Wolves shot in Norway after court overturns stay of execution

From The Guardian:

Nine endangered wolves were shot in one day in Norway after a court ruled that a controversial hunt could go ahead.

Fifty-one wolves were originally due to be slaughtered – a significant proportion of the 80 animals thought to live in Norway. But last month, activists secured a stay of execution when they got an injunction halting the hunt until an appeal over its validity could go ahead. They claimed that allowing hunters to kill wolves in a conservation zone would be against EU nature protection laws.

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5 things to know about gray wolves regaining Endangered Species Act protection

From High Country News:

A federal judge announced big news last week: Gray wolves will regain protection in the United States.

Only in certain parts of the country, however.

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Wolves Will Regain Federal Protection in Much of the U.S.

From the New York Times:

Gray wolves will regain federal protection across most of the lower 48 United States following a court ruling Thursday that struck down a Trump administration decision to take the animals off the endangered species list.

Senior District Judge Jeffrey S. White, of United States District Court for the Northern District of California, found that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, in declaring wolf conservation a success and removing the species from federal protection, did not adequately consider threats to wolves outside of the Great Lakes and Northern Rocky Mountains where they have rebounded most significantly.

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Judge orders federal protection for gray wolves be restored

From the Associated Press:

BILLINGS, Mont (AP) — A judge has ordered federal protections restored for gray wolves across much of the U.S. after they were removed in the waning days of the Trump administration.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said in Thursday’s ruling that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to show wolf populations could be sustained in the Midwest and portions of the West without protection under the Endangered Species Act.

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Minnesota: Wolf-human close encounter near Voyageurs park raises concerns

From Minnesota Public Radio:

A wolf spotted close to Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota recently walked within 5 feet of a group of snowmobiles showing no signs of fear — behavior that’s “extremely abnormal,” researchers said Wednesday.

“The wolf seemed unalarmed, did not appear to exhibit fear of people or the snowmobiles, and just sauntered/lingered in the area,” researchers with the Voyageurs Wolf Project wrote on Twitter.

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Wolf hazing legalized in Colorado

From High Country News:

In 2020, Coloradans voted for wolf reintroduction. But you can’t establish wolf packs unless you ensure their survival, and that requires human tolerance and landscape-wide protections. Scientists traced the Green River wildlife corridor from Wyoming to Colorado in order to understand the political and physical obstacles that wolves face, and the reasons why they haven’t repopulated the West on their own (“A Hostile Country,” September 2021).

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Wolves use trails created by humans for convenient hunting and easier access to prey

From The Conversation:

Zoom in and explore the northern boreal forests of western Canada on Google Earth and you’ll see long straight lines making their way through the forest. These lines are cleared trails through the forest to extract resources, creating roads for forestry and seismic lines searching for underground oil and gas deposits.

Now picture yourself faced with the task of moving across this landscape: Will you push your way through dense trees and underbrush, or will you choose to walk on the trails?

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Additional Support for Mexican Gray Wolf Gaining Traction

From The Paper in Albuquerque, New Mexico:

The Lobo, or Mexican gray wolf, listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1976 is the smallest, most genetically distinct and one of the rarest subspecies of the gray wolf. Wildlife advocates and science say a healthy wolf population supports the balance of ecosystems because predators act as checks on populations lower on the food chain which can benefit many other plant and animal species.

Wolves are highly intelligent pack animals and have been widely misunderstood through the millennia as wild and deadly beasts. They are the creatures of myth and folklore, often to their detriment. They are extremely social animals that develop very close social bonds with family members and their pack, often showing significant displays of affection and other emotions with each other. They avoid people as much as possible and are rarely seen along a highway or on a hiking trail.

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New study shows wolves change behavior around bears

From NBCMontana.com:

MISSOULA, Mont. — A new study at University of Montana shows Yellowstone wolves change their behavior around bears.

Biologists wanted to know more about how predators interact with each other.

Research shows wolves hunt less when competing with bears but mountain lions hunt more.

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New Documentary Examines Wolves Of Isle Royale National Park

From NationalParksTraveler.org:

How Isle Royale National Park’s wolves form new packs, how researchers capture individual wolves for research, and what they learn from that research, is laid out in a documentary film released by the National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation.

The nearly 40-minute film follows researchers as they develop the science to expand understanding of the predator/prey relationship between wolves and moose on Isle Royale and how it affects the ecosystem. The park has been home to the longest running predator/prey study in the world, with more than 60 years of data collected, but there are still many unanswered questions.

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