , executive director of the Red Wolf Coalition, a nonprofit organization founded in 1997. With their own money, Zacary bought a coalition hat and T-shirt and Jacob bought a T-shirt, and they both made a cash donation. The coalition, which opened an office in Columbia last year, advocates for the long-term survival of red wolf populations by running educational and public-involvement programs. The weekly summer howlings, which started nine years ago and routinely fill up with more than 100 people, have boosted public awareness.

The howlings are located near a holding facility, where usually fewer than a dozen wolves are being held for a number of reasons, such as recuperation from an injury, making a transition to or from a captive facility, or genetic testing. The animals that howl back could be these wolves or members of th e packs.

With darkness descended and everyone gathered, Wheeler walked ahead of the group to start initial contact. Hendry, meanwhile, rounded up the couple of dozen children and had them practice their technique silently. "Cup your hands and raise your head," she said, and they did, taking their instructions seriously and not making a sound.

On this night, Wheeler's howling skills were put to the test. She started with one long "Ah-rooooooooo," followed by a shorter, then a longer one. Nothing. The group, about a football field away from her, listened intently while quietly swatting away bugs. Meanwhile, crickets, bullfrogs, and occasional airplanes supplied the noise.

Wheeler repeated her trio of howls, and, finally, in the distance, there were some garbled yelps and perhaps a howl. Wheeler returned to the crowd, asking Hendry, "Did they hear anything?" No one was sure.

The kids got their chance, followed by 80 or so howling adults. Surprisingly, from a different direction than Wheeler had been facing, came several lone howls. Relief replaced anxiety on the howlers' faces. Their mission had been accomplished.

Boston Globe

Federal court blocks state from killing wolves

2006-08-18T14:05:00.000-05:00

Judge says lethal controls conflict with Endangered Species Act

Ryan Stutzman - THE-BEE

A federal judge has blocked the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' authority to kill wolves. U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a preliminary injunction last week against a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) permit, which allowed the DNR to kill as many as 43 wolves in the state this year.

The DNR uses the permit to eliminate animals in packs suspected of preying on pets or livestock. Eighteen wolves had been killed under the authority of the permit this year when the injunction was issued Aug. 9, including one in southern Price County just two weeks ago.

Kollar-Kotelly – who is also the presiding judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the secret court that oversees warrant requests for surveillance activities on suspected foreign intelligence agents inside the United States – reasoned that the USFWS permit conflicts with the Endangered Species Act.

"Simply put, the recovery of the grey wolf is not supported by killing 43 grey wolves," the judge wrote in her decision.

An animal-protection consortium led by the Humane Society of the United States brought the suit against the federal government, arguing that the USFWS was undermining federal wildlife protections. On its Web site, the Humane Society called the permit a "back-door attempt to authorize the killing" of wolves.

The order is expected to stoke passions locally, where wolves are often blamed for livestock disappearance and perceived declines in game populations, such as white-tailed deer. Hushed anecdotes about wolf poaching are fairly common in the area.

Shooting a wolf without proper authorization is a crime in Wisconsin and the other Great Lakes states with wolf populations. A Michigan man was sentenced to jail time and ordered to pay nearly $2,500 in fines and restitution last year after he was convicted of killing a wolf during the 2004 deer firearm season in the Upper Peninsula's Iron County.

THE-BEE

Feds seek comment on Oregon wolf plan

2006-08-11T15:07:00.000-05:00

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is beginning an environmental review of the state of Oregon's request for a federal permit to manage gray wolves in the state, where wolves are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act as an endangered species. The Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking public comments on the permit application and the environmental review until September 11.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted a Wolf Conservation and Management Plan in December 2005 that was designed to meet the Oregon Endangered Species Act conservation mandate while at the same time providing practical and flexible approaches for dealing with problem wolves, or those involved in chronic depredation of livestock. Oregon officials requested the permit, known as a recovery permit, because some of the actions the state may take under its plan could harm or kill these problem wolves, which would be a violation of the Endangered Species Act.

The goal of Oregon's plan is to promote wolf recovery objectives and enhance the survival of wolves in the wild. Chronic wolf-livestock conflicts are detrimental to the long-term survival of gray wolves because relying on livestock for food keeps the wolves from hunting their natural prey and functioning in their natural environment. Continued depredation of domestic livestock also discourages public acceptance of wolves' presence in Oregon.

Oregon's wolf plan (available at www.dfw.state.or.us/wolves/) provides guidelines for responses to situations that may arise as gray wolves migrate into Oregon from adjacent states and outlines specific criteria that must be met in order to delist wolves from the State Endangered Species Act. Under the plan, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (0DFW) proposes to conduct non-lethal actions to reduce or resolve wolf-livestock conflicts and human safety concerns. If non-lethal efforts are unsuccessful and livestock depredations continue, ODFW requests authorization to conduct lethal control of wolves. No lethal measures by private landowners would be authorized by this permit.

The Service will conduct its environmental review of ODFW's permit request in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Under this law, a range of alternatives to a proposed project must be developed and considered in an environmental review. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the potential impact of alternatives for managing conflicts with wolves in Oregon. An alternative will be selected and a decision made on permit issuance after comments are considered and analysis is complete.

Currently, ODFW is authorized through a cooperative agreement known as a Section 6 permit to conduct non-lethal gray wolf management actions in Oregon. These actions include trapping, collaring, taking blood and hair samples, harassing, and other actions that are not reasonably expected to result in the death or permanent disabling of a wolf.

Publication of this notice in today's Federal Register opens a 30-day public comment period. Comments on this permit application and environmental review must be received on or before September 11, 2006. Written data or comments should be submitted to the Chief of Endangered Species, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ecological Services, 911 N.E. 11th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97232-4181 (fax: 503-231-6243). Please refer to the ODFW Wolf Permit when submitting comments. All comments received, including names and addresses, will become part of the official administrative record and may be made available to the public.

The state's application is available at: http://www.fws.gov/pacific/ecoservices/endangered/recovery/default.htm. Other information relevant to wolf permits is available for review, subject to the requirements of the Privacy Act and Freedom of Information Act, by any party who submits a request for a copy of such documents to the address above or calls 503-231-2063.

Additional information about wolf recovery and conservation in the northwestern United States, including control of problem wolves, can be found in various reports at: http://westerngraywolf.fws.gov/.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System.

KTVZ

Turnaround at Wolf Haven- Controversy of 2005 gives way to new director, goals

2006-08-11T15:02:00.000-05:00

By Megan Wochnick

TENINO - A year-and-a-half after a controversy surrounding Wolf Haven International, Executive Director John Blankenship has plans to turn the sanctuary around, providing more education to the public on the wolves. Blankenship was hired a year ago after Susan Sergojan resigned as executive director in February 2005. Sergojan reportedly interfered with a veterinarian's decision to euthanize Akela, a 15-year-old terminally ill wolf.

Even though it prompted an investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, no instances of animal cruelty were found, and the research and care center maintained its operating license. "It's a 180 (degrees) from what it was a year ago," Blankenship said of the changes. "It's not because of one individual; it's because of the staff."

The nonprofit Wolf Haven organization has 12 staff members and more than 50 volunteers. The majority came on after Blankenship took over. "Internally, the staff has worked around the clock to basically get all the memberships and adoptions up to date, and that was part of the old problem," said Mison Bowden, vice president of the board. "John has personally called donors and members, just acknowledging their existence and to let them know we appreciate their support in the past and the fact we are still here and thriving."

Wolf Haven relies mainly on private funding, with two grants from the Fish and Wildlife Service and Department of Agriculture. The organization plans to go to different businesses in and around the community to develop partnerships and offer them opportunities to see what Wolf Haven does, Blankenship said.

"We're trying to make connections through Rotaries, meetings with educators and a lot of other conservation groups," Blankenship said. "We want to show them we are reliable, we are cleaned up and the wolves are in great shape. We're responsible and scientifically sound."

The animal rescue and sanctuary is home to 47 wolves, four hybrids and three coyotes from all over the nation. Wolf Haven plans to breed Mexican gray wolves this winter, as it's one of two facilities nationwide authorized to do so. Mexican gray wolves are native to the Southwestern United States, and their numbers are dwindling, with only 40 left in the country.

"(Wolves) are a strong part of the ecosystem," said Kate Joki, director of development at Wolf Haven. "If you eliminate them, it's a domino effect. It's a wild animal (and) deserves the right to survive."

Known as one of the top wolf sanctuaries in the country, Wolf Haven puts a strong emphasis on informing the public, especially children, about the wolves' habitat. "We want kids to understand what (wolves') roles are in habitat," Blankenship said. "It's a long ways we'll have to go before we get there."

One of the main programs offered is Howl-In, which received more than 200 visitors Aug. 5. The family-oriented event includes scavenger hunts for kids, making paw plaster casts, American Indian storytelling and howling contests.

"Wolf Haven started nearly 25 years ago just as a sanctuary," Blankenship said. "Emphasis is about education, just as it is on the sanctuary."

