From The Japan Times:
Little was known about the evolutionary history of the Japanese wolf, a small subspecies of the gray wolf that was once endemic to the islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. New DNA research is changing that.
Worshiped for centuries as a divine messenger and protector of farmland, the creature is thought to have gone extinct as Japan marched toward industrialization in the 19th century. The last known specimen of the Japanese wolf was found in 1905.
From Bigfoot99 in Colorado:
Wolves are again active on ranches in Northern Colorado frustrating ranchers there. After several weeks passed with no reported sightings or livestock depredations, female wolf 1084 and her pack have reportedly been marauding livestock herds near Walden.
Rancher Don Gittleson, who lost three cows and a dog to the pack since before Christmas, told the Fort Collins Coloradoan that he lost two more calves last month. However, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has not confirmed either calf was killed by wolves, although one was dragged underneath a fence line.
From Wisconsin Public Radio:
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say a second wolf hunt last year would have risked Wisconsin’s wolf population dropping to undesirable levels that include the wolf possibly becoming endangered or extinct in Wisconsin.
The study published in the scientific journal PLOS One found it’s more likely than not that a well-regulated hunt would have required placing wolves on the state threatened and endangered species list. Researchers concluded a repeat of the February wolf hunt, during which hunters killed 218 wolves in less than three days, risked extirpation of wolves statewide except on tribal reservations.
From Outdoor Life:
In the last week of April, Wyoming’s Game and Fish Department published the Wyoming Gray Wolf Monitoring and Management report. In that report, the department notes that the end of 2021 marked 20 consecutive years the state exceeded the numerical, distributional, and temporal recovery criteria establish for wolves by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The numbers in the report show there are at least 314 wolves in at least 40 packs throughout the state of Wyoming. In the Wolf Trophy Game Management Area, the report lists at least 161 wolves spread across 24 packs. In Yellowstone National Park, the report lists at least 97 wolves in eight packs.
From the Laramie Boomerang in Wyoming:
CODY — For two decades, Wyoming’s wolf population has been above the minimum population number to be considered a recovered species.
Wyoming Game and Fish recently released its annual report on the population of wolves in and around Yellowstone National Park.
According to the report, at the end of 2021, the gray wolf population in Wyoming remained above minimum recovery criteria, making 2021the 20th consecutive year Wyoming has exceeded the numerical, distributional and temporal recovery criteria established for wolves by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
From The Local in Switzerland:
A series of wolf attacks against sheep and other farm animals have been reported in various cantons, particularly in the French-speaking part of the country.
To keep this from happening, Vaud and Valais shepherds are training, in cooperation with the Organisation for the Protection of Alpine Pastures (OPPAL), a number of civilian volunteers to watch over herds of livestock at night, when wolves are most likely to pounce.
From the Wisconsin Examiner:
Six Ojibwe tribes in Wisconsin wrote a letter this week to Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson opposing a bipartisan bill co-authored by Baldwin (a Democrat) and Johnson (a Republican) that would remove the gray wolf from the federal endangered species list in the Western Great Lakes region and Wyoming.
Delisting of the gray wolf would allow the animal to be hunted again. Baldwin and Johnson argue that the wolf populations in these parts of the country are healthy and therefore management should be returned to the states.
From the Star Tribune in Minnesota:
MADISON, Wis. — Most of the respondents to the Wisconsin Conservation Congress’ spring survey say they support limiting the state’s wolf population to 350 animals.
The congress, an influential group of sportspeople who advise the state Department of Natural Resources on policy, holds a survey each spring gauging respondents’ support for a wide range of outdoor and environmental proposals. This year’s survey was conducted online earlier this month.
Click here for the full story.
From the Coloradoan:
JACKSON COUNTY — It’s an unusually warm but usual windy mid-April day as Don Gittleson approaches a calf born recent enough that its mother was eating the afterbirth to keep predators off their scent.
Gittleson, along with his son, Dave Gittleson, and Dave’s wife, Andrea Gittleson, know this cow, ear tag No. 372, is cantankerous during calving time.
From the Duluth News-Tribune in Minnesota:
DULUTH — The Biden administration this week filed a placeholder to appeal the February court order restoring federal protections for wolves across much of the U.S., including in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
The administration filed a notice of appeal to a federal judge’s order in February restoring endangered species protections for gray wolves that were removed under the Trump administration late in 2020.
The International Wolf Center advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future.