From AP News:

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Six conservation groups have filed a lawsuit challenging a recent federal government decision not to protect wolves in the northern U.S. Rocky Mountain region under the Endangered Species Act, arguing that states are exercising too much leeway to keep the predators’ numbers to a minimum.

The groups sued the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the directors of those agencies July 2 in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Montana.

 

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From Barron’s:

The European Union’s top court ruled Thursday that Austria had no right to hunt wolves, after activists contested killings of the protected species in the Alpine nation.

Several regions of Austria started to allow wolves to be killed last year after reporting that the animals were increasingly attacking livestock.

Environmental groups brought a case to court in Austria’s Tyrol province, arguing that hunting wolves violated an EU directive adopted in 1992 protecting the animals.

 

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From Newswise:

Newswise — Humans drove wolves to extinction in Washington state around the 1930s. Thanks to conservation efforts, by about 80 years later, wolves had returned — crossing first from the Canadian border into Washington around 2008 and later entering the state from Idaho. Since then, wolf numbers in Washington have been steadily growing, raising questions about what the return of this large predator species means for ecosystems and people alike.

In northeast Washington, where wolves have recovered most successfully, researchers from the University of Washington and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife tracked one of their primary prey — white-tailed deer — in part to see what impact wolf packs are having on deer populations. The answer? So far, wolves aren’t having as much of an impact on deer as other factors.

 

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From Capital Press:

Wallowa County has become a hot spot of wolf activity in Northeast Oregon, with two-thirds of the state’s 39 confirmed livestock kills this year by the apex predator as of July 8.

The area around Lostine, Oregon, population 250, has 19 of Wallowa County’s 26 kills. Wolves are probably the cause of four additional livestock deaths near the small town, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

 

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From The Times of India:

Humans might have the most complex system of communicating, but other animals also have ways of giving cues. A new study in Animal Behaviour says that that wolves have subtle ways of speaking, through subtle facial clues that signal their intentions. The Non-verbal communication even helps maintain cohesion within the pack.

 

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From MPR News:

For more than three decades, Peggy Callahan has talked to the public about wolves as founder and executive director of the Wildlife Science Center in Stacy, which has 81 captive wolves that are used for research and educational programs.

Over the years, Callahan has also learned to speak to the wolves. On a warm day earlier this summer, she cupped her hands around her mouth and unleashed a wolf-like howl, prompting a chorus of howls echoing in return.

 

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From Antigo Daily Journal:

ANTIGO — On April 1, Gus Ullman was collecting sap for maple syrup on his hunting land north of the Ackley Wildlife Area. His wife was following behind in a truck and maybe 100 yards away, out of sight but still in earshot, Ullman could hear their one-and-a-half year old springer spaniel, Rosco, happily bounding through the woods.

The next moment, Ullman realized Rosco was barking. Then he heard him yelp. Guessing he might have just run into a porcupine, he started calling him. He had been training Rosco to bird hunt for months, and so when he didn’t return, Ullman knew something was wrong, and went back to the vehicle to grab a pistol.

 

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From Post Register:

Neither Greek nor Shakespearean tragedies, or even violent Mafioso movies, can rival some of the scenarios wolf 907F has faced while living in the northeastern corner of Yellowstone National Park.

“It’s always something exciting or dramatic going on,” said Yellowstone Wolf Project research associate Kira Cassidy.

The number 907 refers to the wolf’s collar number. The F denotes female.

 

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From Oregon Capital Chronicle:

Ecosystems in the Northwest were heavily shaped by wolves before they were nearly wiped out of the region, a new study finds.

By the 1930s, gray wolves were nearly gone in Oregon and the rest of the West, leading to the multiplication of animals the wolves hunted and creating an imbalance in the environment, researchers at Oregon State University found.

But the full impact of their disappearance isn’t fully understood because ecological research from the last century largely left out the role of wolves on the landscape. Most of the research wasn’t done until the wolves were nearly gone.

 

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From WXPR:

The wolf population in the Upper Peninsula has reached the limit of what the habitat can support, according to the Michigan DNR.

That’s one conclusion of an overwinter survey that found a minimum of 762 wolves living in the U.P.

The number is the highest population estimate since 2012.

 

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