The Olympian

Judge blocks state from killing problem wolves

2006-08-11T14:36:00.000-05:00

But some cattle ranchers might kill them illegally, group says

By LEE BERGQUIST - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A federal judge on Thursday stopped authorities in Wisconsin from killing problem wolves after animal welfare advocates said the practice violated the Endangered Species Act. The decision could spur the illegal shooting of wolves, a spokesman for cattle ranchers in Wisconsin said.

Meanwhile, authorities said they will stop killing wolves starting today on three farms in Burnett and Bayfield counties that are believed to be threatening livestock. So far this year, federal authorities have killed 18 gray wolves in Wisconsin under a special permit system approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency had allowed authorities to kill up to 43 wolves.

But Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sided with the Humane Society of the United States and other animal-rights groups by ruling that authorities could not kill wolves because of federal protections. "Simply put," she wrote in her decision, "the recovery of the gray wolf is not supported by killing 43 gray wolves."

The Humane Society applauded the decision. "What they were trying to do was illegal," said Karlyn Berg, a wolf consultant for the Humane Society. "You can't amend things to bypass the Endangered Species Act."

But Eric Koens, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Cattlemen's Association, said the decision means that some farmers will take matters into their own hands and illegally kill wolves. "It's happening already," Koens said. "We are trying to make a living, and we can't have wolves killing our livestock."

Adrian Wydeven, a wolf biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said the agency was disappointed with the ruling. Wydeven agreed with Koens that the ruling would prompt some people who are frustrated with the Endangered Species Act to illegally shoot wolves.

The agency will try non-lethal methods to stop wolves that are believed to be killing and harassing livestock. Those methods include loud noises, placing flagging on fences to keep wolves from entering property and possibly firing rubber bullets at the animals.

The gray wolf was hunted and trapped out of existence by the 1950s but began wandering over from Minnesota in the mid-1970s, and since then slowly has rebounded. The estimated wolf population in Wisconsin conducted in late winter was 502 to 564 - the highest population since wolves returned to Wisconsin.

As numbers have risen, the DNR and the Fish and Wildlife Service have proposed removing protections for the wolf. State officials said the wolf could be removed from the list in early 2007. The chief rationale: Biologists believe that wolves have reached a point in Wisconsin where protections are no longer needed.

But Berg said the Humane Society is opposed to removing all protections for the wolf. "We have to find a better way to co-exist with the wolf," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wolf trapped and killed in Price County, Wisconsin

2006-08-10T18:05:00.000-05:00

Ryan Stutzman - THE-BEE

Wildlife authorities trapped and killed a wolf in the town of Spirit on Aug. 2, the first such authorized killing in Price County this year. The wolf is suspected to be from the pack that marauded a chicken coop on the Paul and Ilmi Nelson property on State Highway 86 south of Brantwood in mid-July. DNR wolf biologist Adrian Wydeven said the wolf probably belongs to the Spirit Lake pack.

The Spirit Lake pack – named for the general area that it inhabits – was thought to comprise only one or two animals during winter population surveys, but it might have drawn more animals recently from the North Avril Creek pack, Wydeven said.

Trapping was expected to continue in the area of the Nelson property for several more days. The Price County animal is the 18th wolf wildlife authorities have dispatched statewide this year. The fate of the state's federal permit to kill problem wolves is currently hanging in the balance. Under the banner of the Endangered Species Act, an animal-rights consortium is challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's authority to grant such permits.

Meanwhile, at the Nelson farm, the family expressed relief that one wolf is dead. But Ilmi Nelson said there is at least one more that has been seen "stalking the farm." Nelson said her grandchildren begged her for an ATV ride around the farm recently, but she refused. "Not until (both) wolves are dead," she said. "I just don't feel safe about that anymore."

Wolves slaughtered nearly 50 chickens on the Nelson farm in a single attack July 15, which the DNR's chief wolf biologist called a "massive surplus killing." More than 40 birds were left dead, and eight were missing, Nelson said. The wolves left twelve chickens alive. The Nelsons quickly processed the birds to avoid further losses.

"They're in the freezer now," Nelson said.

THE-BEE

Museum aims to change wolf's image

2006-08-10T18:01:00.000-05:00

Creatures of dark legend are actually very cool, it says

(ANSA) - Pescara, August 10 - A new wolf museum in the mountains of central Italy is aiming to persuade kids that the terrifying animals described by grandma on winter evenings are actually rather cuddly . "It's a scientifically proven fact that wolves don't attack humans and are in fact scared of them," said Walter Mazzitti, head of the Gran Sasso national park in the Abruzzo region .

The park, whose rocky and wooded expanses are inhabited by dozens of wolves, has just created Italy's first Wolf Museum, where children and their parents can learn the 'truth' about the supposedly fierce animals .

"These creatures have a strong sense of smell and when they sense a human presence, even several hundred metres away, they run in the opposite direction," Mazzitti said ahead of Thursday's official inauguration .

The three-story museum, sited near the isolated village of Arsita on the edge of the park, will encourage people to "look at the wolf with new eyes", he continued One of the main boasts of the new facility is an internal walkway which attempts, with the help of multimedia technology, to create the impression of walking through a forest at night. Sensitive panels in the floor set off realistic howling sounds, as recreated moonlight picks out images of wolves that keep appearing on the horizon or poking their snouts out from behind trees .

According to organisers, this will not scare children but help to "create a relationship between the visitor and the wolf" . The whole point, park officials say, is to make people realise that wolves are "a precious presence" in Italian forests, a sign among other things that the eco-system is in good health . Helpful information panels inform visitors that wolves are extremely intelligent animals with a great ability to adapt to circumstances and work out solutions to problems .

"Every wolf is inserted into an organised society: each one has a task to perform and it must perform it well, otherwise the leader of the pack will 'complain' energetically," the museum says .

Visitors also learn about the "persecution" that wolves have suffered in Europe over the centuries, right up until the formulation in recent years of EU laws protecting them .

Elsewhere in the museum, you can inspect a selection of wolf-related paraphernalia, such as wolf traps and the sharp-studded collars that local sheep dogs used to wear to protect their necks from a hungry wolf's jaws . There is also a genuine wolf skeleton, covered with an authentic wolf's pelt. This article is designed to allow young hands to touch something roughly approximating a real wolf .

ANSA IT

Dog cancer traced back to wolf roots

2006-08-10T17:57:00.000-05:00

200-year-old tumour has mellowed with age.

Narelle Towie

An old wolf's DNA could be living on in a world-wide tumour. A contagious form of dog cancer that is transmitted by sex has been traced back to its probable origins: a single wolf or dog that lived in Asia more than 200 years ago. The disease seems to have been more aggressive in its past, the researchers say. This is unusual — most cancers become worse over time. If we could work out how and why the disease became less deadly, it may help in finding cancer treatments.

Most cancers are formed when an organism's own cells grow out of control. But canine transmissible venereal tumor (CTVT) is spread by tumor cells that move from dog to dog during sex. The disease attacks the face and genitals, but usually clears up within months.

Researchers have suspected that the diseased cells originated in a single animal. The cancer now affects dogs in Japan, the United States, Europe, China, the Far East, the Middle East and parts of Africa.

Claudio Murgia of University College London (UCL) and his colleagues examined the DNA of tumor cells from 16 unrelated dogs being treated for CTVT in Italy, India and Kenya. "We can tell that the tumor didn't belong to the dog because it's genetically different from its host," says team member Robin Weiss, a virologist at UCL.

To find out where the tumours came from, the team analysed more than 400 dogs from 85 different breeds. The cancer's DNA was most similar to modern wolves. There was also a link to Asian dogs such as shitzus.

To calculate when the tumour parted ways from its original host, the researchers counted the genetic differences between wolf and cancer. The tumour turns out to be at least 200 years old. "If it is any older than 250 years than it's the oldest cancer known to mankind," says Weiss. The work is published in Cell1.

Tamed tumour

Examination of dog cancers from the past 30 years, which were frozen and collected from seven different countries, showed that the tumour was once much more aggressive. If we can work out how this happened, says Murgia, we might be able to cause the same transformation in human tumours.

When the current version of CTVT infects a new dog, it secretes a chemical that inhibits the immune system, so that the host cannot fight it off. But after a few months, the dog's immune system can usually oust the intruder.

Other transmissible cancers are nastier. A contagious facial tumour is now ravaging the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) population, killing 90% of some populations. Tasmanian devils are very inbred, so the cancer may be more similar to its hosts than CTVT, making it harder for the immune system to recognise the invader.

Contagion does not seem to be a major source of human tumours. People can catch cancer from tumorous organ transplants if their immune system is weak, and, theoretically, a patient with AIDS could catch cancer through sex, although this has never been shown to happen.

Nature

Wyoming to Sue Over Feds Wolf Management

2006-08-10T17:51:00.000-05:00

By BEN NEARY - The Associated Press

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- The state will sue the federal government for rejecting Wyoming's request to take over management of its gray wolves, which prey on livestock, officials said Wednesday. "So far, their position has been their way or the highway," Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Wednesday of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "We've chosen neither; we're going to court."

Last month, the federal government rejected Wyoming's petition to remove wolves in the state from the federal list of threatened and endangered species. In addition, the federal agency has yet to take action on the state's request to amend regulations.

