From North Carolina State University:
A kennel taking up much of the small exam room at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine holds the patient as technicians, anesthetists, doctors and students crowd around, some sitting on the floor, waiting for the red wolf to wake.
The injured animal, one of fewer than 20 of the world’s most critically endangered canid species living in the wild, has just had X-rays on his hind legs to determine what damage a run-in with a trap might have done. The ankle isn’t broken, but it’s unstable, so surgery to insert a plate is scheduled for the next morning.
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Swiss organisation again calls for volunteers to scare wolves away
From The Local in Switzerland:
A series of wolf attacks against sheep and other farm animals have been reported in various cantons, particularly in the French-speaking part of the country.
To keep this from happening, Vaud and Valais shepherds are training, in cooperation with the Organisation for the Protection of Alpine Pastures (OPPAL), a number of civilian volunteers to watch over herds of livestock at night, when wolves are most likely to pounce.
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Six Wisconsin tribes write letter opposing bill to delist wolves
From the Wisconsin Examiner:
Six Ojibwe tribes in Wisconsin wrote a letter this week to Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson opposing a bipartisan bill co-authored by Baldwin (a Democrat) and Johnson (a Republican) that would remove the gray wolf from the federal endangered species list in the Western Great Lakes region and Wyoming.
Delisting of the gray wolf would allow the animal to be hunted again. Baldwin and Johnson argue that the wolf populations in these parts of the country are healthy and therefore management should be returned to the states.
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Wisconsin: Conservation Congress respondents support 350-wolf limit
From the Star Tribune in Minnesota:
MADISON, Wis. — Most of the respondents to the Wisconsin Conservation Congress’ spring survey say they support limiting the state’s wolf population to 350 animals.
The congress, an influential group of sportspeople who advise the state Department of Natural Resources on policy, holds a survey each spring gauging respondents’ support for a wide range of outdoor and environmental proposals. This year’s survey was conducted online earlier this month.
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A delicate balance: Calving season collides with expected wolf pup births in Jackson County, Colorado
From the Coloradoan:
JACKSON COUNTY — It’s an unusually warm but usual windy mid-April day as Don Gittleson approaches a calf born recent enough that its mother was eating the afterbirth to keep predators off their scent.
Gittleson, along with his son, Dave Gittleson, and Dave’s wife, Andrea Gittleson, know this cow, ear tag No. 372, is cantankerous during calving time.
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Biden administration files placeholder for wolf appeal
From the Duluth News-Tribune in Minnesota:
DULUTH — The Biden administration this week filed a placeholder to appeal the February court order restoring federal protections for wolves across much of the U.S., including in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
The administration filed a notice of appeal to a federal judge’s order in February restoring endangered species protections for gray wolves that were removed under the Trump administration late in 2020.
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Washington wolf population continues to rise, report shows
From the Bellevue Reporter in Washington:
Washington’s wolf population continues to show growth for the 13th consecutive year, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
The department published its annual Washington wolf population report on April 9, which shows a 16% increase in the state’s wolf population in 2021 from the previous count in 2020.
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Yellowstone: Wolf hunt altered behavior, damaged research
From WyoFile.com:
A recent spate of wolf killings just outside of Yellowstone National Park has altered fundamental aspects of the canines’ behavior, and threatened the foundations of one of the most storied wildlife research efforts in American history, according to park scientists.
Twice in recent months Yellowstone National Park senior wildlife biologist Doug Smith and his team of researchers have observed highly unusual mating behavior.
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Gray Wolf Poaching Dismays Oregon Wildlife Conservationists
From The American Prospect:
In the summer of 2014, two young gray wolves in eastern Oregon dispersed from their natal packs—one from the Snake River Pack and the other from the Minam Pack—and paired up. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) had already radio-collared both and tracked them as they traversed the Eagle Cap Wilderness in the northeastern corner of the state.
That year, Oregon had 81 known wolves. While the state was seeing the population rebound after being extirpated in the mid-1940s, that number was far less than the estimated 1,450 wolves that the mountain wilderness could support. The following year, the wolf pair produced two pups that survived. The Catherine Pack grew over the years as eight more pups survived—until last winter.
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Birth of six endangered red wolves has their advocates howling for joy
From The Washington Post:
Six critically endangered red wolves were introduced into the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in coastal North Carolina.
But unlike other wolves, no one brought these new canines to the Outer Banks area as part of a federal program to recover a dying species. For the first time in six years, these red wolves were born there.
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Back from the Brink: NC State’s Key Role in Red Wolf Recovery
From North Carolina State University:
A kennel taking up much of the small exam room at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine holds the patient as technicians, anesthetists, doctors and students crowd around, some sitting on the floor, waiting for the red wolf to wake.
The injured animal, one of fewer than 20 of the world’s most critically endangered canid species living in the wild, has just had X-rays on his hind legs to determine what damage a run-in with a trap might have done. The ankle isn’t broken, but it’s unstable, so surgery to insert a plate is scheduled for the next morning.
Click here for the full story.