‘Please help us:’ Ranchers, elected officials urge Colorado Parks and Wildlife to remove Copper Creek Pack of wolves from wild

From VailDaily.com:

Western Slope ranchers and elected officials urged Colorado Parks and Wildlife and its commission on Thursday to take more aggressive action in mitigating the impacts of the Copper Creek wolf pack on local livestock operations.

The Copper Creek pack was recently tied to four livestock attacks in eight days at ranches in Piktin County, leading Parks and Wildlife to kill one of the pack’s male yearlings. The attacks took place at McCabe Ranch at Old Snowmass, Crystal River Ranch and Lost Marbles Ranch.

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CBS Evening News As wolf packs grow in California, cattle ranchers face mounting losses

From CBSNews.com:

On the California-Oregon border, in the shadow of Mount Shasta, Axel Hunnicutt, state wolf coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, is on the hunt for the gray wolf.

“Because it is potentially a kill site, we will be, you know, kind of cautious,” Hunnicutt told CBS News.

Once nearly extinct in the United States, wolves are making a comeback in California.

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These Ice Age Puppies Were Actually Wolves, and Their Stomachs Were Full of Woolly Rhino

From DiscoverMagazine.com:

A domestic dog or a wolf? The difference seems easy enough to spot today, but the distinction was not always so evident. For years, scientists struggled to determine whether a pair of frozen puppies from around 14,000 years ago were early domestic dogs or wolves. Now, a new analysis could bring this debate to a close, confirming that the frozen pups were probably not early domestic dogs, but wolves, based on the animals’ bones, teeth, and soft tissues.

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CPW director defends handling of wolf pack

From GJSentinel.com:

The director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife on Wednesday defended the agency’s handling of a wolf pack in the Roaring Fork Valley after criticism was leveled by an agency commissioner who also is a rancher there.

The discussion occurred during the Parks and Wildlife Commission’s meeting in Glenwood Springs after Parks and Wildlife recently killed a wolf from what’s known as the Copper Creek pack. The agency had determined that local livestock producers had experienced chronic wolf-related depredation involving cattle.

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New wolf footage captures feeding behavior

From Buckrail.com:

JACKSON, Wyo. — On June 7, wildlife cinematographer Jake Davis premiered footage of a wolf pack feeding on an elk carcass in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE).

Davis came across a bull elk that died after being hunted by wolves last winter, according to his press release. He then set up a network of 10 remote cameras in hopes of capturing animals coming to feed on the carcass.

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Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioner calls relocation of Copper Creek wolf pack a ‘mistake’

From ColoradoPolitics.com:

While Wednesday’s agenda for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission didn’t include an update on the wolf program, that didn’t stop commissioners from bringing up the most recent rash of problems from reintroducing the apex predators.

The conversation that followed showed the frustration commissioners are experiencing over the wolf reintroduction program, the public feedback and media scrutiny.

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Colorado wildlife officials spot new wolf pups

From 9News.com:

DENVER — As Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff monitors wolf dens, CPW staff have seen new wolf pups.

“CPW staff have confirmed sightings of pups. We continue to monitor dens through direct observations from CPW staff, as well as indirect methods such as trail cameras and public sighting reports,” A CPW spokesperson told 9NEWS.

CPW is watching four wolf dens for pups, but the state does not know how many there are.

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Savvy 13-year-old Teton wolf almost breaks all-time age record

From WyoFile.com:

Biologist Ken Mills sensed a shrewdness and smarts in Wolf 840M, a gray male canine that lived longer than any of the other 1,500-plus Wyoming wolves that have been ID’d and tracked since the species was reintroduced to the state three decades ago.

First captured and collared as a 1-year-old living west of Cody in the Ishawooa Pack in April 2012, Wolf 840M had a way of escaping detection and threats for the dozen-plus years that followed.

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Pacific Rim National Park Reserve reminds public to be mindful of wolves on the landscape

From Hashilthsa.com:

Recent reports of a pack of sea wolves in the Pacific Rim corridor acting habituated towards humans has prompted Parks Canada to issue a public reminder about how to stay safe and respect these animals.

Francis Bruhwiler is a specialist in human-wildlife co-existence in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve (PRNPR). He says the pack is likely the same two or three coastal wolves acting “very indifferent” when they see people.

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Bipartisan legislation aims at mitigating [Oregon] wolf predation

From NuggetNews.com:

In an era where bipartisanship is rare, both Republicans and Democrats in Salem passed legislation aimed at helping ranchers who lose stock to wolf predation. The House on Tuesday, June 3, passed SB 777 on a vote of 44-12 with three excused. The Senate passed the bill on March 25 on vote of 28-1 and with one excused. It’s on its way to the Governor’s desk for signature.

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