Freudenthal has said he sees the spread of wolves outside the national parks as a public safety concern. State officials had proposed allowing trophy hunting of the animals in certain areas and classifying them as predators that could be shot on sight elsewhere. The plan would allow the wolves to live undisturbed in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Federal officials said last month that they can't remove protections until the state sets firm limits on how many wolves can be killed and agrees to a minimum population. The state is now home to an estimated 252 wolves.

Freudenthal and state Attorney General Pat Crank sent a letter Wednesday to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and wildlife service officials notifying them of their intent to sue.

Ed Bangs, coordinator of the wildlife service's gray wolf recovery effort in Helena, Mont., said he was not surprised by Wyoming's action. "They said they would pursue this thing in court, no matter how long it took," Bangs said. "I had hoped we could work out something more productive than litigation."

The Fish and Wildlife Service has already turned management of wolves over to state agencies in Montana and Idaho. About 400 wolves have been killed in those states for preying on livestock and for other reasons since 1987, Bangs said. The federal government continues to manage wolves in Wyoming outside the national parks, Bangs said. Last year, wolves killed at least 54 cattle and 27 sheep, and 41 wolves were killed, he said.

Washington Post

Sun Ranch explains killing of two Wedge Pack wolves

2006-08-10T17:32:00.000-05:00

SUN RANCH
Cameron, Montana

Todd Graham – Ranch Manager – Sun Ranch

Dave Sollitt – Director of Communications, Sun Ranch/Papoose Creek Lodge

Sun Ranch officials confirmed today that ranch staff shot and killed two wolves on the ranch after two confirmed wolf attacks on cattle and a third probable wolf attack on the ranch in the past week. The shootings were conducted on the ranch under permits issued by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) and under the supervision of FWP and federal wildlife officials. The wolves were members of the Wedge pack that has been living in and around the ranch for most of the past two years.

One heifer was attacked and injured and a lone wolf was chased away from the herd last week by ranch personnel, Roger Lang, Sun Ranch owner said. The attack was confirmed as a wolf attack by Federal agencies. A heifer carcass, confirmed as a wolf kill, was found July 27th and multiple pack members were seen moving in and around the carcass by ranch staff, along with other signs of wolf activity in the area. A third probable wolf kill was found Saturday morning and ranch staff, under the supervision of FWP officials, shot two wolves that were seen moving in close proximity to the cattle. All of the incidents occurred on ranch property.

“We hated to do this. We’re disappointed, but we must keep the cattle alive” said Lang. “We have lived with the pack for nearly two years. The recent change in behavior has been dramatic, and we’re anxious to see what we can learn about its causes. But clearly, something had to be done to disrupt an increasingly disturbing pattern of behavior.”

Mr. Lang pointed out that ranch staff, FWP and USDA Wildlife Services had been working together closely since the first attack last week, and said he was gratified that a measured, controlled response was used. “In the past, it’s likely that the entire pack would have been destroyed,” Lang said. “Our familiarity with this pack was a critical factor in determining the appropriate, minimal response needed.”

Sun Ranch has utilized a predator management program for several years, emphasizing coexistence between wolves and cattle. The program is directed by Vickie Backus, a wildlife researcher who holds a PhD from the University of Utah. The program’s focus is coexistence between wolves and cattle, but coexistence doesn’t mean that cattle will never be lost, or that problem wolves will never have to be removed.

“Wolves are part of the landscape in the Madison Valley,” said Backus, noting the valley’s proximity to Yellowstone National Park and wintering elk populations. “If we can get along with one pack over the long term, we have a better chance of creating a scenario where the pack and cattle coexist without problems.” Backus pointed out that coexisting with a stable, long-term pack allows ranch management to recognize and understand patterns of wolf behavior. “As the pack grows and matures, you may get aberrant behavior like we have experienced here, but the pack you know is usually better than one you don’t.”

A stable wolf pack also prevents other wolves who may already prey on livestock from moving in, Backus said “Wolves are territorial and will aggressively defend their areas,” Backus noted. “When a pack whose patterns of behavior we can predict defends its territory, they may keep problem wolves away.”

The Sun Ranch program works to deter wolf interaction with cattle. Cattle graze in carefully managed, grouped herds, which are moved regularly. Predators are thought to be less likely to attack tightly grouped cattle, Sun Ranch Manager Todd Graham noted, citing experience both in the US and among Maasai tribesmen in Africa.

In addition to deterring predators, this practice provides better range management. “After cattle graze plants in one pasture they are moved on, allowing grazed plants an opportunity to re-grow. We are restoring rangeland health all over the ranch with this method,” Graham said, adding, “Bunching also helps us watch over the herd.”

“We spend a lot of time with the cattle,” Backus said, outlining a program in which ranch staff, a growing group of volunteers and even occasional guests at the nearby Papoose Creek Lodge camp with the herd overnight, every night, to provide a constant human presence, which is believed to help deter wolf interaction with the cattle. That human presence is reinforced with active ‘hazing’ behavior to keep wolves wary and afraid of humans and their livestock, Backus said. That hazing will be intensified, as needed, in the coming days to encourage the pack to turn to natural game.

Ranch staff have been trained in hazing techniques by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and FWP, which include special shells shot in the air from a shotgun that make loud noise and a bright flash and special rubber bullets to deal with wolves that are reluctant to flee.

In addition to protecting wolves, Graham cited the success of the Sun Ranch program in minimizing cattle loss even with an active wolf pack living in close proximity. “Over the past few years, we have had less than one percent death loss to cattle from any cause,” Graham noted, “even with this incident, we’re below one percent.” He said that some ranchers experience a death loss of two to three percent. “We’re proud of this record,” he said.

Roger Lang said this incident highlights the need to continue to learn about wolf-cattle interaction. “The American people have spoken and they have said that they want wolves as part of the total ecosystem of the West. Ranching will continue to play a critical role in sustaining open spaces. We simply have to find ways for wolves and ranching to coexist.”

Mr. Lang recently announced the creation of the Sun Ranch Institute in Cameron, which is being formed to provide research and education to advance sustainable wildlife, rangeland and ranch management techniques throughout the West.

Ralph Maughan's Wildlife Reports

Florida couple face charges for possessing wolves

2006-08-10T17:12:00.000-05:00

By Jill Taylor - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wildlife officials seized four young wolves from a south Martin County home and charged the couple with illegally importing and possessing wild animals after experts concluded the pups appear to be nearly pure wolf stock. John and Sharon Mock of Ranch Colony, near the Palm Beach County line, insist that the 10- to 20-week-old animals are pets and they will work to earn permits they need to be allowed to keep them.

In the meantime, the three males and one female — they are named Saxon, Romeo, Sandy and Angel — will stay at the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary in Jupiter, where executive director David Hitzig said they are coping, but timid. "These are not friendly, wagging-their-tails, I-want-to-come-over-and-lick-your-face animals," Hitzig said.

The law states they have to be regulated because they are wild and potentially dangerous to people and other animals. People who have them must build extremely secure pens with high fences and double gates. These four animals were living in a bathroom with regular size dog crates, officials said.

Investigator John Humphreys of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said state law distinguishes between wolf-dog hybrids, which often are bred and sold as pets, and wild wolves, which are at least 75 percent wolf. "They tend to be far more aggressive that domestic dogs," Humphreys said Wednesday. "They have a lot of wild tendencies.... They are more curious and more likely to attempt to escape."

A Jacksonville man who bought wolves from the same Texas breeder as the Mocks told Humphreys his wolf bit his hand and broke a bone and bit his face, leaving a gash that required more than 30 stitches.

But Mock, 49, and his wife, Sharon, 47, said they have raised wolf mixed breeds before and consider them to be pets. Sharon Mock said they have owned several and still hope to win permission to raise these four on their 6-acre property on Ranch Acres Circle off Mack Dairy Road. "We're just trying to reestablish our family," she said.

Possessing and importing wolves are misdemeanors, and the Mocks also are charged with improperly confining them. A bag of marijuana found in last week's search of the house prompted a felony drug possession charge against John Mock.

Humphreys said it will be up to the state to decide whether the couple can get a license to keep the animals, but he hopes the allegations that they broke the law to bring them here will be considered.

Neighbor Alan Palmer said Mock has owned wolf dogs before and they didn't cause any problems other than late-night howling. "That bothered us a little," he said. "He's got the property fenced pretty well.... I'm not really concerned."

Palm Beach Post

Wolf pack that harassed livestock near Sula being killed

2006-08-09T15:52:00.000-05:00

By The Associated Press

BUTTE (AP) — Federal trappers shot and killed eight wolves last week as part of an effort to eliminate a pack of wolves that repeatedly chased and killed livestock near Sula, state wildlife officials said. An adult wolf, two yearlings and five pups from the Sleeping Child pack that roamed the East Fork of the Bitterroot River were killed Friday by agents from Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services, said Carolyn Sime, wolf program coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Throughout the summer, FWP and ranchers in the area have hazed the wolves, had people around livestock and even killed three that were causing problems, but the wolves continued to cause trouble. ‘‘It’s one of those unfortunate situations where our best efforts to get it turned around has been unsuccessful,’’ she said. ‘‘We have seen an escalating behavior of getting into livestock.’’

