From MLive.com:
ISLE ROYALE, MI — Bringing in a diverse mix of healthy wolves to Michigan’s Isle Royale was only part of the equation when the National Park Service set out to increase the remote island’s tiny predator population last year.
With the first batch of new wolves now sniffing around their Michigan home, scientists have their eyes on another big piece of the effort: How soon will Isle Royale see its first wolf pups?
Click here for the full story.
A new video chronicles the amazing efforts that took place in March to move six wolves from Michipicoten Island and one from the Canadian mainland to Isle Royale. The International Wolf Center played a key role in the project, thanks to your support!
Enjoy this look back on the amazing weekend:
From Mlive.com:
Family pets and several types of wildlife have died after ingesting fast-acting poison in recent weeks near the Upper Peninsula’s border with Wisconsin. Authorities have issued a warning, saying someone is intentionally mixing an insecticide with meat and leaving it for animals to find.
Government agencies and local authorities are asking for the public’s help in solving a string of fatal poisonings that have occurred since December in three Wisconsin counties along or near the U.P.’s western border.
From the San Francisco Chronicle and the Associated Press:
JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — Biologists estimate the overall Wyoming wolf population at 286 this year, which is down 61 animals from a year ago.
The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports that’s the fewest wolves counted in the state since the Wyoming Game and Fish Department took over management and initiated wolf hunting seven years ago.
From Buckrail.com and the Associated Press:
POWELL, Wyo. (AP) – Officials say Yellowstone National Park’s gray wolf population has dropped to about 80 wolves—less than half of the highest population mark in the park.
The Powell Tribune reported on Thursday that while park officials won’t have an accurate count until the fall after surviving pups are visible, the park’s top biologist, Doug Smith, doesn’t expect the numbers to rise dramatically after litters are included in population estimates.
From The Atlantic:
The day was cold, gray, and rainy, and the wolf smelled exactly like a wet dog. I sat on my heels, my shoulders just a few inches higher than hers, and hesitantly scratched her belly, her thick, black-tipped gray fur soft and greasy between my fingers. She nosed at my face, bumping my chin and lapping my cheeks. She tried to slide her long, flexible tongue into my mouth, and when that failed, an unguarded nostril.
From Jefferson Public Radio in Oregon:
Wolf populations are increasing in Oregon, which makes a proposed wolf management plan released Monday all the more controversial. In fact, neither conservationists nor cattle owners are entirely happy with the proposal.
Under current regulations, a wolf that commits two depredations — livestock attacks — within any period of time is a “chronic depredator.” That’s when state officials could consider killing it.
From the Great Lakes Echo:
The recent transfer of six starving wolves to Isle Royale benefits not only them but the island’s entire forest ecosystem.
For the past three years only two wolves populated the 207 square mile island in the northwest of Lake Superior, according to the National Park Service. The male is the female’s father as well as half-brother, said Sarah Hoy, an assistant professor at Michigan Technological University who studies how the increasing moose population affects the island.
From the Jackson Hole News & Guide:
A dearth of wolves in places like the Gros Ventre River valley this winter was not an anomaly, as wildlife managers are reporting reduced numbers throughout wolf range in the state.
The overall Wyoming wolf population, estimated at 286 as the calendar turned to 2019, was down 61 animals from a year ago. That’s the fewest animals counted since the Wyoming Game and Fish Department took over management and initiated hunting seven years ago.
From the Great Falls Tribune in Montana:
HELENA — The future of the gray wolf in Montana has led to a tug-of-war between conservationists and ranchers over policy proposals in the 2019 legislative session, and both sides have claimed victories.
On Thursday, a Senate committee advanced two house bills that would make wolf hunting licenses cheaper. Rep. Bob Brown, a Republican from Thompson Falls, is carrying House bills 407 and 280, which would reduce a the license fee from $19 to $12 and add more of a discount for class AAA combination sports licenses.
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.