From SierraClub.org:
The matriarch of the Leopold Pack—known to Mexican wolf biologists as Alpha Female 1346—began life as an experiment. Days after she was born in May 2014, biologists snuck the cinnamon-hued pup and her brother into the den of a wild wolf pack in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, nestled them among the family’s own trio of tawny newborns, then tiptoed away.
At the time, bolstering the Mexican wolf population with cross-fostered pups—offspring that are typically born in captivity then placed into wild dens—was a risky gamble. Biologists had little idea whether the mother wolf would accept the newcomers. But, to their relief, it worked: The mother wolf adopted the foster pups as her own. And the novel experiment was a turning point in the decades-long effort to restore Mexican wolves—the world’s rarest type of gray wolf—to their native territory in the American Southwest.
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Groups File Promise to Challenge Idaho’s New Harmful Wolf Hunting Laws
From Earthjustice:
BOISE, IDAHO — Citing risk to federally protected species, today ten groups filed a notice of intent to sue the state of Idaho in response to the state’s newest wolf hunting laws.
The laws, which call for the killing of 90% of the current gray wolf population, allow for year-round untargeted methods of hunting, trapping, and snaring, with hunters and trappers allowed to kill an unlimited number of wolves on a single tag. The state’s authorization of an unlimited season and expanded methods of killing wolves is likely to cause incidental trapping and snaring of federally protected lynx and grizzly bears.
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Mexican Wolf Foster Parents Get the Job Done
From SierraClub.org:
The matriarch of the Leopold Pack—known to Mexican wolf biologists as Alpha Female 1346—began life as an experiment. Days after she was born in May 2014, biologists snuck the cinnamon-hued pup and her brother into the den of a wild wolf pack in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, nestled them among the family’s own trio of tawny newborns, then tiptoed away.
At the time, bolstering the Mexican wolf population with cross-fostered pups—offspring that are typically born in captivity then placed into wild dens—was a risky gamble. Biologists had little idea whether the mother wolf would accept the newcomers. But, to their relief, it worked: The mother wolf adopted the foster pups as her own. And the novel experiment was a turning point in the decades-long effort to restore Mexican wolves—the world’s rarest type of gray wolf—to their native territory in the American Southwest.
Click here for the full story.
New method allows unambiguous identification of wolf hybrids in Europe’s forests
From Phys.org:
Together with a European team, Senckenberg scientists have presented a new method in the scientific journal BMC Genomics that allows the reliable identification of wolf-dog hybrids on the basis of environmental samples such as feces, hair, or saliva residue. The method has a much higher resolution than conventional methods and is expected to serve as a standard procedure in the future, allowing for comparable detection of hybridization rates across Europe.
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Montana: Rules Review to Reduce Wolves Fuels Debate
From the Flathead Beacon in Kalispell, Montana:
Faced with a legislative directive to drive down the state’s wolf population, including through the use of methods like snaring, baiting and night hunting, as well as an expansion of trapping seasons that could overlap with grizzly bear and Canada lynx activity, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission has continued to receive a steady beat of public feedback as it considers adopting a suite of new tools to manage wolves.
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Visitors provide differing opinions on wolf restoration during open house in Glenwood Springs
From the Post Independent in Colorado:
Colorado voters made it clear they want wolves reintroduced to the state by 2023, but what will be the results of that initiative?
It depends on who you ask, given the variety of opinions and answers at a recent wolf restoration and management plan open house in Glenwood Springs on Tuesday.
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Terrified Scots call cops 300 times over ‘wolf’ roaming near road
From the Daily Record:
Cops received nearly 300 reports from terrified Scots of a ‘wolf’ roaming near a major road- only to discover it was someone’s pet white fox.
More than 270 locals ‘cried wolf’ and reported the animal near the A89 in West Lothian, despite wild wolves becoming extinct in the Scottish lowlands more than 400 years ago.
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Colorado Parks and Wildlife asks public for input on wolf reintroduction
From The Durango Herald:
Southwest Colorado residents will have a chance to comment on the state’s gray wolf reintroduction and management plan in a public forum Monday at Fort Lewis College.
The in-person listening session is put on by Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Keystone Policy Center, a Colorado-based public engagement nonprofit. It is an opportunity for people to share their suggestions and concerns about the wolf reintroduction process, which has been a source of contention in the state.
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After thousands of years of domestication, dogs ‘get’ people better than wolves
From UPI.com:
If you feel like your dog understands you, you’re right.
Dogs have the innate ability to grasp what humans are thinking, a skill developed in their 14,000 years of hanging out with people, researchers say. In contrast, wolf puppies do not have that ability.
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Wolf reintroduction happened so fast in Montana and Idaho, the states are expanding hunting. Here’s what Colorado can learn.
From The Colorado Sun:
KALISPELL, Montana — The gray wolf population is robust enough in Montana that officials are preparing to extend hunting season on the state’s most controversial animals and allow snare traps that grab them by the neck.
And in next-door Idaho, where hunting and trapping season is pretty much year-round, hunters can use night-vision goggles and ATVs to chase down gray wolves in the dark on private land. To keep that state’s 1,500 wolf population steady, about 40% are killed off each year through hunting and trapping, and by the Idaho Fish and Game in retaliation for livestock attacks.
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After early struggles, Isle Royale’s transplanted wolves show healthy signs of settling in
From the Detroit Free Press:
After a somewhat rough start, the wolves who survived being transplanted to Isle Royale in Lake Superior seem to have taken a liking to their new surroundings, producing multiple litters of pups.
Nineteen wolves were transplanted on the island national park between 2018 and 2019 to bolster its nearly vanished wolf population and counterbalance the island’s swelling numbers of moose.
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