US wildlife officials aim to address illegal Mexican wolf killings

From the Albuquerque Journal in New Mexico:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Prompted by a court order, federal wildlife managers have issued a new draft plan for managing Mexican gray wolves in the Southwestern U.S. in an effort to address illegal killings of the endangered predators.

The plan calls for millions of dollars to be spent over the coming decades on more education, outreach, increased law enforcement patrols and other projects to boost the wolf population across its historic range in Arizona, New Mexico and in Mexico.

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India: Turning deathtraps into shrines, how Ladakh’s pashmina goatherds learnt to live with wolves

From The Print:

New Delhi: The journey of pashmina — the fine, luxurious wool — cherished all over the world, starts in the cold deserts of Ladakh, where families of shepherds and goatherds raise a breed of goat called Changthangi or Changra through the harsh winters, hoping to harvest the soft cashmere in spring.

Co-existing for centuries in the same landscape is Canis lupus, the Himalayan grey wolf that preys on the domesticated pashmina goats.

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India: Crying for the wolf

From The New Indian Express:

In the popularity index of animals of the wild, the wolf ranks abysmally low. We love the lion and the tiger for their magnificence, the leopard for its speed and quiet. In fact, all the big cats get at least a smile from us, be it the puma, the jaguar or the shadowy snow leopard.

Similarly, the elephant, and the monkey, the ape are among creatures we look upon with kindly eyes.
But the wolf, though a  forerunner of the dog, who is a much-loved family friend across the world, finds little favour.

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Colorado: How politics, public perception played into the vote to reintroduce wolves

From The Journal in Colorado:

Two recent studies by scientists at Colorado State University show how politics and public perception shaped the 2020 vote to reintroduce wolves in Colorado.

Researchers with CSU’s Center for Human-Carnivore Coexistence published the studies earlier this year in the journals Ecological Applications and Conservation Science and Practice. They revealed the factors that swayed voters to support or oppose the reintroduction of wolves, finding that public perception changed dramatically in the months leading up to the vote, and that political affiliation heavily influenced voters.

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U.S. seeks input on plans to keep humans from killing endangered Mexican gray wolf

From FronterasDesk.org:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will publish revisions Thursday to its five-year-old Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan that it says will improve protections for the endangered species.

The new draft is the result of a court order to address humans killing wolves. Earlier this year, two wolves were shot, one just outside Flagstaff that died and another in New Mexico that survived but lost a leg. Fish and Wildlife says the plan will include education both in the U.S. and in Mexico. It also includes increasing law enforcement presence.

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Alberta: Closures implemented at Banff to give space, security to wolves

From RMOToday.com:

BANFF –  The Bow Valley’s montane habitat is considered critically important in spring, providing wildlife with much needed food and a place to raise their young when much of Banff National Park is still covered in snow.

At this time, many wildlife species including wolves during the critical denning period, require secure habitat and space because human behaviour can increase stress and change how animals feed, rest, reproduce and move.

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A record number of Yellowstone wolves have been killed. Conservationists are worried

From NPR.org:

This winter saw the most wolves from Yellowstone National Park killed in about a century. That’s because states neighboring the park changed hunting rules in an effort to reduce the animals’ numbers. At the same time, wolf biologists inside the park are finding out what losing the animals means.

“This was the winter of my discontent,” Yellowstone National Park senior wolf biologist Doug Smith says while driving over a washboarded dirt road near the park’s northern border.

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Wyoming: Finding answers to livestock depredation

From the Sublette Examiner in Pinedale, Wyoming:

BOULDER – The Sublette County Predator Board hosted a workshop at the Boulder Community Center on March 30 for ranchers whose cattle and sheep are preyed upon by gray wolves, mountain lions and grizzly and black bears.

The audience heard from a panel of county, state and federal employees to deal with the big question after finding dead or injured livestock – “What do I do now?”

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Rep. Lauren Boebert and fellow Republicans want gray wolves off endangered species list

From the Finger Lake Times:

DENVER — Colorado’s U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and 23 other Republican members of Congress wrote federal officials this month asking that they remove the gray wolf from the federal endangered species list.

A northern California judge’s February ruling placed the gray wolves on the federal endangered species list once more after they were taken off during former president Donald Trump’s administration.

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Wisconsin: Spring hearings will ask citizens whether to ban hunting wolves with dogs, end killing contests

From Wisconsin Public Radio:

Wisconsin’s Conservation Congress will hold its annual spring hearings online next week to collect input from residents on dozens of natural resource issues, including whether the state should ban hunting wolves with dogs and end wildlife killing contests.

The citizen advisory group for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Natural Resources Board is holding the hearings online for the third year in a row. The hearings begin at 7 p.m. on April 11 and run through April 14.

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