Wolf News - April 2019

A CLOSER LOOK AT DECLINING YELLOWSTONE WOLF NUMBERS

April 29th, Wyoming: Doug Smith has led the Wolf Restoration Project at Yellowstone since its inception. He says populations can fluctuate for various reasons, but admits their numbers are currently about half of what they used to be.

REWILDING: HUNGRY LIKE A WOLF WHILE YOUNG HEARTS RUN FREE

April 29th: The term “rewilding” was first conceived 20 years ago to describe the re-introduction of apex predators into various habitats, in order to exert top-down control to keep the ecosystem in balance. Today, rewilding refers to the rebuilding of critical components of ecosystems to repair the damage done by human activity.

WILL WOLVES MOVE TO THE LOWER PENINSULA?

April 27th, Michigan: As saturated wolf populations expand and re-inhabit greater portions of their former range, it will be imperative to identify not just suitable home range habitat but also critical breeding patches and the landscape between them. The gray wolf has been on and off the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's list of endangered species in Michigan. Most recently in 2014, a federal judge ordered it returned to the list, although the Trump administration has proposed delisting it in most of the U.S.

COLORADO VOTERS COULD GET FINAL SAY IN WAR OVER WOLVES

April 27th, Colorado: In Colorado, it could be voters — not federal and state wildlife managers — pushing the only state in the Rocky Mountains without wolves to welcome the roaming predators. “A wolf population in Western Colorado would serve as the archstone, the final piece that would connect wolves from the high Arctic all the way to the Mexican border,” said Montana state Sen. Mike Phillips, a longtime wolf advocate and wildlife biologist.

YELLOWSTONE WOLF FACTS

April 27th: Interesting facts about Yellowstone wolves.

ENDANGERED WOLF PUPS BORN IN CAPTIVITY JOIN DENS IN THE WILD

April 26th, Missouri: Three members of the Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka, Missouri, flew with 11-day-old pups to Phoenix on April 18. From there, the pups were taken to packs in Arizona and New Mexico.

WOLF WATCHING'S MAIN MAN LETS UP

April 24th, Wyoming: After 24 straight years of almost uninterrupted daily wolf watching, Rick McIntyre retired in February 2018 at 68 years old. Spoiler: He’s still out there watching wolves, and almost every day.

GOV. BROWN PICKED A BIG-GAME HUNTER TO SERVE ON THE BOARD THAT MANAGES OREGON'S WOLVES

April 24th, Oregon: Last week, Gov. Kate Brown appointed James Nash, a rancher and hunting guide, to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission, which, among other duties, is responsible for the state's wolf management plan. Oregon's leading wildlife conservation groups say appointing a big-game hunter to make wildlife policy will be disastrous for Oregon's recovering gray wolf population.

9TH CIRCUIT REINSTATES LAWSUIT CHALLENGING GOVERNMENT'S WOLF KILLING PROGRAM IN IDAHO

April 23rd, Idaho: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a federal judge in Idaho on Tuesday, who had dismissed a lawsuit brought by conservation groups, including the Western Watershed Project and the Center for Biological Diversity. The suit challenges how employees within Wildlife Services analyze what the conservation groups call the environmental harm caused by its campaign to kill Idaho wolves.

ARE ISLE ROYALE'S NEW WOLVES PAIRING UP? GPS TRACKERS COULD SPELL L-O-V-E

April 23rd: Tracking collars show at least two cases of new male wolves that were captured on Canada’s Ontario mainland and Michipicoten Island spending time with new female wolves brought over from Minnesota.

CALIFORNIA DENOUNCES TRUMP'S PLAN TO STRIP WOLF PROTECTIONS

April 23rd, California: The California Fish and Game Commission has voted to formally oppose the Trump administration’s misguided and baseless plan to strip federal protections from wolves. The California Fish and Game Commission also recognizes the critical backstop that the ESA plays for species recovery and voted to formally oppose federal delisting at a meeting last week.

LITTER OF ENDANGERED RED WOLVES BORN ON EARTH DAY, SAYS NC MUSEUM THAT WILL RAISE THEM

April 22nd: The pups are the latest members of a pack of red wolves to be cared by the Durham museum, joining relatives that have been born in each of the past three years, according to the news release.

'GAME OF THRONES' SEASON 8 FINALLY BRINGS BACK GHOST

April 21st: As Jon Snow and others stood on the walls of Winterfell, reminiscing about their fallen brothers of the Night’s Watch and awaiting the arrival of the army of the dead, Ghost finally appeared in the background. The fandom has been waiting for this longer than we’ve been waiting for winter to arrive, and people could not keep their cool.

WOLF POPULATION DECLINING IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

April 19th: The park’s top biologist, Doug Smith, doesn’t expect the numbers to rise dramatically after litters are included in population estimates. Officials say Yellowstone National Park’s gray wolf population has dropped to about 80 wolves—less than half of the highest population mark in the park.

