From Newsday.com:
ALLIGATOR RIVER NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, N.C. — Hunters were once the greatest human threat to the country’s only unique wolf species. Today, it’s motorists.
That fact was brought home last June, when red wolf breeding male No. 2444 was struck and killed on U.S. 64 near Manns Harbor, North Carolina. His death likely meant five pups he’d been providing for died, too.
“We were hoping the mother would return and resume care, but she never did,” Joe Madison, head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s red wolf recovery program, said during a recent visit to the site.
Click here for the full story.
A North Carolina wildlife crossing will save people. Can it save the last wild red wolves too?
From Newsday.com:
ALLIGATOR RIVER NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, N.C. — Hunters were once the greatest human threat to the country’s only unique wolf species. Today, it’s motorists.
That fact was brought home last June, when red wolf breeding male No. 2444 was struck and killed on U.S. 64 near Manns Harbor, North Carolina. His death likely meant five pups he’d been providing for died, too.
“We were hoping the mother would return and resume care, but she never did,” Joe Madison, head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s red wolf recovery program, said during a recent visit to the site.
Click here for the full story.
Museomics and morphological analyses of historical and contemporary peninsular Italian wolf (Canis lupus italicus) samples
From Nature.com:
After centuries of decline and protracted bottlenecks, the peninsular Italian wolf population has naturally recovered. However, an exhaustive comprehension of the effects of such a conservation success is still limited by the reduced availability of historical data. Therefore, in this study, we morphologically and genetically analyzed historical and contemporary wolf samples, also exploiting the optimization of an innovative bone DNA extraction method, to describe the morphological variability of the subspecies and its genetic diversity during the last 30 years.
Click here for the full story.
More and more large predators are being killed
From SwedenHerald.com:
Never before have so many large predators been shot in Sweden as in the last ten years. Since 2015, over 4,400 bears, 1,100 lynxes, 400 wolves, and 180 wolverines have been killed during licensed and protective hunting.
The information comes from the Rovbase database, which is managed by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Norwegian Environment Directorate.
Click here for the full story.
Can drones haze wolves?
From wildlife.org:
To stop predation on livestock in Oregon, researchers took to the skies.
Wildlife managers are turning to the sky to keep wolves from livestock, scaring the predators away with drones equipped with speakers.
“We were able to effectively haze wolves away from cattle—and in one case—even stop an attack in progress,” said Dustin Ranglack, Predator Project leader at the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Wildlife Services National Wildlife Research Center.
Click here for the full story.
When wolves kill livestock, should Colorado grant ranchers anonymity for compensation claims?
From The Arizona Daily Sun:
DENVER — Colorado lawmakers will consider blocking from public record the names of ranchers seeking compensation from the state for livestock killed by wolves and other wild animals after multiple livestock owners said they feared harassment.
The bipartisan legislation, Senate Bill 38, would make the names, addresses and contact information confidential and not subject to the Colorado Open Records Act.
Click here for the full story.
Legislators aim to remove federal protections from gray wolves
From CraigDailyPress.com:
Gray wolves could be removed from the federal Endangered Species Act under a bill reintroduced by Republican U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin on Friday.
The Pet and Livestock Protection Act would restore a 2020 rule from the first Trump administration — which was later repealed by a federal district court in 2022 — and turn management of gray wolves back to the states. It includes a provision to ensure the action is not subject to judicial review.
Boebert and Tiffany also introduced the act last Congress session. While it passed the House of Representatives, it failed to make it through the Senate.
Click here for the full story.
Monitoring to help manage the wolf better [Austria]
From Kronen Zeitung:
The wolf is back, but the rural population’s joy is limited. Provincial Councillor for Agriculture Michaela Langer-Weninger wants to use monitoring to create a basis for sustainable management measures. The aim is to prove the favorable conservation status of the wolf population and to accelerate the downgrading of its protected status at European level.
Click here for the full story.
Grazing project could burden endangered wolves, conservationists tell Ninth Circuit
From CourthouseNews.com:
PHOENIX [AZ] — Conservationists asked the Ninth Circuit Monday to order the U.S. Forest Service to reconsider the potential impacts of a large-scale grazing project on the continued recovery and survival of the Mexican gray wolf.
In a Phoenix courtroom Monday morning, the Western Watersheds Project told a three-judge panel that cattle grazing in the Greater Gila Bioregion — an area spanning the central portion of the Arizona-New Mexico border that is home to at least 26 sensitive species — could threaten the recovery of the endangered Mexican gray wolf, whose population has increased to more than 200 since dropping to just seven wolves in the 1980s.
Click here for the full story.
CPW confirms gray wolf has traveled to western Mesa County
From KKCO11News.com:
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) – A gray wolf is now roaming the Mesa County area.
Reports were initially made to our newsroom on Feb. 3rd of a wolf spotted in Glade Park, we reached out to Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) to confirm if these reports were true. CPW confirmed that collared gray wolf data shows activity in the western portion of Mesa County.
“This was to be expected, and it’s important to remember wolves can and do move substantial distances.” said a CPW Official.
Click here for the full story.
US Rep. Tom Tiffany and GOP lawmakers bring back bill to delist gray wolf
From Wisconsin Public Radio:
Wisconsin U.S. House Rep. Tom Tiffany and GOP lawmakers have reintroduced a bill to remove federal protections for gray wolves across most of the country.
Tiffany, R-Minocqua, co-sponsored the legislation with Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado along with 30 other lawmakers, including Wisconsin’s Republican congressional delegation. If approved, the plan would remove Endangered Species Act protection from around 4,400 wolves found in the Great Lakes region, as well as nearly 2,800 wolves in seven western states.
Click here for the full story.