From Bigfoot99 in Colorado:
Wolves are again active on ranches in Northern Colorado frustrating ranchers there. After several weeks passed with no reported sightings or livestock depredations, female wolf 1084 and her pack have reportedly been marauding livestock herds near Walden.
Rancher Don Gittleson, who lost three cows and a dog to the pack since before Christmas, told the Fort Collins Coloradoan that he lost two more calves last month. However, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has not confirmed either calf was killed by wolves, although one was dragged underneath a fence line.
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Wyoming Wolf, Cubs Keep Killing Colorado Rancher’s Cows
From Cowboy State Daily in Wyoming:
For nearly six months, Don Gittleson of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, has had a wolf problem. Which came to him all the way from Wyoming
Gittleson is one of a handful of ranchers who has seen firsthand the destruction wolves can cause to the agriculture industry if left unchecked. He has been fighting to keep a former Wyoming wolf and her pack from killing off his livestock.
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Feds halt Mexican gray wolf kills in Arizona, New Mexico in bid for genetic diversity
From Courthouse News Service:
(CN) — To foster the Mexican gray wolves’ long term success in the Southwest, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife announced it will lift a 325-animal cap on the population according to a draft of the proposed rule published Friday.
Lobbying by livestock producers drove the federal government to exterminate the Mexican gray wolf during the early half of the 20th century. Following the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, the last wild Mexican gray wolves were captured and raised in captivity until the U.S. government decided to reintroduce the animals in 1998.
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Endangered red wolf found shot in Eastern NC. Feds now offering a reward in the case
From The News & Observer in North Carolina:
Federal officials are trying to determine who shot and killed an endangered red wolf in Tyrrell County this spring. The wolf was found in a muddy field south of Newlands Road on April 15, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It had been shot in the spine and collapsed in the mud, some of which was found in its lungs.
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Fish and Wildlife Service releases draft recommended decision for Mexican wolves
From NMPoliticalReport.com:
A draft recommended decision in the Mexican gray wolf recovery plan would eliminate the population cap and temporarily restrict when a wolf can be killed, but environmental advocates say it still falls short of the reforms needed to ensure genetic diversity.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released the final supplemental environmental impact statement for the proposed revision for the Mexican gray wolf regulations on Friday along with the draft recommended decision. The final recommended decision will be issued after at least 30 days have passed.
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Wisconsin study: Second hunt could have driven wolves back to endangered
From apg-wi.com:
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say a second wolf hunt last year would have risked Wisconsin’s wolf population dropping to undesirable levels that include the wolf possibly becoming endangered or extinct in Wisconsin.
The study published in the scientific journal PLOS One found it’s more likely than not that a well-regulated hunt would have required placing wolves on the state threatened and endangered species list. Researchers concluded a repeat of the February wolf hunt, during which hunters killed 218 wolves in less than three days, risked extirpation of wolves statewide except on tribal reservations.
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Minnesota: Female Wolf Illegally Shot And Killed Near Voyageurs National Park
From WCCO in Minnesota:
INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Minn. (WCCO) — Someone illegally shot and killed a wolf near Voyageurs National Park recently, according to a University of Minnesota group researching the animals.
The Voyageurs Wolf Project said on Facebook the female wolf was part of a breeding pair dubbed the Tamarack Pack. Her killing “ended the Tamarack Pack as we know it,” the group said, because the mate “became a lone wolf and has since wandered around our study area.”
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Colorado: Rubber ammo off table for wolf hazing after ruling
From The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Colorado:
State agricultural producers no longer can use rubber ammunition to drive off gray wolves and protect livestock, as a result of a ruling that restored federal protections for the animals.
The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission last week amended the measures it allows to haze wolves, consistent with guidance it received from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after a federal judge’s ruling in February. The judge had vacated a Fish and Wildlife Service decision removing Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in states including Colorado, restoring those protections and returning authority over the animals to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Researchers trace the evolutionary origins of the Japanese wolf
From The Japan Times:
Little was known about the evolutionary history of the Japanese wolf, a small subspecies of the gray wolf that was once endemic to the islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. New DNA research is changing that.
Worshiped for centuries as a divine messenger and protector of farmland, the creature is thought to have gone extinct as Japan marched toward industrialization in the 19th century. The last known specimen of the Japanese wolf was found in 1905.
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Frustration over wolves running high among Colorado ranchers
From Bigfoot99 in Colorado:
Wolves are again active on ranches in Northern Colorado frustrating ranchers there. After several weeks passed with no reported sightings or livestock depredations, female wolf 1084 and her pack have reportedly been marauding livestock herds near Walden.
Rancher Don Gittleson, who lost three cows and a dog to the pack since before Christmas, told the Fort Collins Coloradoan that he lost two more calves last month. However, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has not confirmed either calf was killed by wolves, although one was dragged underneath a fence line.
Click here for the full story.
Study: Second wolf hunt would have driven Wisconsin’s wolf population to ‘undesirably low levels’
From Wisconsin Public Radio:
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say a second wolf hunt last year would have risked Wisconsin’s wolf population dropping to undesirable levels that include the wolf possibly becoming endangered or extinct in Wisconsin.
The study published in the scientific journal PLOS One found it’s more likely than not that a well-regulated hunt would have required placing wolves on the state threatened and endangered species list. Researchers concluded a repeat of the February wolf hunt, during which hunters killed 218 wolves in less than three days, risked extirpation of wolves statewide except on tribal reservations.
Click here for the full story.