Why Winter Is A Good Time To Track Wisconsin’s Wolf Packs

From WisContext.org:

As wolves returned to broad swaths of Wisconsin after decades of being extirpated from the state, a tracking program in which volunteers scout for the presence of this predator grew, too.

Since 1978, when the gray wolf (Canis lupus) was identified in Douglas County, the first sighting there in about two decades, the animal’s population across the state sharply increased. By the winter of 2017-2018, the minimum number of wolves in the state stood between 905 and 944, based on the annual count by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

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Estonians rescue wild wolf from ice thinking it was a dog

From BBC.com:

Kind-hearted Estonian workers rushed to rescue a dog in distress from a freezing river on Wednesday – unaware of the fact they were actually about to bundle a wild wolf into their car.

The men were working on the Sindi dam on the Parnu river when they spotted the animal trapped in the icy water.

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Why wolves have become a political football in Germany

From Yahoo.com:

The German government is mulling some weighty threats these days, Brexit, US auto tariffs… and wolves. 

Canis lupus lupus, aka the European grey wolf, is back from extinction and into the middle of the political debate. What to do about the rapidly expanding wolf population was on the docket at the Bundestag in Berlin this week.

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Isle Royale moose get tracking collars, first time in 1985

From Mlive.com:

ISLE ROYALE, MI – For the first time since 1985, researchers doing the long-running winter study of wolves and moose on Michigan’s remote Isle Royale have placed tracking collars on some of the island’s moose.

The work was finished last Saturday, according to a social media post from the researchers. They used small teams of people working on the ground, in spotter planes to find the moose, then in helicopters to assist with capture.

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Wolves in Germany Are Making a Comeback, And The Military Is Weirdly Helping

From ScienceAlert.com:

Humanity has always had an uneasy relationship with wolves. They loom large in our ancient mythologies as fearsome beasts; over the millennia, that fear has led to devastation of wolf populations across Europe, including 19th century Germany.

In the 1960s, numbers of wolves (Canis lupus) in Europe hit an all-time low, veering perilously close to the brink of extinction. But in recent years they’ve been gradually coming back to Germany; now, new research has found they are assisted by an unlikely ally – the German military.

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Female wolf settles in the Netherlands and may have a mate

From DutchNews.nl:

A female wolf which has been roaming the northern part of the Veluwe national park in Gelderland can now be considered to be the first wolf to be officially settled there and off-spring may be on the way, wolf monitoring organisation Wolven in Nederland claims. A wolf is considered settled when it stays in a certain area for longer than six months. DNA in the wolf droppings, show that this is the case for Veluwe wolf GW998F, the organisation said, while droppings from a male wolf and tracks in the snow from both animals suggest that the female has found a mate.

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Bill to keep Idaho wolf control board headed to governor

From MagicValley.com:

BOISE — Legislation to keep operating a state board that pays a federal agency to kill wolves that attack livestock and elk is on its way to Gov. Brad Little after a House vote Monday.

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An Ancient Rural Culture Deals With Wolves Halfway Around The World

From the Mountain Journal:

Two animals, dark against windblown snow, picked their way from the shelter of a band of trees and out onto the plain. Tumursukh Jal, the director of the Ulaan Taiga Strictly Protected Areas Administration and one of Mongolia’s foremost conservationists, hit the brakes of the Land Rover and reached for his binoculars.
“Wolves!” he said.

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Mongolia: An Ancient Rural Culture Deals With Wolves Halfway Around The World

From MountainJournal.org:

Two animals, dark against windblown snow, picked their way from the shelter of a band of trees and out onto the plain. Tumursukh Jal, the director of the Ulaan Taiga Strictly Protected Areas Administration and one of Mongolia’s foremost conservationists, hit the brakes of the Land Rover and reached for his binoculars. 
“Wolves!” he said. 

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Ferry County, Washington, ranchers fed up with wolf attacks, demand state action

From KREM.com:

FERRY COUNTY, Wash. — The number of wolf attacks on cattle in Eastern Washington has doubled in the past two years as the wolf population continues to climb.

There are about 120 known wolves in the state of Washington. Of the 22 known wolf packs, 19 are east of the Cascades. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials said the wolf population is still growing, under protections from state and federal law.

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