ALDO LEOPOLD'S NEW LAND ETHIC AND THE NEED FOR A NEW APPROACH TO MANAGING WILDLIFE by LOUISA WILLCOX

April 19th: Challenging the ethos of domination, Aldo Leopold emerged as one of the first scientists in the twentieth century to assert that apex predators such as wolves and mountain lions both diversify and stabilize ecosystems.  He became an advocate for saving all the pieces of ecological systems, a notion that would become the backbone of the Endangered Species Act passed 40 years later.

BOW VALLEY ALPHA FEMALE DENS TO HAVE PUPS

April 15th, Canada: Dan Rafla, a human wildlife conflict specialist with Parks Canada, confirmed that the female wolf is pregnant. “She should be going into her den soon and we anticipate a few more new pups in 2019."

PLAN HAS NEW RULES ON KILLING WOLVES THAT PREY ON LIVESTOCK

April 15th, Oregon: The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife on Monday issued a draft conservation and management plan that established a new timetable involving when wolves can be killed for preying on livestock. Environmentalists worry it doesn't do enough to protect wolves.

SOCCER STAR ABBY WAMBACH'S RALLYING CRY FOR WOMEN: "WE ARE THE WOLVES"

April 15th: Abby Wambach found inspiration for her book "Wolfpack" after learning about the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park in 1995. "You think about wolves and you think about them maybe being a threat to the system, but actually they ended up being the system and the ecosystem's salvation," Wambach said. "I want women everywhere to understand that we are the wolves."

WOLVES CAN COOPERATE WITH HUMANS AS WELL AS DOGS, BUT IN DIFFERENT WAYS

April 11th: One would expect dogs to be better adapted to working with humans than wolves, but that’s not really the case, a new study finds. According to the study, the ability of dogs to cooperate lies not within the dogs themselves — but within the “wolf inside the dog.”

WOLVES RETURN TO NETHERLANDS AFTER 140 YEARS

March 9th: Ecologists from campaign groups FreeNature and Wolven in Nederland have been tracking two female wolves in the Veluwe area, collecting wolf prints and scat (droppings) from which they can identify DNA. A male has also been seen in the area so the first Dutch wolf pack could be months away.

WOLVES LIKELY SPREADING INTO COAST RANGE

April 9th, Oregon: Wild wolves are increasing in Oregon generally. The latest statewide count shows a 10 percent increase from last year, with 137 of the animals showing up in wintertime tallies by wildlife officials.

NECROPSIES DETAIL DEATHS OF 2 WOLVES IN ISLE ROYALE RELOCATION EFFORT

April 8th, Michigan: “Isle Royale National Park staff are saddened by the loss of these wolves. Even with an intense planning process, wildlife handling is unpredictable. Staff are committed to doing everything possible to protect the lives of all wolves involved in the relocation process.

WASHINGTON'S WOLF POPULATION INCREASED AGAIN LAST YEAR

April 8th, Washington: Virtually eliminated from the state by the 1930s, Washington’s gray wolf population has rebounded since 2008, when WDFW wildlife managers documented a resident pack in Okanogan County. Although the 2018 annual count showed a modest increase in individual wolves, the upturn in new packs and breeding pairs in those areas set the stage for more growth this year, said Donny Martorello, WDFW wolf policy lead.

SURVEY: MORE MEXICAN GRAY WOLVES ROAMING SOUTHWESTERN US

April 8th: Agency officials declared progress for the endangered species in New Mexico and Arizona, saying there are at least 131 wolves in the wild in the two states. That represents a 12% jump in the population.

IT'S TIME TO RETURN THE WOLF TO TEXAS: RICK LOBELLO

April 5th, Texas: The Mexican wolf, one of the most endangered apex predators in the world, once roamed the mountains and deserts of the Southwest and Mexico by the thousands. They were killed by ranchers and government trappers largely because of conflicts with the livestock industry. Now, over 20,000 people (most from El Paso) have signed letters and petitions asking the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to support a plan to return the wolf to the wilds of Texas.

WOLF KILLING OUTSIDE OF YELLOWSTONE IMPACTS TOURISM OPERATORS

April 3rd, Montana: Cooke City, a town of fewer than 200 people just outside the remote northeastern corner of Yellowstone National Park depends on snowmobilers and a few winter wildlife watchers to keep its winter economy going. That’s why a worldwide backlash on social media to the killing of a tagged Yellowstone National Park wolf, F926, in November of 2018 is troubling to some business owners.

WASHINGTON BULL CONCEDES UNEVEN WOLF RECOVERY

April 3rd, Washington: If passed by the Legislature, House Bill 2097 would be an unprecedented acknowledgment by lawmakers that wolves have affected life in one corner of the state, even though statewide recovery has lagged. Washington’s wolf plan carves the state into three regions and calls for each to have a reproducing population of wolves. The eastern one-third of Washington has surpassed recovery goals, while the the North Cascades and South Cascades are not close to the goals.

WHITEWATER COUPLE TRACKING WOLVES IN WISCONSIN FOR 20 YEARS

April 1st, Wisconsin: For 20 years, the Scheunemanns of rural Whitewater have been tracking gray wolves in winter in remote corners of the state, The Janesville Gazette reported.