From the New York Times:
Gov. Greg Gianforte of Montana violated a state hunting requirement last month when he trapped and killed a wolf near Yellowstone National Park without first taking a mandated trapper education course, state officials said on Tuesday.
Mr. Gianforte, who has a license to hunt wolves, received a written warning for the violation, according to Greg Lemon, a spokesman for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “We’ve treated this as we would anybody” in a similar situation, he said. “It’s important to us the integrity of our process, no matter who we’re dealing with, is maintained.”
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Video highlights longterm Washington study examining the complicated relationship between wolves, prey and other predators
From The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington:
Wolves. Cougars. Bears. Prey and, oh my, people.
That complicated configuration of animals is the subject of a newly released Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife video focusing on the ongoing Predator-Prey Project. In the 13-minute video, to be released Thursday at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s commission meeting, scientists, politicians and wildlife managers explain the purpose of the multiyear study, accompanied by breathtaking videos of Washington’s native carnivores.
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Montana Gov. Gianforte says he made mistake trapping wolf without certification class
From the Helena Independent Record in Montana:
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said he should have known about a state-mandated certification class before trapping a wolf near Gardiner last month, an action for which he received a written warning.
Mountain West News Bureau first reported Monday that Gianforte trapped a wolf on Feb. 15 and received a written warning from game wardens for doing so without first completing a required certification course. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks told the bureau that wardens have discretion in issuing citations or warnings, and typically used warnings as a means of education.
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Gray wolf killed by rancher last year in northern Nebraska
From the North Platte Telegraph:
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Federal wildlife officials have confirmed that a gray wolf was shot and killed last fall in north-central Nebraska south of Bassett.
The 81-pound male wolf was shot by a rancher checking on his livestock Nov. 16. Wildlife officials said the wolf had coloration like a coyote, but was much larger. The rancher told authorities he had recently lost three yearling calves to what he suspected were coyote attacks.
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Montana Governor Gets Written Warning After Killing a Wolf
From the New York Times:
Gov. Greg Gianforte of Montana violated a state hunting requirement last month when he trapped and killed a wolf near Yellowstone National Park without first taking a mandated trapper education course, state officials said on Tuesday.
Mr. Gianforte, who has a license to hunt wolves, received a written warning for the violation, according to Greg Lemon, a spokesman for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “We’ve treated this as we would anybody” in a similar situation, he said. “It’s important to us the integrity of our process, no matter who we’re dealing with, is maintained.”
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Tribal officials hopeful new Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland can end wolf hunting in Wisconsin
From the Green Bay Press Gazette:
Tribal officials, especially those from Ojibwe nations in northern Wisconsin, are hopeful new U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland can help restore protections for gray wolves and stop another hunting season this fall.
Haaland was confirmed by the Senate last week as the first Native American to head a presidential cabinet department.
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5 wolves found dead in Oregon, US Fish and Wildlife investigates
From KATU.com:
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon authorities say five wolves were found dead in northeastern Oregon in February.
Oregon State Police said Friday that on Feb. 9, a collar on a wolf indicated a mortality signal in the Mt. Harris area in Union County. Police Capt. Timothy R. Fox said in an email that arriving officers found a total of five wolves dead.
He says the cause of death is unknown.
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After leaving Isle Royale on an ice bridge, wolf made epic journey
From MPRNews.org:
In late January 2019, during a bitterly cold winter spell, scientists flew to Isle Royale in Lake Superior to try to locate three wolves that had recently been relocated to the island, the first part of a landmark effort to restore the delicate balance between wolves and moose — their chief prey — in the remote national park.
Four wolves from the Grand Portage reservation on the far northeastern tip of Minnesota were trapped and moved to Isle Royale the previous fall. One died shortly thereafter. The other three survived, but scientists had lost track of them. The wolves’ GPS collars hadn’t transmitted any locations for five days.
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Critics say Wisconsin winter wolf hunt was too much, too soon
From the Duluth News Tribune:
Wildlife biologists from tribal and conservation groups are decrying Wisconsin’s February wolf hunting season as a wildlife management “debacle’’ that placed politics above science and that will help anti-hunting efforts across the board.
And they’re now asking for changes to state laws before the same thing happens again in November.
“This wolf hunt really gave a black eye to sound wildlife management,’’ said Adrian Wydeven of Cable, representing the Northland College-based Timber Wolf Alliance. “It plays right into the hands of groups that want to stop any kind of wolf management, or any kind of hunting, because it was so excessive.”
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France: Wolf identified in southeast Vienne is first in a century
From The Connexion in France:
A wolf has been found in Vienne, southeastern France, for the first time in a century – after the animal suffered from eradication in the 1930s.
The animal was discovered dead next to a railway link near the commune of Lathus-Saint-Rémy, in the southeast of the department.
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Rare gray wolf returns to Tuolumne County in California
From The Union Democrat:
A yearling male gray wolf, named OR-93 for his origins with an Oregon pack and tracked in late February in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, returned to Tuolumne County on Wednesday.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed the wolf “is currently back in Tuolumne County,” Kelle Schroeder, the Tuolumne County agriculture commissioner, announced in a statement released Wednesday afternoon that also reminded people that gray wolves are a protected species in the Golden State.
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