From Asahi Shimbun:
TSUKUBA, Ibaraki Prefecture–Hinako Komori quickly recognized that a stuffed specimen at a museum storehouse was likely a long-extinct Japanese wolf. But the elementary school girl faced difficulty trying to convince adults of her theory.
It took Komori, now a 13-year-old second-year junior high school student in Tokyo, more than three years to get the science world to confirm the animal was indeed the sixth known specimen of the long-lost wolf.
From Wyoming Public Radio:
Wyoming lawmakers are considering possible changes to state laws about predator species management.
This comes after global outrage over a Sublette County man captured a live wolf, brought it into a home and bar, and later killed the animal.
Members of the Joint Interim Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee recently discussed if there should be stricter laws around the treatment of predatory animals. They agreed to form a subcommittee to consider possible changes that could be introduced during next year’s legislative session.
From Oscoda Press:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trust the Science Act, a bill that Representative Jack Bergman cosponsored, recently passed the House of Representatives. The legislation will permanently delist the gray wolf in the lower 48 states, return control of wolf conservation to the individual states, and ensure this decision is not subject to judicial review.
“The gray wolf population has successfully recovered, and it’s time to trust the years of scientific evidence which show that wolf management can be best left to folks in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,” said Bergman. “States are better equipped to manage our gray wolf populations than the federal government, and I’m proud to have cosponsored this important legislation.”
From The Wildlife Society:
TWS President Bob Lanka testified in front of a Wyoming legislative committee asking lawmakers to address statutes that allow residents to kill or harass wolves from snowmobiles and other motorized vehicles in most of the state.
“The Wildlife Society suggests the legislature consider a very narrow, craft revision to statutory language so that it expressly forbids purposely running down and running over predatory animals with automotive vehicles, motorized wheeled or over-snow vehicles,” Lanka testified, according to the Jackson Hole News & Guide. “The word ‘purposely’ is important here, as it is not our intent to make a highway accident a criminal offense.”
From Fox News 9:
INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Minn. (FOX 9) – The Voyageurs Wolf Project shared “amazing” video of a wolf hunting fish recently in northern Minnesota.
The breeding female wolf of the Windsong Pack was captured on trail cameras fishing over the past few days in the Voyageurs National Park area of Minnesota, with the organization noting all the wolf has done the past few weeks is “fish and spend time with her pups, who are starting their young lives as pescatarians, it seems.”
From Sky-Hi News:
On Wednesday, May 22, Colorado Parks and Wildlife released the latest map showing wolf activity across the state.
Parks and Wildlife has released the maps monthly since January after reintroducing 10 wolves in Grand and Summit counties in December.
The map depicts watersheds in which collared wolves have traveled between April 23 and May 21. Just because a watershed indicates wolf activity, does not mean wolves are present throughout the entire watershed.
From NPR for Northern Colorado:
Wildlife biologists were excited last winter when they watched five wolves from Oregon sprint out of their cages into a snowy meadow in Grand County.
“They’re majestic animals,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife species conservation manager Eric Odell told KUNC hours after the release in December. “It’s a pretty awesome thing to see.”
And for about four months, things were relatively quiet as the wolves traveled hundreds of miles around the state, from northwest Colorado all the way east to Larimer County.
From Kuensel:
A recent study on grey wolf distribution by the Nature Conservation Division (NCD) has found that the grey wolf occupies less than seven percent of the country’s area.
This contrasts with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, which indicates that the wolf range covers more than 50 percent of the country.
From Powell Tribune:
With Wyoming’s bear, wolf and mountain lion populations on the minds of many in the state as adventurers and tourists head to the hills for the summer season, Game and Fish Large Carnivore Biologist Luke Ellsbury took the mic at the Coe Auditorium in traditional red shirt, wool vest and a full salt and pepper beard that would make Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) proud.
Ellsbury is part of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s elite Large Carnivore Management team based in Cody. He’s one of only 10 wildlife biologists tasked with conservation decisions and conflict mitigation, non-stop work that has them on the run throughout the year. He was invited to speak at the Draper Museum of Natural History at a time when the department has been under attack — mostly by those who don’t live in the state. The recent Sublette County wolf abuse case has weighed heavily on the entire department as those outraged by the case took out their frustrations on the red shirts. Game and Fish employees have faced harsh criticism after the incident, even receiving threats to their safety and sadly their pets, and been on the phones and answering a large volume of emails, according to an official.
From Jackson Hole News & Guide:
As a wildlife biologist, Jenny Fitzgerald has worked with Mexican gray wolves, capturing and studying the canines south of the U.S. border.
She has seen plenty of wolves in the wild and handled plenty of wolves in Mexico but had never been able to get up close and personal with one stateside. Still, she had always wanted to. How it happened Saturday was not what she envisioned.
“I’ve always wanted to be in the presence of one,” Fitzgerald said. “Dead, on the roadside, is not how I anticipated the first experience.”
The International Wolf Center advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future.