How the U.S. and Mexico have teamed up on Mexican gray wolf recovery efforts

From Texas Standard:

For over four decades, the U.S. and Mexican governments have worked to recover the population of endangered Mexican gray wolves. Thousands of these wolves once roamed from the southwestern U.S. all the way down to southern Mexico – but by the 1970s, only a handful remained in the wild.

A binational recovery strategy was created by U.S. and Mexican agencies in 2017 and renewed earlier this year. Last month, a pair of adult wolves was transferred from New Mexico to Chihuahua, Mexico.

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Colorado to release up to 50 wolves on the Western Slope, draft plan says

From The Denver Post:

Colorado wildlife officials plan to capture between 30 and 50 gray wolves from other states in the northern Rocky Mountain region over the next three to five years and release them into the state’s Western Slope forests, according to a draft plan published Friday.

Those wolves are meant to act as a seed that will hopefully grow into a self-sustaining population, restoring the species to at least a fraction of its former glory after it was hunted to extinction in Colorado a century ago.

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Swiss parliament gives greenlight to wolf culling

From SwissInfo.ch:

On Thursday, the House of Representatives followed the Senate and backed an amendment to the hunting law which allows cantons to proactively regulate the wolf population between September 1-December 31. The government also backs the proposal.

Switzerland is home to an estimated 200 wolves, mainly in the Alps. A rise in attacks on livestock has prompted calls for the wolf population to be limited.

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Dutch court: No using paintball guns on wolves

From The Columbian:

THE HAGUE — A Dutch court on Wednesday rejected a plan to control the country’s growing wolf population by shooting at the animals with paintball guns to scare them away from people.

A local court ruled that officials had not justified their decision to use the novel approach as a safe way to teach the wolves to stay out of populated areas. It said regional authorities had not done enough research into other possible solutions.

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Tracking wolves in the wild heart of Italy

From TheSmartSet.com:

Nothing moved on the side of the mountain. Nothing except us, as we quietly scanned the wide expanse of snow in the open valley below us, and the forested peaks of the mountains rising on the opposite side. It had been an early start, drinking espressos in the bar of the rustically charming Hotel Iris, before hitting the road at 4:30 am. The journey from the resort town of Pescasseroli had been silent and sleepy, with no other lights except ours as the 4×4 climbed around dark, curving hairpin bends, with snow banked up either side of the road. At one point, our guide, Valeria, slowed the car and quietly called “Wolf, wolf!”

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Judge rules against suspending Montana wolf hunts while lawsuit proceeds

From MontanaFreePress.org:

A Helena judge reinstated the 2022-2023 wolf hunting and trapping regulations passed by the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission Tuesday in a ruling that rejected environmental groups’ request for an order halting wolf hunting and trapping while the larger issue of Montana’s wolf management is weighed by courts.

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The Term Alpha Male Is All A Lie

From IFLScience.com:

We hate to break it to you, but wolf packs don’t actually have alpha males and females. The researcher who introduced this term tried to clear up what had happened many years ago, but thanks to pop culture and some money-hungry publishers the confusion still persists.

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“It’s perplexing”: What’s killing dozens of cows near Meeker? State officials don’t know.

From The Denver Post:

Something killed dozens of cattle around White River National Forest lands in northwest Colorado and state wildlife officials don’t know what it is.

A rancher in the area first reported the death of about 18 calves early last month and Colorado Parks and Wildlife investigators initially thought wolves might be responsible. That estimation was significant because the site sits a considerable distance away from North Park, where the state’s only confirmed pack lives, meaning that if wolves had killed the calves, Colorado likely had a new and previously unreported pack.

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Whaleback Pack Delivers California’s Largest Known Wolf Litter in Over 100 Years

From activenorcal.com:

The Whaleback Pack, living in Northern California’s Siskiyou County, delivered a historic litter of pups in 2022. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed the pack added 8 pups this year, the largest known litter of wolf pups in over 100 years.

The Whaleback Pack now sits at 10 known wolves after the male gray wolf, dubbed OR-85, mated with the female for the second time in two years. With the wolf pack delivering 15 pups in just two years of living in NorCal, they now sit as a crucial part of the controversial reintroduction of wolves in the state.

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Parasite gives wolves what it takes to be pack leaders

From Nature.com:

Wolves infected with a common parasite are more likely than uninfected animals to lead a pack, according to an analysis of more than 200 North American wolves1. Infected animals are also more likely to leave their home packs and strike out on their own.

The parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, makes its hosts bold — a mechanism that increases its survival.

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