Do predators shape ecosystems? Trophic cascades curtailed by prey use of dangerous places during safe times

From the University of Minnesota:

By simulating wolf activity in the grasslands of central Minnesota, University of Minnesota researchers demonstrated that deer altered their behavior in response to the fear of predation in specific ways that halt the cascade of predator effects on plant and soil communities.

“Traditionally, it was believed that predators shape ecosystems by changing the activity of the prey and that the prey’s changes in behavior would then have cascading consequences on organisms in lower trophic levels, such as soil and plants,” said lead author Meredith Palmer, a former graduate student and postdoctoral researcher with the U of M College of Biological Sciences and current postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University. “However, our research shows that isn’t the case and sheds light on understanding why we do not always see trophic cascades in terrestrial ecosystems.”

Click here for the full story.

ODFW now managing wolves statewide after wolf delisting

From the Tillamook Headlight Herald:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formally removed most gray wolves in the lower 48 from the Endangered Species List Monday, Jan. 4, which turns management over to state fish and wildlife agencies including Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW). In Oregon, wolves west of Highways 395-78-95 had remained on the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) when the area east of this boundary was delisted in 2011.

While U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was the lead agency in the western two thirds of the state, ODFW has always played a significant role in wolf conservation and management statewide since wolves began to re-establish themselves in Oregon in the 2000s.

Click here for the full story.

Beaver dam cam: Researchers capture year of wildlife activity in northern MN

From the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Minn. — Have you ever paused at a spot in the woods and wondered, what else walks by here? What’s used this trail in the past week? The past month? The past year?

The researchers at the Voyageurs Wolf Project wondered that and did something to get an answer. They placed a motion-activated video trail camera on a likely looking beaver dam and left it for more than a year.

Click here for the full story.

Wolves off Endangered Species List, still protected in Oregon

From KOIN.com:

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Most gray wolves were removed from the Endangered Species List on Monday, setting the stage for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to manage them in the state.

Officials said wolves in Oregon remaint protected under the state’s Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, which was adopted in 2005.

Click here for the full story.

Old Minnesota wolf rules on livestock, pet attacks back in effect

From the Duluth News Tribune:

While federal Endangered Species Act protections for timber wolves officially ended Monday across the Lower 48 states, wolves still remain mostly protected under existing Minnesota laws that now kick in again — unless the wolves are killing livestock or pets.

Minnesota has not yet proposed any wolf hunting or trapping seasons. But the state Department of Natural Resources on Monday reminded residents that a still-valid state law does allow more leeway on when troublemaking wolves can be killed now that federal protections have been dropped.

Click here for the full story.

Tasmanian Tiger and wolves share DNA: University of Melbourne study

From examiner.com/au

The study, conducted by Dr Charles Feigin, Princeton University and University of Melbourne, and Professor Andrew Pask, at the University of Melbourne, was published in the journal Genome Research.

Click here for the full story.

Denmark’s first wolf slaying trial sees conviction upheld

From Xinhua:

COPENHAGEN, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) — The Danish Court of Appeal upheld on Wednesday a guilty verdict in the case of a 67-year-old hunter who had killed a wolf in violation of the country’s hunting act.

Wolves have been protected in most of the European Union (EU) countries since 1992. This means that hunting or trapping them is prohibited. Shooting a wolf can result in fines and imprisonment for up to two years.

Click here for the full story.

Three more wolves brought to Isle Royale

From the Daily Mining Gazette:

ISLE ROYALE — Will more wolves come to Isle Royale? That depends on what happens the wolves already on the island do over the next few months.

Three more wolves were successfully brought to Isle Royale National Park from the western Upper Peninsula on Sept. 13, ending the translocation for the fall. A fourth wolf was part of the transport, but died on the island the following weekend.

Click here for the full story.

Inside the harsh lives of the wolves living at the top of the world

From National Geographic:

In the blue light of an early Arctic morning, seven wolves slid across a frozen pond, yipping and squealing and chasing a chunk of ice about the size of a hockey puck.

The pond was opalescent at that hour, a mirror of the universe, and the wolves also seemed otherworldly in their happiness. Back and forth across the pond they chased, four pups scrambling after the puck and three older wolves knocking them down, checking their little bodies into frozen grass at the shore. In my notebook, in letters made nearly illegible by my shivering, I wrote the word “goofy.”

Click here for the full story.

Lynx and wolf may soon be roaming Britain’s wild places again. Is it a good idea?

From National Geographic:

Eurasian lynx used to stalk the forests of Britain. This magnificent cat’s greatest assets – a beautiful pelt, and sharp claws and teeth – were also tragically its curse. By around 700 AD our ancestors, either through sport, the fur trade or fear for the safety of their livestock, had hunted them to extinction. Now, a group of environmentalists wants to bring them back.

Lynx UK Trust hopes to transport six wild lynx (two males and four females) from Scandinavia and release them in the Kielder Forest, a 250-square-mile stretch of woodland in Northumberland. Here they would hunt and feed on the hundreds of roe deer that roam the region.

Click here for the full story.