From the Statesman Journal:
Gray wolves have apparently reached the Oregon Coast, but their arrival hasn’t been entirely peaceful.
State wildlife officials say wolves “probably” killed 22 sheep in Curry County during four attacks in late February and early March.
From PBS.org:
BILLINGS, Mont. — U.S. wildlife officials plan to lift protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states, a move certain to re-ignite the legal battle over a predator that’s rebounding in some regions and running into conflicts with farmers and ranchers, an official told The Associated Press.
Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt was expected to announce the proposal during a Wednesday speech before a wildlife conference in Denver, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Spokesman Gavin Shire said in an interview with the AP.
From Science Discoveries:
Portrayed as fearsome creatures in mythology, wolves are also seen by farmers as killing machines that prey on their livestock. Consequently, the European grey wolf has been intensely persecuted across Europe in the past, and is now extinct in many European countries. However according to recent data, the wolf population is on the rise after legal protection of the species and restoration of its habitats. Researchers are now investigating how humans and wolves can coexist.
Understanding the feeding habits of wolves is crucial in protecting wolf populations, while reducing their predatory impact on domestic animals such as sheep, goats, cattle and pigs. This is especially important where wolves live in human-dominated landscapes such as southern Europe. In such areas of high human activity such as livestock raising, wolves have come to rely heavily on livestock and human refuse.
From BCLocalNews.com:
John Marriott’s passion for the environment and those who live there was sparked when the then six-year-old went on his first fishing trip to Scotch Creek.
“That’s where I first started to fall in love with wildlife,” says the photographer who is actively advocating for animals that are being treated inhumanely and do not have a voice of their own. “It was all shaped there in the Shuswap.”
With the wolf population rising and on the prowl in Germany, Environment Minister Svenja Schulze is pushing for a new law to curb the damage they cause to farmers.
Schulze’s proposed “Lex Wolf” would make it easier to shoot the protected animals.
From CBC.ca:
Two wildlife researchers are calling the government of the Northwest Territories’ incentive for wolf hunters a political “distraction.”
In November 2018, the N.W.T. Department of Environment and Natural Resources reported that the Bathurst and Bluenose East caribou herds had collapsed. Both herds were reported to have declined more than 50 per cent since 2015. At the time, it was suggested that wolf predation could have played a role in the decline.
From the Flathead Beacon in Kalispell, Montana:
A Thompson Falls legislator has introduced a pair of bills that would allow hunters to kill wolves at night and permit trapping the animals along seasonally closed roads.
From The SpokesmanReview in Spokane, Washington:
Colville Tribal hunters may now hunt wolves year-round on tribal grounds. The rule change, posted Friday, also removed a three-wolf season limit.
Wolf hunting was scheduled to end on the north half of the reservation at the end of February. The north half is comprised of tribal, state and federal land.
From TheNarwhal.ca:
In January, Craig Comstock did what he’s done many times over the years — loaded his two dogs into his vehicle and drove from his home in Calgary to the backcountry for a day hike.
Comstock, 44, is an avid outdoorsman — he hikes, fishes and hunts pheasants and partridges — but none of that prepared him for what he found in the bush.
From the MissoulaCurrent.com:
Almost every session, a few Montana legislators target certain wildlife species with their bills. This session, wolves are back in the crosshairs.
This week, the House Fish and Wildlife committee heard two of the more contentious bills aimed at killing more of Montana’s wolves. House Bill 551 would allow people to hunt wolves at night, and HB 552 would reduce the distance from roads where wolf traps can be set.
The International Wolf Center uses science-based education to teach and inspire the world about wolves, their ecology, and the wolf-human relationship.