Two weeks ago, a rancher spotted the pack chasing five horses in a pasture. A calf was found dead last Tuesday. FWP biologists picked up the signal from a collared female that was on the carcass and found numerous wolf tracks at the scene. Pups had been spotted chasing horses, indicating they were learning that livestock is prey from the adults, Sime said.

The pack had attacked several other domestic animals throughout the summer, including killing two yearling steers, a calf and a dog. The continuing attacks, and the fact that the wolves hadn’t followed deer and elk to higher ground, gave FWP no choice but to have the pack eliminated, Sime said.

‘‘By the time they begin to recognize livestock as a food source, they do teach that to other wolves in the pack,’’ Sime said. The remaining two adults and two pups will be killed, Sime said. A collared female will be shot last to ensure that no pups are left.

Helena Independent Record

Stone Zoo helps reintroduce wolves into the wild

2006-08-09T15:24:00.000-05:00

Stone Zoo helps reintroduce wolves into the wild
By John Linehan

Southwestern mountains have not heard the howl of the Mexican gray wolf for more than 30 years. Now, in a unique partnership between the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Arizona Game and Fish, New Mexico Game and Fish, many Association of Zoos and Aquariums accredited zoos, and a number of other partners, Zoo New England is participating in a reintroduction program to release captive-reared Mexican gray wolves. Forests and fields, including some Native American tribal lands, in remote parts of Arizona and New Mexico are once again alive with the sounds of wolves.

The Mexican gray wolf weighs 50 to 80 pounds and measures about 5 1/2 feet in length, with a buff, gray, and rust coat. With a complex social behavior - living in packs (family groups) and communicating through vocalizations, body posturing and scent marking - these animals have a tightly organized group structure that enables them to work together and to adapt to most environments as long as there is prey.

Their important role in the ecosystem is not filled by other predators; in fact there have been localized overabundances of elk in some areas leading to environmental degradation. Black bears and cougars roam these areas, but they don't fill the wolf's niche. Elk comprise the bulk of the wolves' diet and keeping a balance is crucial to the environment's health.

This month the 2006 Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan (SSP) Annual Meeting took place in Alpine, AZ. This region is the heart of the wolf release area. Beyond the usual work associated with management of the captive population, the management committee was able to experience first hand the complexities managing the wild population. Some area residents, particularly ranchers, have great concerns about this program for the reintroduction of predators. The committee also got to experience the challenges facing the state and federal biologists charged with carrying out this program, including the challenges of finding radio-collared wolves in this often steep terrain.

Once common throughout western Texas, southern New Mexico, central Arizona and Northern Mexico, the population of the Mexican gray wolf, or lobo, rarest and most genetically distinct subspecies of the North American grey wolves, was exterminated before scientists were able to compile a complete study of their natural history. Today, with approximately 300 Mexican gray wolves in existence - most born in zoos and wildlife sanctuaries in the United States and Mexico, but more being born in the wild each year - international wolf experts rate the recovery of these animals with the highest priority.

In 1976, the Mexican gray wolf was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), requiring the implementation of plans for conservation and survival of the species. The Mexican Wolf Recovery Team was formed and a plan was established in 1979. Zoo New England began participating in the Mexican Wolf SSP in 1998. The SSP is a consortium of institutions working together to breed captive Mexican gray wolves for continuing reintroduction and recovery in the southwestern US. Last year our breeding pair of wolves at Stone Zoo produced eight pups - all of which are thriving. The SSP has now reached its captive population goals and soon we will be translocating some members of our pack to other zoos and conservation partners.

Using the experience gained from other wolf recovery programs, scientists are very optimistic about Mexican gray wolf recovery. The captive-raised wolves have learned to survive in the wild and to successfully form groups, reproduce, and raise their pups. They are also forming new pairs on their own, indicating a healthy wolf population. We are fortunate to once again be able to hear the howl of wild wolves in our American southwest. This would not have been possible without the collaborative and collective efforts of our zoos.

John Linehan is president and CEO of Zoo New England

Stoneham Sun

Wolf captured by group of Thai villagers

2006-08-08T13:00:00.000-05:00

By Phoojadkarn Daily

The Canadian gray wolf that escaped from Chiang Mai Night Safari six weeks ago now sits in a cage after being captured by local villagers Saturday night. The Canadian grey wolf that escaped from Chiang Mai Night Safari a month ago and wreaked havoc across the countryside was captured late Saturday night.

A group of 10 amateur hunters, headed by village leader Pornthip Uttama, finally found the wolf walking out of a grove in the foothills of Doi Suthep in Muang district on Saturday night. The group had kept up a close watch for the animal in that area, where they believed the it had been hiding for days. The wolf was shot with tranquilizer guns before being captured and returned to the zoo.

Zoo Director Plodprasop Suraswadi yesterday rewarded the hunters with 10,000 baht cash for bringing the animal back to the zoo. “We hunted it to ensure the safety of our villagers, not for the cash reward,” said Pornthip.

Meanwhile, the zoo’s director said yesterday that the animal had been captured and asked those he thought wanted to discredit him to stop talking about the issue. “We, as a human beings, can make mistakes. But if you want me to promise that there will be no more animals breaking out of the zoo, I can’t,” Plodprasop said.

The wolf, which had been brought to Chiang Mai Night Safari from the Czech Republic, escaped a month ago, but zoo officials did not alert the public because they believed the animal posed no danger. During the past month, the wolf has reportedly killed 200 chickens, five dogs and several ducks in the Ban Pong Noi, Ban Ramperng and Ban Sanlomjoi villages located near the zo

Thai Day

Wolves maraud chicken coop- Spirit family shaken

2006-08-07T15:43:00.000-05:00

DNR urges bear hunters to use caution with their dogs in wolf country

Ryan Stutzman - THE-BEE

Wolves slaughtered nearly 50 chickens in the town of Spirit during the overnight hours July 15-16, according to the family that owns the birds and the property where they were killed. DNR wolf biologist Adrian Wydeven confirmed to THE-BEE last week that wolves were responsible for a "massive surplus killing" on the Paul and Ilmi Nelson property west of Ogema on State Hwy. 86. The wolves took eight chickens from the scene and left 41 dead birds behind, according to Ilmi Nelson. Wildlife Services began trapping for wolves in the area a few days after the depredation incident. None had been caught before press time.

The Nelson-farm incident is the second verified wolf depredation in Price County this year. The other, at Greg Denzine's and Karen Kerner's beef cattle farm north of Phillips, occurred in late June. One calf was killed and left mostly eaten in the pasture near the farm house. Wildlife Services trapped in the area of the Kerner-Denzine farm also, with no results. Trapping activities typically last two weeks.

At least 15 wolves have been trapped and killed by authorities in Wisconsin so far this year, including a number of animals in Bayfield and Burnett counties. An animal rights consortium's lawsuit challenging the state's permit to kill problem wolves is pending in federal court, Wydeven said.

DNR urges caution among bear hunters

Meanwhile, as the dog-training season gets underway for bear hunters in northern Wisconsin, the DNR is promoting caution in wolf country. At least four bear-hunting dogs have been killed so far this training season, including one east of Rib Lake and three in a single incident near Barnes.

"Bear hunters should avoid releasing hounds in areas with wolf sign and near known depredation sites," a July 28 DNR release warns. "Hunters should also stay as close to dogs as possible where wolves are roaming."

The release outlines two "areas of caution" near where the two attacks took place. But wolves are known to range across most of northern Wisconsin, so the DNR is warning all hunters training bear dogs in the region to exercise particular care with their animals. Wolf attacks on bear-hunting dogs have been fairly common in recent years. Wolves see the dogs as a threat to their pups, according to the DNR.

Nevertheless, the overall risk to humans and domestic animals is very small, DNR biologists say.

THE-BEE

Feds aim to kill six more wolves

2006-08-04T17:43:00.000-05:00

Control measures sparked by livestock depredations

by STEVE BENSON

With Idaho's wolf population growing and packs expanding into new areas, livestock depredations are on the rise and six more animals have been ordered to their deaths. But the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, which is now partially responsible for wolf management in the state, believes it's closer to assuming full management of the federally protected animals, and future conflicts could be mitigated.

Fourteen federally protected wolves have been killed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services—the federal agency responsible for killing problem animals—in Idaho so far this year. Ranchers, who are now allowed to shoot and kill wolves they witness attacking or harassing their livestock, have killed an additional nine animals in 2006. Since July 22, four wolves have been killed by Wildlife Services in Central Idaho, including one in Copper Basin, in Custer County.

Earlier this week, federal agents were ordered to track and kill six more wolves suspected of attacking cattle and sheep. Three animals are in the Steel Mountain Pack, located near the headwaters of the Boise River. One is located near Mountain Home. Another is just east of Cascade. The last is in Copper Basin, east of Sun Valley.

More than 600 wolves now roam Idaho after 35 were reintroduced to the central part of the state in 1995 and 1996. Steve Nadeau, Idaho Department of Fish and Game's wolf program supervisor, said the current population is "five to six times the number of wolves necessary for de-listing" from the federal Endangered Species List.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service handed over day-to-day management of wolves in Idaho to Fish and Game in January 2006. The state agency can control conflicts but can't reduce populations, which is still handled by federal Wildlife Services agents. Opening wolves to hunting, another population-reducing measure that Nadeau said he favors, also can't be enacted until the animals are removed from the list, a process that is being held up by the state of Wyoming.

