From BemidjiPioneer.com:
Gray wolves protected stay on the Endangered Species Act of 1973 may be coming to a permanent end. A forced Minnesota hunting season could follow.
The ESA aimed to protect the apex predator from hunters, crafting a safe environment to allow its recovery after being hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states.
From Redding.com:
As California’s gray wolf population grows, so are the reports of wolves killing cattle in the state’s rural corners, prompting at least one county to recently declare a local emergency that urges state Department of Fish and Wildlife officials to fix the problem.
“Authorities are requested to to consider euthanizing or relocating problem wolves to prevent livestock losses and ensure the safety of the general public in affected communities,” the Modoc County Board of Supervisors’ March 13 resolution declares.
From FarmProgress.com:
This year’s Minnesota legislative session is in full swing, and on the list of farmer and rancher concerns is the status of depredation funding for the losses of livestock, standing crops and/or stored forage to wolf, elk and/or deer.
Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association President Jake Thompson, who is a cow-calf producer near Barnesville, testified in both the Minnesota House and Minnesota Senate Ag Committees in late February in support of bills providing continued funding for both elk and wolf depredation funds used to reimburse farmers and ranchers for their losses.
From WyomingPublicMedia.org:
Billy Fabian is a wildlife guide for Jackson Hole EcoTour Adventures where, among other job responsibilities, he creates Instagram videos of Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem wildlife from bears and bison to moose, elk and wolves.
In one January video racking up over 200,000 likes on the social media platform, three wolves chase the ankles of a bull elk about three times their size.
Fabian details the action like a color commentator.
From Phys.org:
Wolf populations in Europe increased by nearly 60% in a decade, according to a study led by Cecilia Di Bernardi and Guillaume Chapron at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, published in the open-access journal PLOS Sustainability and Transformation.
Large carnivore populations are declining worldwide. However, in Europe, conservation policies have supported the recovery of wolves (Canis lupus) in recent decades.
From SierraDailyNews.com:
The ongoing debate over gray wolf management in California highlights the tension between conservation efforts and the realities faced by rural communities. Under both the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the California Endangered Species Act (CESA), gray wolves are protected, making any form of lethal removal without special authorization illegal. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is primarily responsible for managing wolf populations, employing non-lethal methods such as deterrents and monitoring to mitigate conflicts.
From BBC.CO.UK:
The wolf has mounted an extraordinary comeback.
Once hunted to extinction across Western Europe, the animal has taken advantage of the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the depopulation of the countryside to spread from east to west, reaching as far as the suburbs of Amsterdam and Brussels. Only Britain, Ireland, Malta, Cyprus and Iceland now lack the top predator that haunts our fairy tales.
From Euractive.com:
Weakening the protected status of wolves risks using the wolf as a scapegoat. Animal rights group Humane World for Animals Europe says the new proposals could open the way for a more serious erosion of EU nature laws.
Last week, the European Commission proposed to amend Annexes IV and V of the EU Habitats Directive, downgrading the protection status of wolves under EU law.
A catalyst for this recent proposal is a December 2024 decision to lower the protected status of wolves in the Bern Convention.
From TheOregonian:
Oregon ranchers want higher payouts from the state to recoup their losses for cattle and other livestock killed by wolves. But the fate of a bill that would increase those payments will be determined by whether enough Democratic lawmakers, who hold the majority in Salem, are willing to defy environmentalists and support the proposal.
From OutsideOnline.com:
On January 11, 1995, approximately 17,000 elk bedded down in Yellowstone National Park. When they woke up a few hours later, a new scent was in the icy air: wolves. It had been 69 years since the last Canis lupus roamed the world’s first national park. As a result of hunting, government-sponsored eradication programs, and human expansion, wolves were all but extinct in the U.S. But on January 12, 1995, eight wolves from Canada were moved to Yellowstone in an effort to curb the exploding elk population that was destroying vegetation other animals needed to survive. It was a controversial move: area ranchers worried the new carnivores would prey on their livestock.
The International Wolf Center uses science-based education to teach and inspire the world about wolves, their ecology, and the wolf-human relationship.