Joint Budget Committee considers delaying wolf reintroduction in Colorado to save money

From ColoradoPolitics.com

With a $1 billion hole in the 2025-26 state budget to fill, which includes tapping the state reserve below its required statutory levels, budget writers are looking for every coin in the couch cushions.

According to the Joint Budget Committee staff, one option is to delay introducing wolves on the Western Slope in 2025-26, which could save about $2.1 million in general fund dollars.

The analysis noted that in 2023-24, the second most significant increase in general funds for the Department of Natural Resources, which houses the Colorado Parks and Wildlife division, was for more funding to assist with wolf reintroduction.

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CPW plans to release 15 wolves in January from Canada, amid fight by stakeholders

From KVDR.com:

DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado Parks and Wildlife plans to relocate 15 wolves from Canada next month, and people on both sides of the controversy are trying to intervene with Canadian officials.

On Tuesday, several pro-wolf reintroduction groups sent a joint letter to the ministers overseeing the decision to translocate wolves from British Columbia to Colorado asking them to send more. It comes almost a week after 26 anti-wolf reintroduction groups told them not to get involved and to delay putting more wolves on the ground.

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Animal protection NGOs deplore decision to downgrade wolf protection

From Humane Society International:

BRUSSELS—Today’s decision by the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention to downgrade the protection of the wolf represents a dangerous step backwards for biodiversity and sets a worrying precedent for wildlife conservation in Europe, according to several animal protection organisations.

Meeting in Strasbourg this week, the Committee agreed to reclassify the wolf from “strictly protected” to “protected” under the Bern Convention. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Eurogroup for Animals and Humane Society International/Europe warn that this politically motivated decision undermines decades of slow but steady progress in the recovery of the species.

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Defenders and Allies Voice Support for British Columbia-Colorado Wolf Translocation Agreement

From Defenders of Wildlife:

Denver, CO

Defenders of Wildlife, Rocky Mountain Wolf Project and a coalition of partner organizations representing millions of American and Canadian residents, announced the delivery of a letter to Honourable Randene Neill, Minister, and the Honourable Lori Halls, Deputy Minister, Deputy Minister, of British Columbia. The letter expresses gratitude for their 2024–2025 partnership with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to translocate gray wolves from British Columbia to Colorado. It also calls on the ministry to stand firm against pressures to disrupt this groundbreaking agreement.

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Ethiopian wolves are the first large carnivores found to slurp nectar

From Science News:

Some wolves have a taste for dessert.

In the highlands of Ethiopia, carnivorous Ethiopian wolves (Canis simensis) dine almost exclusively on rodents. But the predators also have a sweet tooth, sometimes slurping nectar from Ethiopian red hot poker flowers (Kniphofia foliosa), researchers report November 19 in Ecology.

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FWP reports wolf pup dead from parvovirus

From NBC Montana:

MISSOULA, Mont. — A wolf pup collared in early September died from the parvovirus, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Officials say the wolf pup’s collar signaled it died in late October, with the cause of death unknown. After further investigation, the health lab found the pup tested positive for parvovirus.

Currently there is little known about parvovirus in wild canids.

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Bern Convention Standing Committee approves EU proposal to modify wolf protection

From The Council of Europe:

The Council of Europe’s Bern Convention Committee has adopted an EU proposal to modify the status of wolf (Canis lupus) protection from “strictly protected fauna species” (Appendix II) to “protected fauna species” (Appendix III). The final decision will be published on Friday 6 December. The change will enter into force in three months, unless at least one third of the Parties to the Council of Europe’s Bern Convention (17) object, in which case it will not enter into force. If fewer than one third of the Parties object, the decision will enter into force only for those Parties which have not objected.

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WOLVES: CPW releases list of 3 ‘ski country’ counties considered for next wolf release

FromDenverGazette.com:

Colorado Parks and Wildlife recently released their monthly report on wolf movement around the state, as well as a statement related to where additional members of the species may be released from late-2024 through 2025.

Big takeaways related to wolf movement included that at least one wolf successfully crossed I-70 for the first time, as well as that wolves were detected in a watershed that butts up against Glenwood Springs for the first time (find a full report on wolf movement over the past month here).

Perhaps even more noteworthy than where wolves were detected over the past month was a statement in the report about where wolves might be reintroduced next.

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Wolf killing contest, bounty not backed by science or ethics: Canmore conservationist

From St. Albert Gazette:

BOW VALLEY – A controversial wolf killing bounty and contest in Alberta is generating howls of protest from conservationists.

The Alberta Trappers Association, in partnership with Alberta Professional Outfitters Society, is offering rewards of $5,000 for the top wolf killed, $3,500 for second prize and $2,000 for third prize, along with a bounty of $250 per wolf.

Canmore conservationist and wildlife photographer John Marriott has launched a campaign against this contest, which began on Oct. 1 and runs until March 31, 2025, and places no limits on how many wolves are killed across the province.

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Balancing the gray wolf population in Wisconsin

From HudsonStarObserver.com:

The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board approved and released the current wolf management plan on Oct. 25, 2023. The drafting process included input from representatives — totaling over 20 different stakeholder groups, agencies and tribes.

However, estimating an accurate population, determining a quota if a harvest is instituted and dispelling entrenched beliefs about wolves remain issues at the center of the debate.

For more than three decades, the DNR relied on a method based on territory mapping to estimate the state’s wolf population.

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