State agencies in Idaho and Montana have wolf management plans deemed acceptable by U.S. Fish and Wildlife. Wyoming, however, wants to list the animal as a predatory species, meaning it can be killed on-sight outside wilderness areas—a plan that doesn't gel with federal goals.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been adamant that the animal will remain federally protected until all three states devise acceptable wolf management plans.

But Nadeau said Idaho Fish and Game officials have been meeting with regional and national directors from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to discuss the possibility of de-listing wolves in Idaho and Montana. "There is some positive discussion going on currently with potentially de-listing wolves along state boundaries," Nadeau said. "It could occur if Wyoming doesn't want to come on board. "We know (U.S. Fish and Wildlife) is interested and taking it seriously, but we don't have a time frame yet."

Nadeau said wolf-control measures will continue to rise if the population isn't thinned, which he said could be done effectively via a hunting season. "With wolves increasing in number and distribution, they're showing up in areas they haven't been previously and, as such, are causing problems in new areas," Nadeau said.

The problem isn't limited to livestock depredations, as conflicts between wolf advocates and opponents continue to rise. In early May, cultures clashed in Stanley after a wolf attacked and killed an elk in broad daylight near town. With a crowd of wolf supporters watching, Ron Gillett, chairman of the Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition, showed up on the scene carrying a rifle.

Gillett is on a mission to rid the state of wolves, which he considers dangerous, bloodthirsty animals that are devouring the state's elk herds and threatening the safety of children. Gillett said he was on private property and was carrying the rifle as protection. The conflict ended peacefully, but Gillett said, "It's going to be a long summer—there will probably be a lot of wolves shot."

Nadeau said Fish and Game has been keeping a close watch on the situation. "The Stanley Basin area is a constant concern for the department," Nadeau said. "We've been involved in non-lethal efforts up there throughout the summer." Those non-lethal efforts include "hazing and scaring wolves to keep them separate from livestock," he said.

Idaho Mountain Express

Montana wolves killed after harassing livestock

2006-08-03T13:15:00.000-05:00

By The Associated Press

BOZEMAN - A landowner killed two wolves blamed for killing at least one cow and harassing other livestock in the Madison Valley, state and federal wildlife officials said Wednesday. The state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks authorized the killings of two adult members of the Wedge Pack.

"We know through our monitoring efforts that the Wedge Pack has been living on and around this ranch for about two years, but this is the first confirmed depredation this year," said Carolyn Sime, the state wildlife agency's wolf program coordinator in Helena. "The landowner monitors livestock very closely and reported harassing wolves found in close proximity to cattle on multiple occasions before the actual depredations occurred," she said.

The wolves were shot by the landowner on July 28 and July 29, the state said.

Federal regulations in the experimental area of southwestern Montana allow the state wildlife agency to issue "shoot-on-sight" permits valid for 45 days after it's confirmed a wolf is responsible for a livestock death.

The agencies did not name the landowner who killed the wolves.

"We are working closely with the landowner to monitor the situation given the ongoing potential for wolf-livestock conflicts," said Pat Flowers, Fish, Wildlife and Parks regional supervisor in Bozeman.

Billings Gazette

4 wolves killed after livestock deaths; more killings authorized

2006-08-03T13:11:00.000-05:00

By JOHN MILLER - ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

BOISE, Idaho -- Federal Wildlife Services agents have shoot-to-kill orders for as many as six more wolves in central Idaho, after killing four wolves in the last two weeks. The targeted wolves were suspected of killing or harassing cattle and sheep in the mountainous region.

The latest killings bring the number of federally protected wolves shot by Wildlife Services officers in 2006 to 14, with another nine killed by ranchers through Tuesday. The ranchers have been allowed to shoot the animals under relaxed rules of engagement in place since early 2005, said Steve Nadeau, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's wolf specialist.

In all of 2005, 27 wolves were killed legally by officers and ranchers.

Nadeau expects the number of wolf control actions this year to rise, as wolf numbers in the state have grown to 600 since the reintroduction of 35 animals in 1995 and 1996. Idaho and Montana want the animals cleared from Endangered Species Act protections, but the effort has been stymied because neighboring Wyoming's plan to manage wolves hasn't won federal approval.

"We're finding wolves in new areas now, where we haven't had them previously. They're taking sheep or cattle, so we're having to address that," Nadeau said. "The number of wolves being taken seems to be increasing, and this year will be no exception to that."

Since January, Idaho has had day-to-day management over central Idaho wolves, listed as "experimental, nonessential." The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service still manages wolves north of U.S. Interstate 90, where the animals are listed as "endangered."

On July 22, Wildlife Services, the division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that kills problem wolves for Fish and Game, shot a black sub-adult wolf from the Steel Mountain pack, located near the headwaters of the Boise River. Traps remain, with the aim of removing another three wolves suspected in nearby livestock deaths, Nadeau said.

On July 27, Wildlife Services agents shot another black wolf from the air that had been suspected of stalking livestock in Custer County's Copper Basin.

That same day, officers shot one female wolf from the Blue Bunch pack that roams near the Salmon River after it approached them while they were outfitting the pack's alpha female with a radio collar. And July 28, a young male wolf was shot by agents about 40 miles from Idaho City, where wolves three days earlier had killed five lambs.

Govs. Jim Risch of Idaho and Brian Schweitzer of Montana met with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director Dale Hall on July 24, urging him to consider their proposal that would allow wolves in both states to be delisted even before the dispute over Wyoming's plan has been settled.

Idaho's wolves have been reproducing at a rate of 20 percent a year, said Nadeau, which would mean they'd number about 720 after next spring's pups. There are now more than 40 packs here, nearly three times what's called for under the state's 2002 management plan.

Idaho eventually wants to sell licenses to hunt wolves, but can't until after delisting.

"Idaho has met its obligation," Risch, a rancher who says he's lost cattle to wolves, told The Associated Press last week. "They are becoming a nuisance - and then some."

Phone calls to Defenders of Wildlife in Boise, a wolf-advocacy group that fears state Fish and Game officials are too eager to kill wolves to be able to manage them properly, weren't immediately returned for comment.

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Agriculture Department faulted for toxins use

2006-08-01T15:53:00.000-05:00

By Libby Quaid - Associated Press Food and Farm Writer

WASHINGTON — Biological agents and toxins used to kill wildlife are poorly safeguarded by the Agriculture Department, a federal audit found. At issue is how the department handles and stores the poisons it uses to kill animals such as starlings, wild turkeys and chickens, black bears, coyotes and wolves that are considered a nuisance.

The department's Wildlife Services program uses chemical agents to kill animals, mainly because they threaten livestock, crops or people in airplanes.

An audit by the department's inspector general faulted the agency for:

-failing to keep accurate inventories of agents or toxins.
-not restricting access to agents or toxins.
-not having complete security plans.

Auditors visited 10 of 75 registered entities where agents are kept and found that none of the 10 complied with security regulations.

Department spokeswoman Karen Eggert said Thursday that officials take their wildlife responsibilities "very seriously and comply with all federal and state laws associated with the use of hazardous materials." She said the department stepped up its oversight of hazardous materials in 2004 with quarterly site reviews to make sure its inventory database is accurate. Chemicals are secured in locked storage facilities, and employees work closely with states to be certified to distribute chemicals, she said.

Environmental groups criticize the department for poisoning animals. "The larger question is why the federal government is scattering highly dangerous toxicants all across the country as a wildlife control strategy," said Wendy Keefover-Ring, spokeswoman for Sinapu, a Colorado-based advocacy group for wolves and other predators. "For reasons of public safety, as well as environmental integrity, the Department of Agriculture needs to move away from its poison first mentality for wildlife management," she said.

The department killed more than 2.7 million nuisance animals in 2004, the most recent year for which data was available. The majority of animals killed were starlings, birds that destroy crops and contaminate livestock feed.

ESPN Outdoors

New report on Agate Creek and Slough Creek Packs at YNP

2006-08-01T15:45:00.000-05:00

Ralph Maughan hosts an entertaining account by expert wolf watcher Kathie Lynch. She tells of the exploits of the Agate Creek Pack while raising their six pups. There's also news about the Slough Creek Pack:

Ralph Maughan's Wildlife Reports

Wolves in Montana

2006-07-31T14:47:00.000-05:00

By JIM MANN - The Daily Inter Lake

Public plays part in improved monitoring

One was found by a bear hunter near Troy, another by herbology researchers working near the Pinkham Creek drainage south of Eureka, and yet another by average folks who live in the Marias Pass area. In just a matter of months, three wolf packs have been discovered and included in the Northwest Montana wolf population. There's likely more to be found, too, according to officials with the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, which has assumed management and monitoring responsibilities for the Northwest Montana wolf population from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Do the latest wolf counts represent a population growth trend or do they merely reflect better monitoring? The answer is a mix of both, according to Kent Laudon, the state wolf management specialist for Northwest Montana.

