From Anchorage Daily News:
SISKIYOU COUNTY, Calif. — In far Northern California, beneath a towering mountain ridge still covered in April snow, one of the state’s last cowboys stood in the tall green grass of a pasture he tends describing what he sees as the one blight on this otherwise perfect landscape: wolves.
“I hate ‘em,” said Joel Torres, 25, his easy smile fading as he explained what the apex predators do to the cattle in his care at Prather Ranch, an organic farm in Siskiyou County dedicated to raising beef in a natural, stress-free environment. “They’ve just been tearing into our baby calves, mostly our yearlings.”
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Feds kill endangered, possibly pregnant Mexican Gray Wolf in Arizona
From AZFamily.com:
A federal agency mistakenly killed an endangered and possibly pregnant Mexican gray wolf in Arizona, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a memo earlier this month.
An unknown agency killed a 7-year-old wolf named Asiza on April 14. The incident came after the Mexican wolf coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Brady McGee, authorized the USDA’s Wildlife Services to kill an uncollared wolf in the Bear Canyon pack in Greenlee County.
In the order, he specifically said only an uncollared wolf should be killed so the collared wolves remained in the pack. The directive also said officials were not to kill a breeding female wearing a broken radio collar, which was Asiza, “who will likely whelp a new litter of pups soon.”
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California wolves are on the comeback and eating cattle. Ranchers say, ‘Enough!’
From Anchorage Daily News:
SISKIYOU COUNTY, Calif. — In far Northern California, beneath a towering mountain ridge still covered in April snow, one of the state’s last cowboys stood in the tall green grass of a pasture he tends describing what he sees as the one blight on this otherwise perfect landscape: wolves.
“I hate ‘em,” said Joel Torres, 25, his easy smile fading as he explained what the apex predators do to the cattle in his care at Prather Ranch, an organic farm in Siskiyou County dedicated to raising beef in a natural, stress-free environment. “They’ve just been tearing into our baby calves, mostly our yearlings.”
Click here for the full story.
WA gray wolf population down for the first time in 16 years. Is that bad?
From BellinghamHerald.com:
For the first time in 16 years, Washington state’s overall gray wolf population decreased from the year before, based on information gathered by the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife and its tribal partners, including the Spokane Tribe of Indians, the Swinomish Tribe, the Yakama Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. However, recovery goals were met in multiple regions, and the presence of wolf packs increased slightly.
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Novel Study Calculates the Cost to [California] Cattle Ranchers of an Expanding Wolf Population
From UCDavis.edu:
Motion-activated field cameras, GPS collars, wolf scat analysis and cattle tail hair samples are helping University of California, Davis, researchers shed new light on how an expanding and protected gray wolf population is affecting cattle operations, leading to millions of dollars in losses.
Long believed extinct in California, a lone gray wolf was seen entering the Golden State from Oregon in 2011 and a pack was spotted in Siskiyou County in 2015. By the end of 2024, seven wolf packs were documented with evidence of the animals in four other locations. As wolves proliferated, ranchers in those areas feared they would prey on cattle.
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New Policies Aim to Allow Wolf Hunting in Germany
From TheMunichEye.com:
In a significant policy shift, Germany’s new coalition government has proposed modifications to the legal protection status of wolves, potentially allowing for their hunting under specific regulations. The Ministry of Agriculture aims to incorporate these changes into the existing hunting laws as part of a broader strategy to address concerns from the agricultural community.
The wolf, a creature steeped in folklore and history, has been a symbol of fear and reverence throughout Europe. Historically, these animals were driven to extinction in Germany during the 20th century, primarily due to human intervention and advancements in hunting technology. However, since the early 2000s, wolf populations have been gradually reestablished, with over 1,600 individuals recorded in 2024.
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Court rules in favor of federal and state agencies on Mexican wolf management rule
From Arizona Game & Fish:
The U.S. District Court in Tucson has ruled in favor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Arizona Game and Fish Department and against a coalition of plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the FWS’s 2022 Mexican wolf 10(j) management rule for the recovery of Mexican wolves.
In reaching this decision, U.S. District Court Judge Scott Rash evaluated written and oral arguments on the science underpinning the Mexican wolf recovery program from all parties and concluded that the professional wildlife conservation agencies charged with wolf recovery were correct and the course to recovery was reasonable and achievable with the current management rule.
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What happens to Colorado’s reintroduced wolves when they leave the state?
From VailDaily.com:
In Colorado, the animals are currently protected by state and federal laws. The rules are different in neighboring states. Over the last month, two of Colorado’s latest gray wolf transplants were killed after crossing the border into Wyoming.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife expects these types of movements into other states from the reintroduced wolf population. The species is known for traveling long distances in search of food or mates. However, once the wolves leave Colorado, they lose certain protections afforded to them by both state and federal laws. But just how those protections change, and what might happen to them, depends entirely on which way they travel.
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This initiative would end Colorado’s wolf releases. Many rancher groups don’t support it.
From Coloradoan.com:
First, there was a citizen initiative to reintroduce wolves into Colorado that narrowly passed. Then there were two new proposed citizen initiatives to repeal wolf reintroduction. Now there is one. Got all of that?
Confused?
Let’s start here. Proposition 114 was passed by voters 51% to 49% in 2020 to reintroduce wolves. The new measure is Ballot Initiative 13, which calls for repealing what voters approved in 2020 by putting an end to the reintroduction effort. But wait, there’s more.
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California spends millions on gray wolf expansion efforts
From MontanaOutdoor.com:
As California’s gray wolf population grows, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is advancing the state’s management of this species and further supporting communities where they are known to reside.
At the end of 2024, there were seven known wolf packs in the state and four additional areas of known wolf activity. Most of those packs are in northeastern California(opens in new tab), although one is in the southern Sierra Nevada.
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Coloradans Who Oppose Wolf Reintroduction Can’t Agree on How to Try Ending It
From OutdoorLife.com:
A citizen initiative that sought to end Colorado’s controversial wolf reintroduction program the same way it began — by ballot initiative — was rejected by the state’s election officials Wednesday. The Title Board concluded that Initiative 35 will not be allowed to move forward into the signature-gathering phase due to a technicality; it violated the state’s single-subject rule by trying to address too many issues in one go.
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