Project studies impact of wolves on Šumava forest regeneration

From Radio Prague International:

Can the growing numbers of wolves in Czechia’s Šumava National Park have a positive impact on local forests? For the next three years, scientists from the Czech University of Life Sciences will be seeking to answer just that question, by monitoring local wolf and deer populations.

In a famous experiment, carried out in the Yellowstone National Park in the United States in the mid-1990s, wolves were reintroduced to the area after more than a 70-year absence. By keeping the growing elk population in check, the wolves managed to revive the park’s forest, which ultimately changed the whole ecosystem of the park.

 

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HAS IOWA EVER BEEN HOME TO WOLVES?

From K92.3:

Wolves are some of the most complex predators that walk the earth. These highly intelligent animals can be playful, they develop close bonds with their family, and they love their pack just like we humans love ours. There is just something about these apex predators that is cool.

We read about and see wolves all of the time in books and TV shows. There’s something about their strength and loyalty to their family that we as humans are drawn to. Wolves are the largest living wild canine species and wolf packs will normally hunt in a territory that ranges 50 square miles.

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Scientists track longest wolf trek across Europe through its droppings

From Yahoo News:

MADRID (Reuters) – Researchers have traced the droppings of a German-born grey wolf that traversed three countries to reach northeastern Spain, making it the longest journey ever documented for that species, the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) said on Monday.

The male, named GW1909m, travelled at least 1,240 km (770 miles) from his birthplace in Nordhorn, Lower Saxony, crisscrossing France before appearing to settle near a village in the Catalan Pyrenees, where he was last detected in February 2023.

 

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Stunning drone footage shows wolves digging tunnels through deep snow in northern China

From Sky News:

Drone footage shows a pack of wolves digging tunnels through one-meter-thick snow in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region.

 

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The Moment a pack of wolves dug a tunnel through the snow in China

From CBC.CA:

A pack of wolves dug a tunnel to get out of snow that was nearly one-metre deep in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Note: The source of the wolf video is CCTV/Reuters.

Click here to watch video and hear comments by Dr. L. David Mech.

Wildlife conservation groups urge U.S. Forest Service to ban Idaho’s aerial wolf hunting

From Idaho News 2:

BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — According to a recent news release, over 30 wildlife conservation groups urged the U.S. Forest Service to prohibit Idaho from paying private contractors to shoot wolves from aircraft in national forests in central and southeastern Idaho.

The Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board recently approved the controversial predator control measure.

 

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WDFW proposes gray wolves reclassify from ‘state endangered’ to ‘sensitive’

From Queen Anne & Magnolia News:

By state standards, should gray wolves in Washington be designated endangered, threatened or simply sensitive?

To weigh in on that question, the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife this week opened a public comment period that continues through May 6.

Currently, gray wolves fall under two separate classifications. By state designation, they are considered endangered across Washington. However, under federal standards, the animals are considered endangered in the western two-thirds of the state but threatened – a lower risk threshold – in the eastern third of Washington. And their numbers have been increasing over the past decade.

 

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Politics, science collide as feds map gray wolf’s future

From Politico:

The Fish and Wildlife Service’s scientific assessments of the gray wolf should take into account the tricky science of politics, some wolf experts believe.

Diane Boyd, a prominent researcher who peer-reviewed the agency’s most recently released study of how Western wolves are faring, pinpointed what she called a major shortcoming.

“My concern is that not enough emphasis was put on discussing the states’ plans,” Boyd said in an interview. “I just wish that in that assessment, they would have discussed that more thoroughly and perhaps even put it in their findings.”

 

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Face-to-fang with an endangered Mexican wolf

From KLCC:

One of the most iconic and reviled predators in the United States is having a moment.

In December, 10 gray wolves were released into the mountains of Colorado as part of a voter-approved effort to reintroduce the animals to the state. And further south, in Arizona and New Mexico, the smaller subspecies of Mexican gray wolf is thriving, too.

“In the last four to five years, the population has really started to take off and basically boom,” said Brady McGee, the Mexican wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

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Video of wolf killing northern Minnesota deer becomes political fodder

From Phys.org:

A lone gray wolf bolted past a logger last week, on the edge of a clear cut forest in northern St. Louis County. The wolf ran past a giant industrial saw and leaped over felled trees in pursuit of what was either a young doe or an antlerless buck. Seconds later, the wolf killed the deer on the other side of a neatly stacked pile of freshly cut logs, oblivious to the logger, who captured the chase on video.

 

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