This last year, there appears to be a big population jump from previous years, he said. Some of it is real population increases and some of it is increased vigilance in monitoring. The 10-year average shows the Northwest Montana population is slowly growing. More specifically, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has a stronger network of biologists and game wardens who regularly work in the field with the public and other agencies, compared to the resources that were at play when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was monitoring wolves in Northwest Montana.

And the department has beefed up efforts to encourage public wolf sightings, most recently with the addition of an online report form for wolf sightings. Our report frequency has gone up since we started it, Laudon said, adding that public reports have been crucial to providing an improved accounting of the region's wolf population.

Ed Bangs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf recovery coordinator, has long stressed that the number of wolves and wolf packs appearing in annual reports only represents the known wolves on the landscape. And he repeatedly acknowledged that there are certainly wolves in the woods that can't be accounted for.

After a wolf was hit and killed by a car on U.S. 2 near Marias Pass in February, Laudon put out a press release in which he speculated that the wolf might be a lone disperser from a distant pack. Residents in the Marias Pass area promptly contacted him to correct that guess, reporting sightings of several wolves in the area. Laudon said Blackfeet tribal fish and game officials ultimately provided agency verification for a bona fide Marias Pack.

More recently, a bear hunter stumbled onto some wolf pups near Troy, reporting the sighting to a friend, who relayed the information to area wildlife biologist Jerry Brown. Brown interviewed the hunter to establish where the sighting occurred, then went to the location and photographed wolf pups in the area. Laudon later attempted to trap and fit an adult wolf with a radio collar in the same area, but instead ended up catching a black bear, a mountain lion and a bobcat. He believes a wolf was temporarily caught in the leg hold trap, which is modified with rubber to avoid serious harm to the animals. He intends to return to the area for another attempt at collaring a wolf.

This week, Laudon was working traps in the Pinkham Creek drainage, where a group of amphibian researchers recently photographed three pups and Laudon located tracks and scat to confirm the presence of a new pack.

Getting radio collars in a pack is essential for monitoring wolves, Laudon said, and even with collared wolves, following them is kind of like holding water in my hand. Collared wolves die, or sometimes older wolves leave their packs and wander far away, and batteries eventually wear down, too. Just last year, one collared wolf was hit by a train, one was found dead in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, and one simply went missing. Batteries will soon expire in radio collars on wolves in the Kintla Pack, which ranges in the North Fork Flathead River drainage.

Being able to locate packs through regular radio telemetry flights isn't just important for keeping tabs on pack populations, it's also important for heading off conflicts with livestock. That's the case with the new pack in the Pinkham drainage. There are livestock concerns up there, Laudon said. There is a grazing allotment on federal lands there, so it would be good to get a collar in there to monitor that pack.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks also has an interest in monitoring wolves and their impacts on elk and deer populations. The state's wolf management plan includes provisions to curb wolf populations if those impacts are severe.

However, the state's ability to do that will depend on wolves in the Northern Rockies being removed from protection under the Endangered Species Act. Delisting has been held up because the state of Wyoming does not have a wolf management plan that’s approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Montana and Idaho have approved plans and populations that exceed recovery goals.

The 2005 annual wolf report had an official count of 19 packs with 126 wolves in Northwest Montana. That snapshot count has changed with new pups, mortality, immigration and dispersal of wolves. And it has changed with the discovery of the new packs. This year’s monitoring data will produce entirely different counts, particularly with the help of the public reporting wolf sightings.

Sightings can be reported by calling Laudon at 751-4586 or through the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Web site at: http://fwp.mt.gov/wildthings/wolf/default.html

The Daily Inter Lake

Orphaned wolf pups returned to Wildlife Science Center

2006-07-31T10:58:00.000-05:00

BY TOM MEERSMAN
MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
MINNEAPOLIS - Three orphan wolf pups are back in Minnesota to stay.

The pups arrived Friday at the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minn., after an attempt to reintroduce them into the wild in northeastern Wisconsin apparently was ruined by a poacher who killed their father. "Long term, they'll be here," said Bob Ebsen, the center's education coordinator. "My guess is that if they're coming here, they're going to be (permanently) captive."

The pups will join an existing pack of eight wolves at the center, which currently has 38 wolves in several packs. The captive wolves are used for research and environmental education programs at the center, which also has bobcats, raccoons, bears, foxes and raptors.

The three males were the first pups in 75 years to be born on the Menominee Reservation near Green Bay, Wis., and tribal officials hoped they could grow to maturity there. The pups' mother died or was killed in early May about three weeks after their birth. Biologists brought the pups to the center in Forest Lake to be nursed by a female wolf in captivity, who already was raising three of her own pups.

Once the wild-born pups were weaned, they were returned to the reservation on July 10 and placed in a holding pen near where their original pack was running wild. The hope was that their father would find and raise them. Tracking signals from the father's radio collar showed that he came within a half-mile of the pups on July 11, but his cut-off collar was found the next day. He apparently was killed illegally. The case is under investigation.

Attempts to trap other adult wolves in the area failed. Wolf biologists said the pups are too young and inexperienced to survive in the wild. Peggy Callahan, executive director of the center, said she's frustrated that a poacher ended the pups' chances of being raised on the reservation.

Duluth News Tribune

Wolf family finds freedom in Arizona after time at South Salem center

2006-07-31T10:46:00.000-05:00

By SEAN GORMAN
THE JOURNAL NEWS

LEWISBORO — It didn't take long for a South Salem wolf and her family to chew their way to freedom in the Arizona wilderness this month. The 3-year-old female, a Mexican gray wolf once held at the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, is among the latest canids to be released in the Southwest to reintroduce the endangered species back to its traditional range.

The female, her mate and their two 11-week-old pups were taken to a mesh tent in the Apache National Forest in eastern Arizona. Several hours later, the family had torn its way out of the enclosure, said Barry Braden, managing director of the Wolf Conservation Center.

"It's total validation of our mission," Braden said this week of the July 6 release. "It restores the balance of the ecosystem that was missing when wolves were removed."

The wolves once roamed Mexico, Arizona, Texas and New Mexico, but as human settlement of the Southwest intensified, the wolf was killed off, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service said. In the late 1970s, the last known five Mexican wolves in the world were captured to start a breeding program, Braden said.

Today there are about 350 Mexican wolves, with about 25 to 50 of them living in the wild, Braden said. They face the challenge of learning how to hunt, Braden said. Another challenge is establishing territory, said Victoria Fox, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Southwest region. The reintroduction began in 1998.

"We have very successful pairs (of wolves)," said Fox, whose agency is spearheading the reintroduction effort. "Then you have some that are not so successful."

Not everyone is pleased with putting the wolves back on the range. Ranchers in Arizona and New Mexico have complained that the predators threaten their livestock, although environmentalists say there are a relatively small number of ranchers opposing the program.

The South Salem conservation center has 11 Mexican gray wolves. The center is also trying to help the endangered red wolf survive, and on Aug. 3 and 4 the center is hosting the annual meeting of the Red Wolf Species Survival Plan.

The Wolf Conservation Center received the female Mexican wolf, known as "F838," from the Minnesota Zoo when she was about a year old. She was paired with a male from the Wild Canid Research and Survival Center in Eureka, Mo., and together they had the two pups.

"We know they (the female and male) have very strong parenting skills," said Kim Scott, the Missouri center's assistant director. "They seem to be very well bonded."

The two adults have radio collars so they can be tracked. A motion-sensing trail camera recently captured a photo of the female and one of her cubs at a feeding area. Braden noted that the pup has grown considerably since the release.

"I'd say they're doing pretty well," Braden said.

The Journal News

Wolves near Idaho City learn to chew off radio collars

2006-07-27T12:46:00.000-05:00

IDAHO CITY -- You could call them smart or just lucky, but Idaho Fish and Game is facing a unique problem and biologists don't really know quite how to deal with it. The timberline wolf pack near Idaho City is giving the department a headache because the predators have found a way to chew of their radio collars. That’s how the agency tracks their movement.

It’s a rare site, a wolf staggering back into the woods after waking from a sedative. The Idaho Fish and Game department just put a radio collar on the two-year-old wolf this summer to follow its progress from the air and ground to learn more about the species, and keep track of Idaho’s wolf population.

“In order to count the number of wolves, radio collaring is the best technique that we know of,” said Steve Nadeau, Idaho Fish and Game Department. It’s a technique that takes a lot of time and effort. The wolves are trapped and sedated so that biologists can then place the heavy leather collar on the wolf. But now the timberline wolf pack is frustrating the department, and creating more work for biologists.

The wolves have learned how to chew off their radio collars.

“It is rather unique, probably one radio collar or one pack in 20 or 30 might learn to chew the radio collars. I think it might be a boredom thing. They look at it and wonder what that new necklace is all about and then they start chewing on it,” said Nadeau. Fish and Game usually replaces radio collars on wolf packs every three to four years. The timberline wolf pack needs replacements every year.

“It may just be one wolf out of the pack, or a multiple number, or the young ones, we really don't know right now. The two collars that we have in that pack are still on, but it doesn't mean they are hanging on with a full thread, they could be dangling, we don't know,” said Nadeau.

