From NortheastNOW.com:
MONTREAL — Gisèle Benoit still gets goosebumps when she remembers the first time she saw a family of eastern wolves emerge from the forests of the Mauricie National Park, under the backdrop of a rising moon.
It was 1984 and Benoit, then in her early 20s, had been using a horn to try to call a bull moose when she instead heard a long howl, followed by an adult wolf stepping out to a rocky shore accompanied by a half-grown youth and four pups.
“I will never forget that,” she said of the magical moment. “It’s anchored in my heart forever.”
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Concerns over the EU’s wolf downlisting proposal
From IUCN.org:
Several organisations, including The Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe (LCIE), have voiced serious concern regarding the European Union’s proposal to downlist the wolf under the Bern Convention and the EU Habitats Directive. This move could set a troubling precedent for wildlife conservation policies across Europe.
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Alaska Poised To Resume Aerial Shooting Of Wolves And Bears
From NationalParksTraveler.org:
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is again planning to shoot hundreds of bears and wolves, according to a release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Part of the plan would involve stationing shooters in helicopters to fire on the animals from the air. Other gunners would operate from snowmobiles.
The plan is open for public comments until December 27.
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Conservationists eager to see plan to save rare eastern wolf found in Quebec, Ontario
From NortheastNOW.com:
MONTREAL — Gisèle Benoit still gets goosebumps when she remembers the first time she saw a family of eastern wolves emerge from the forests of the Mauricie National Park, under the backdrop of a rising moon.
It was 1984 and Benoit, then in her early 20s, had been using a horn to try to call a bull moose when she instead heard a long howl, followed by an adult wolf stepping out to a rocky shore accompanied by a half-grown youth and four pups.
“I will never forget that,” she said of the magical moment. “It’s anchored in my heart forever.”
Click here for the full story.
Did Gov. Polis blame Colorado ranchers for high wolf-restoration costs?
From the Colorado Sun:
At a Colorado Counties, Inc., conference in Westminster on Dec. 3, Gov. Jared Polis blamed ranchers for driving up the cost of reintroducing wolves to Colorado.Polis suggested ranchers, who have opposed wolf reintroduction because of the danger wolves pose to livestock, complicated the sourcing of wolves:
“This could have cost a lot less if ranchers wouldn’t have said, ‘oh, don’t get them from Wyoming, don’t get them from Idaho,’” Polis said. “We probably could have done it for a quarter of the cost.”
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Federal Council brings new legal provisions on wolf shooting into force
From BlueWin.com:
Parliament relaxed the Hunting Act in December 2022, in particular to reduce conflicts between alpine farming and wolves. To this end, it introduced preventive regulation of the wolf population.
To enable the cantons to act quickly, the Federal Council brought this provision into force by ordinance on December 1, 2023 for a limited period until the end of January 2025. From February, the amended Hunting Act will enter into force definitively together with the amended Hunting Ordinance, as the Federal Council announced on Friday.
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Portugal: People south of Douro willing to live alongside wolves
From MacauBusiness.com:
The Rewilding Portugal association announced on Thursday that people south of the River Douro are willing to live with Iberian wolves as long as compensation is paid and damage prevention measures are implemented. This is part of a study to promote coexistence.
‘An in-depth campaign was carried out to promote understanding of the ecological role of the wolf and interviews were conducted with 117 people from local communities to assess their views on the wolf.
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As Wolf Populations Rebound, an Angry Backlash Intensifies
From YaleEnvironment360:
The reintroduction of endangered wolves to Yellowstone National Park 30 years ago was a major conservation victory. But as wolves have spread across the West, anger and resentment at the apex predator has escalated, with hunters in some states increasingly targeting them.
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Archaeologists Discover “Smoking Gun” Evidence of Earliest Human Companionship with Canines in the Americas
From The DeBrief.org:
New research at indigenous Alaskan archaeological sites dates the origins of human-canid friendship in the Americas to 12,000 years ago, 2,000 years earlier than previous evidence.
Food sharing is a universal custom of friendship, reflected in how modern humans share their homes and food with dogs like our ancestors did millennia ago. Large canids such as dogs, coyotes, and wolves commonly form bonds with human populations in cold, northern environments such as Alaska.
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‘Grizzly Bears Not Recovered’ Says Leading Biologist, 15 Regional & National Groups Petition for New Recovery Vision
From WildEarth Guardians:
WASHINGTON– Today 15 national, regional and state environmental, tribal, and animal welfare groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to adopt a new approach to recovering grizzly bears in the U.S. Northern Rockies, pointing to a new science-based report by Dr. Christopher Servheen, the former USFWS Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator (1981-2016). The petition comes about a month ahead of the USFWS’ deadline to make a decision on delisting the bears.
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Colorado Gov. Jared Polis criticized for blaming wolf reintroduction program costs on ranchers
From ColoradoPolitics:
Gov. Jared Polis is facing backlash for comments he made during the winter conference of Colorado counties, when he blamed ranchers for the cost of the wolf reintroduction program this year.
The topic of wolves at the Colorado Counties, Inc. conference arose in response to Polis’ comments about an ever-tightening state budget. The association represents 63 of the state’s 64 counties.
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