What the department does know is that wolves are smart and playful animals. They hope to figure out why or how the wolves learned to chew off these collars. Idaho Fish and Game checks in with radio collared wolves across the state every two to three weeks.

KTVB-TV

Juneau residents seek wolf killer

2006-07-26T18:10:00.000-05:00

Associated Press

State officials have sanctioned wolf kills as predator control in parts of Interior and Southcentral Alaska. But in Juneau, there's a reward being offered for information leading to the arrest of whoever killed a local wolf out of season about ten days ago.
About 10 Juneau residents have contributed to offer a three-thousand dollar reward to find out who killed a black wolf on July 16th. The carcass was found at a pullout on Thane Road south of downtown Juneau.

Author and wildlife advocate Nick Jans contributed to the reward fund. He says residents want to do everything they can to make sure such an event doesn't go unpunished.

The Alaska Bureau of Wildlife Enforcement is investigating the wolf case. The bureau has put out its own request for information. Tests are being conducted to determine if the wolf is the same animal that has been commonly seen near Mendenhall Lake. That wolf was nicknamed Romeo and was known for playing with dogs accompanying people on walks. A state biologist says the dead wolf was shot several times and its throat was slit.

KTVA-TV

Feds deny Wyoming petition to delist wolves

2006-07-26T17:50:00.000-05:00

By BEN NEARY - Associated Press Writer

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The U.S. government on Monday denied a request from Wyoming to remove gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains from the federal list of threatened and endangered species.

Wyoming officials, concerned that wolves have been killing cattle and domestic sheep and thinning elk herds, had proposed allowing trophy hunting of the animals in certain areas and classifying them as predators that could be shot on sight elsewhere. The state proposed allowing the wolves to live unmolested in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

In rejecting the state's petition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday that it couldn't remove federal protections for wolves in Wyoming until the state sets firm limits on how many could be killed. The agency also said the state must commit to maintaining a minimum population of the animals. Wyoming is home to an estimated 252 wolves.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Monday that the decision will make it easier for Wyoming to get a judge to decide whether its plan is scientifically adequate. Just hours before Monday's announcement, Freudenthal and state Attorney General Pat Crank released a letter warning the federal agency that the state intended to sue to compel action.

Ed Bangs, coordinator of the Fish and Wildlife Service's gray wolf recovery effort in Helena, Mont., said Wyoming game managers must be authorized to maintain at least 10 breeding pairs and 100 wolves overall in the state in midwinter before the federal agency can agree to remove federal protections. "Our conclusion is that Wyoming law, and its plan, really don't provide enough assurance for us to move forward with delisting at this time," Bangs said.

Crank said Monday the state is satisfied that providing wolves a haven in the national parks and decreasing protections outside the parks would conserve the population. Elk calf numbers have dropped from as high as 30 per 100 of the elk population during the winter to below 10 per 100 in areas where there are many wolves, he said.

Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, a coalition representing agriculture interests, sportsmen and others, said he lost 51 sheep last year and has lost 12 so far this year. "I think what we're seeing is the wolves are dispersing more and more across the state," Magagna said.

Houston Chronicle

Program for Mexican gray wolves to continue

2006-07-26T17:46:00.000-05:00

Michael Clancy - The Arizona Republic

Mexican gray wolves, one of the state's key links to its wild roots, will continue to roam in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday. The decision to continue a wolf reintroduction program was made in spite of opposition from ranchers who succeeded in having a dozen wolves killed in recent months because the wolves attacked their cattle. Continuing the program was also one of the key recommendations in a five-year review of the Mexican Wolf Blue Range Reintroduction Project in Arizona and New Mexico.

Other recommendations that will be considered include:

• Expanding wolves' range, which covers portions of the White Mountain Apache Reservation and the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests in Arizona and the Gila National Forest in New Mexico. No details were provided; the issue will be studied further.

• Allowing the number of wolves to increase naturally, although that will depend on the results of the range study and further scientific review of the program.

• Requiring ranchers to adapt their practices to minimize wolf kills by removing carcasses of dead animals that wolves feed upon and by adjusting calving times so they take place at the same time elk, the wolves' preferred food, are giving birth.

Each of those recommendations would have to undergo study, and some may have to be included in broader planning aimed at wolf survival. Bigger studies about range and the project as a whole also will be carried out, with final results possibly in six years. But for now, the wolves have succeeded in returning to the wild in the eight years since they first were released near Hannagan Meadow in the White Mountains.

"They can maintain themselves in the wild with native prey, they can reproduce and raise litters, and they can find each other and start new packs," said Bill Van Pelt, endangered species coordinator for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. "These things suggest successful reintroduction can occur. The greatest challenge right now is humans."

First placed in 1998

The Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees endangered-species recovery nationwide, decided to continue the reintroduction program by accepting 37 recommendations of a five-agency group that oversees the Mexican wolf reintroduction. The recommendations were the result of a required, but belated, five-year review of the project, which placed its first wolves in the wild in 1998.

Benjamin Tuggle, acting southwest regional director for the service, said the recommendations "will greatly improve the effectiveness of the Mexican wolf program." He spoke at a telephone news conference Tuesday morning.

An estimated 45 to 60 wolves, not counting newborn pups, live on their own in the wild lands along the eastern border of Arizona and the highlands of western New Mexico, said John Morgart, Mexican wolf recovery coordinator for the service.

That is far short of the 100 wild wolves predicted for 2006 when the program started. But the wolves exist under tight restrictions on where they may go, how many may exist, and what they may eat.

Wolf foes speak out

Ranchers and other residents of the wolf recovery area have opposed the program because, they say, wolves pose a threat to their livelihoods, their pets, maybe even their children. Now, wolves may be trapped and relocated or even killed after they kill livestock.

Much of the organized opposition has been in New Mexico, where a ranchers group and an organization that represents counties lost a lawsuit in 2005 aimed at ending the program. Two wolf packs, one in Arizona and one in New Mexico, recently were removed after confirmation that the packs had killed and fed upon cattle. A dozen animals died, including six wild-born pups. Alternatively, conservation groups like Defenders of Wildlife say the wolves would thrive if they had more territory and fewer restrictions.

3 areas covered

The recommendations broadly cover three areas: territory, population and attacks on livestock, or depredation.

No specific expansion was identified, but Eva Sargent of Defenders of Wildlife, which reimburses ranchers for cattle lost to wolves, said her organization would like to see consideration of southeastern Arizona's mountain ranges, known as the Sky Islands, and the Grand Canyon area.

Morgart also said the service would complete a recovery plan for the wolves, as recommended, but that the other steps must be taken first.

Sargent said a recovery plan, aimed at the wolves' permanent survival in the wild, should be completed before target numbers of animals are established. The recommendations say the objective should be to maintain a total of at least 100 wolves, with 125 as a higher level that, Van Pelt said, would trigger discussion about wolf removal. Sargent argued the number is arbitrary and established without scientific review.

Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity called the 125 number a cap on the population that would prevent recovery. Robinson even challenged the possibility of territorial expansion, saying it is a "poison pill" that will "sabotage wolf recovery."

Both boundary changes and a recovery plan would have to go through a comprehensive process of decision-making, public comment, environmental-impact statements and final decisions, Morgart said, similar to the process that led to the reintroduction in the first place.

The group overseeing recovery may proceed, he said, with several recommendations, including development of an incentive program to limit livestock kills and formation of a science and research advisory committee to review the project as a whole.

Arizona Republic

Isle Royale is a study in moose, wolves

2006-07-26T17:37:00.000-05:00

BY BOB DOWNING - McClatchy-Tribune Services

ISLE ROYALE NATIONAL PARK, Mich. - It was a chance to meet a hero, even if it was only for 15 minutes. I had joined a tour to the 1855 Rock Harbor Lighthouse and the Edisen Fishery at America's least-visited national park, an island in northwest Lake Superior 55 miles off the Michigan coast. The old-time Lake Superior fisherman Les Mattson told visitors to the old fishing camp that the island's famed wolf-moose researchers, Rolf and Carolyn "Candy" Peterson, lived just down the shore.

Rolf Peterson has spent 35 years studying the dynamics between Isle Royale's most famous residents: moose and wolves. He appears frequently in National Geographic and on television news reports. He is to moose and wolves what Jane Goodall is to chimps and Dian Fossey is to mountain gorillas: the iconic scientist.

I checked with the crew of the cruise boat and was told the Peterson's encampment was a quarter mile down a trail through the woods and that we'd be departing in a half-hour. I hustled down the trail and arrived at the encampment just as the Petersons were coming ashore in a skiff. I called out, asking whether visitors were welcome. I was assured that they were. That's because the research is supported by public funds from the National Park Service and the National Science Foundation.

Candy even gave me a brief tour of the compound, which doubles as an eye-opening moose graveyard. Bones are everywhere in the yard: skulls, femurs, jaws and other body parts. Bones on planks in the sunlight in one area are this year's bones, and Candy said the researchers probably find and collect only one-third of the available bones. In another shaded grove sit 400 moose skulls, complete with antlers, which the researchers have collected on Isle Royale since 1958. It was an impressive and spooky sight: a shrine to the island's moose. Studying the bones allows scientists to determine the size and the health of the moose.

In 2005, Isle Royale had about 540 moose and 30 eastern timber wolves. That represented an increase of one wolf over the previous year and it was the third year in a row that moose numbers have declined. Isle Royale's isolation and the minimal human impact have made it a great place to study the dynamics between moose and wolves for the last 47 years.

The Norwegian flag was flying over the Petersons' cabins, once a Lake Superior fishing camp. The camp with its wood plank walls and tin roofs looks like something out of "Lord of the Rings." Candy gave Rolf, a professor at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, a front-yard haircut as I tromped through their camp, following the hand-lettered signs they had posted to guide visitors when they're not around. Their only request: Please sign the guest book.

Their encampment includes a small fenced-off grave where up to 20 miners may be buried in the wake of a drunken brawl between mining camps in the 1850s. At least that's what the handwritten sign on the picket fence reads. Another sign tells visitors that calves account for one-third of moose that are killed annually by the wolves. It also noted that the typical wolf-killed moose is 12 years old and suffering from osteoporosis, arthritis and periodontal disease.

The Petersons' research is done in the summer and again when the park is shut down in the winter. There are winter flyovers to locate wolf-killed moose. Then researchers snowshoe in to retrieve up to 70 pounds of moose remains, including bones, teeth and fat. In the summer, the research includes trapping and fitting wolves with radio collarings and tracking them from the ground and the air.

Rolf Peterson said the changing wolf-moose numbers on Isle Royale may be linked to global warming. The moose decline appears to be linked to increasing stress from hot summers and a tick infestation that weakens the moose and is triggered by milder winters, he said. One moose may have up to 30,000 of the biting insects. The more ticks, the more blood and hair loss and the weaker the moose get. It is a worldwide problem, according to Peterson.

Moose on Isle Royale have also had trouble finding food the last two winters because of snow and that has hurt their numbers, he said. The first moose arrived on Isle Royale about 1900. It is believed that hunger on the Canadian mainland drove the moose to swim to Isle Royale. They found plenty to eat and no predators, and their numbers soared to 3,000 by 1930. Moose numbers went up, then crashed after they ate up the available food.

Typically, there are between 800 and 1,200 moose on the island now. About 15 percent of the population dies annually from wolves and starvation. Moose numbers grow in years with mild winters, early spring greening, abundant winter forage, low wolf numbers and low levels of tick infestation.

Moose also have a big impact on Isle Royale's forest cover. They are most likely to be found at the eastern and western ends of the islands and around campgrounds where they know they are safe from wolves.

The first wolves crossed Lake Superior on the ice in 1948-49. Other darker wolves arrived in 1967. Typically, the island has 15 to 25 wolves in three packs and several loners. Wolves lose 20 to 25 percent of their population each year. Wolves are rarely seen on Isle Royale, not with its thick vegetation. You might hear their howls at night and you are likely to see droppings along the trails. Wolf packs kill moose every four to 10 days.

The Petersons get a boost in the summer from Earthwatch volunteers. The nonprofit group offers the public a chance to backpack with Rolf Peterson on Isle Royale to look for moose. Volunteers pay $800-a-person tax-deductible donations. For information, call 800-776-0188 or check out the Internet at www.earthwatch.org.

You can learn about Peterson's research at www.isleroyalewolf.org.

The park itself has a limited season. It is open from mid-April through October. You can get there via four ferries from cities in Michigan and Minnesota. Isle Royale -- it is 45 miles long and up to 9 miles wide -- is a wilderness island with no roads, no bikes, no vehicles and few signs of man. Backpackers love the park with its 165 miles of trails.

Wichita Eagle

As captive wolves die off, Winchester center ponders the future

2006-07-26T17:29:00.000-05:00

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WINCHESTER, Idaho -- The Wolf Education and Research Center, opened in 1997 to showcase wolves in their natural habitat, is at a crossroads now that populations of the native predators in Idaho have rebounded through a federal reintroduction program. At the end of the month, the center's board of directors will meet to plan for the future.

"We still feel there's a need for the center to be there," said staff member Nick Fiore, who works at the center's Lewiston office. "We feel like we still have a purpose when it comes to education about the wolf."

Currently, only one wolf remains from the center's original pack of eight. That pack was featured in Sun Valley filmmaker Jim Dutcher's documentary "Return of the Legend." Three other wolves at the center are offspring of the pack's original alpha male and female. The lone survivor from the inaugural pack, Motomo, is now 14, and the three pups - Piyip, Ayet and Motoki - are fully grown 10-year-olds. The wolves are all healthy, Fiore said, but they are reaching the end of their life span. For captive wolves, that's usually between 10 and 16 years, she said.

The center rents about 300 acres from the Nez Perce Tribe. The 15-year lease began in January 1997, and will expire in 2011. Fiore said the tribe will likely renew the lease when it expires, but nothing is certain. "We have a lot of researching to do before approaching the tribe," Fiore said. "I can't think of a reason in my mind why they wouldn't want us here, but we still need two plans."

If the tribe renews the lease, the center's board of directors would have to decide whether to buy new wolf pups. "When you bring pups in you have to have round-the-clock coverage for at least six weeks," Fiore said. "You only have about a week to form a bond with wolf pups and humans." Another option would be to transfer in 2- or 3-year-old wolves from other overcrowded wolf reserves throughout the West.

When the center opened in 1997, handlers developed a unique policy of minimal contact between staff and wolves, allowing the animals to live as they would in nature. Aside from immunizations, they did not receive veterinary care.

In 2000, the staff altered the philosophy after the deaths of two wolves, Kamots and Weyekin who were rejected by the pack. "After June 2000, there was a whole change of policies," Fiore said. "I think it was a good thing the organization adapted to that. Now if we feel there's an issue with the safety of an animal we will take them out of there." A second 2 1/4-acre enclosure was built to accommodate wolves spurned by the pack. Staff transferred two wolves, Matsi and Amani, to the safe area.

The center is far from a petting zoo, but biologist, Jeremy Heft, fears the policy shift could spell a marked change in mission if the center acquires more wolves. Heft, who has worked at the center for more than eight years, said he disapproves of the captive breeding of wolves. Captive pups might act more like domestic dogs than wolves. "The whole organization could change completely," he said.

All future plans will also fit into a strategy of bolstering visits. The center averages about 3,000 visitors per year, down from the 5,000 annual visits in the early years. The problem is, sometimes visitors will leave without ever having seen a wolf. "If the wolves want to come down they come down. If they don't, they don't," Fiore said.

So Fiore is aiming to add other exhibits to complement the live wolves. One of the goals is to build several yurt-style structures, which would hold interactive displays on large predators, water sheds and the Nez Perce Tribe's history. "Being an educational facility you have to move forward," he said. "I see a lot of promise for the center as far as development of other interpretive centers on the site."

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Minnesota Zoo releases wolf into the wild

2006-07-21T17:16:00.000-05:00

by Jeff Achen - Thisweek Newspapers

It was a unique opportunity for the Minnesota Zoo and its primary wolf zookeeper, Jackie Fallon, to take part in the reintroduction of an endangered species. It was also a difficult goodbye.

Last year, Fallon sent one of the Mexican gray wolves she cares for to a temporary holding facility in New York. In November, “Alita,” a 3-year-old female, arrived in New Mexico where she bred with another wolf. On July 6, wildlife biologists placed Alita, her mate, and both of their 3-month-old pups near Middle Mountain in the Apache National Forest.

Fallon said the zoo’s participation in the release is something zoos don’t often get to be a part of. As the focus of modern zoos becomes more and more about participation in conservation and recovery of animals in the wild, reintroduction is one goal zookeepers get excited about. “That’s a goal that zoos often don’t get to accomplish,” Fallon said.

Fallon admits that it’s human nature to get attached to the animals she cares for, and that it wasn’t easy to say goodbye to Alita, but it’s more important to her to see the animals released into the wild.

The first captive Mexican gray wolves were released in 1998, but Fallon said those first 11 wolves were more genetically common. The release of Alita is unique because she has all three lineages of the Mexican gray wolf in her blood, making her extremely genetically valuable. “It’s really important to bring in new bloodlines to the wild and the only way to do that is to bring in captive wolves,” Fallon said. “She’s not closely related to any of the wolves in the wild.”

There are only about 300 or so Mexican gray wolves in captivity and 30 to 50 in the wild.

The reintroduction is a cooperative effort of the Arizona and New Mexico Game and Fish departments, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the White Mountain Apache Tribe and the USDA Forest and USDA-APHIS Wildlife Services.

The Minnesota Zoo first became involved in the Mexican gray wolf species survival program in 1994 with two females and one male. In 2003, the zoo received an award from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) for its involvement with the program after the birth of seven pups that year. Alita still has four full brothers at the Minnesota Zoo and Fallon said she’s proud of the care they are able to provide these endangered and genetically valuable creatures.

The exhibit allows them to roam a bit more freely than traditional zoo habitats, including hunting small game. This will prepare them for release into the wild if there comes another call for their valuable genetics.

As hard as it may be to say more goodbyes, Fallon will be glad to see them restored to their natural habitat.

This Week