20,000 SQUARE MILES OF RED WOLF HABITAT IS OPEN FOR URGENTLY NEEDED REINTRODUCTIONS

October 29th, Washington: A report, released today by the Center for Biological Diversity, identifies suitable public lands in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia as habitat for the critically endangered native red wolf. Together the five sites could support nearly 500 breeding pairs. Today’s report urges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take steps immediately to return red wolves to these areas before they go extinct in the wild.

NEW YORK STATES ENDANGERED LIST CHANGES WOULD REMOVE COUGARS, WOLVES, MORE

October 29th: The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)'s proposal would remove 19 species from the state’s endangered and threatened species list.
The Eastern cougar is proposed for removal from the list, due to its extinction in New York State as well as the the grey wolf that would be renamed simply wolf, signifying new understandings of that species based on recent DNA studies.

YELLOWSTONE WOLVES STABLE, GRIZZLIES MORE COMFORTABLE AROUND HUMANS

October 28th: A new report shows that Yellowstone’s wolf population is now around 80 individuals. Doug Smith who leads the Yellowstone Wolf Project said the decline can be largely accounted for by one wolf pack that often migrates in and out of the park. The National Park Service report also shows that Yellowstone’s grizzly population is stable. The park’s grizzlies are, however, growing more habituated to humans as the number of annual tourists continues to rise.

GRAY WOLVES ARE PROTECTED IN WASHINGTON. SO WHY DOES THE STATE KEEP KILLING THEM?

A century after gray wolves were all but eradicated from Washington, the state is trying to encourage the return of the iconic predators. While ranchers are encouraged to take steps to keep wolves away from cattle, such as putting up flags and lights and dispatching range riders on horseback, when those tactics fail, officials can order lethal removals. Twenty-eight of these have occurred since 2012 in northeastern Washington’s Colville National Forest.

THE WOLF RUNT WHO ROSE TO ALPHA-MALE STATUS IN YELLOWSTONE

October 17th: Rick McIntyre, author of "The Rise of Wolf 8: Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone’s Underdog." Served with the National Park Service for 42 years, including as Yellowstone’s first wolf interpreter. He retired in 2018. He has had more wolf sightings more than any other person. Rick McIntyre's new book, The Rise of Wolf 8: Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone's Underdog, is an incredibly detailed account of wolf behavior and the social dynamics within and between Yellowstone wolf packs.

STATE IGNORES DECLINE OF DENALI NATIONAL PARK ECONOMY

October 17th, Alaska: Due to the state’s mismanagement of wildlife along the park boundary, the visitor experience of more than a quarter-million paying visitors to Denali this year alone — among them, thousands of Alaskans — has been diminished. This is a tragic waste of a valuable Alaska wildlife resource, due to the same ignorant hatred of wolves that almost eliminated them from the Lower 48 in the past century.

ONLY 14 RED WOLVES REMAIN IN SC WILD, AND US AGENCY WON’T SAY WHAT THEY’RE DOING ABOUT IT

October 16th: Their dilemma has become so critical that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now being sued for refusing to disclose what it is doing to maintain the critically endangered species, despite repeated Freedom of Information requests.

SCIENTISTS URGE NEW APPROACH TO SOUTHWESTERN WOLF CONSERVATION THROUGH COURT-ORDERED REWRITE OF MANAGEMENT RULES

October 16th: “It’s time to end wolf management that’s based on bullets and traps,” said Michael Robinson, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “For two decades the government penalized Mexican wolves for livestock conflicts that could have been prevented. It denied the wild wolf population the captive-born animals it needed for genetic success. We’re hoping for a fresh, humane approach based on science and common sense.”

LEADERSHIP LACKING FOR WOLF PROTECTION

October 15th, Montana: Last month Wildlife Services aerial gunned an entire pack of seven wolves north of Centennial Valley after the wolves killed a longtime sheep herder's livestock guard dog. Any thinking person is going to have some serious questions about this, including why an experienced rancher would put his dog in this situation.

UNIQUE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN WOLF AND BEAR DOCUMENTED BY FINNISH PHOTOGRAPHER

October 14th: Finnish photographer Lassi Rautiainen was able to capture the unlikely “friendship” of a female grey wolf and male brown bear, documenting the unusual pair over the course of ten days in 2013. The duo went everywhere together, hunting as a team and sharing their spoils.

GROUP COLLECTS 168,000 SIGNATURES TO PUT GRAY WOLF RESTORATION INITIATIVE ON COLORADO BALLOT

October 10th: The Colorado Restore Gray Wolf Population Initiative would require the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission (CPW) to create and execute a plan to restore gray wolf populations on designated lands west of the continental divide. The signatures already gotten is more than the 124,000 signatures needed to make the ballot.

WOLVES AND COYOTES FEEL SADNESS AND GRIEVE LIKE HUMANS

October 8th: There's no doubt whatsoever that, when it comes to what we can and cannot do to other animals, it's their emotions that should inform our actions on their behalf, and we can always do more for them," according to Marc Bekoff's, after many years of studying these animals.

JUVENILE WOLF COLLARED IN UMPQUA NATIONAL FOREST

October 7th, Oregon: Staff from Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, along with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service collared a 52-pound female from the Indigo pack of wolves on September 26th. The wolf is the 80th one collared in Oregon and the first one to be collared in the Indigo group of wolves. She is currently nearly six months old.

PARK SERVICE LOOKS TO SOLVE MYSTERY DEATHS OF ISLE ROYALE WOLVES

October 6th: Since the Park Service began its relocation efforts in September 2018, 19 wolves have been transplanted from Minnesota, Ontario, Canada and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Three of the wolves have died, the most recent on Sept. 15. Another wolf left the island for mainland Ontario on an ice bridge in January.

MEET THE MEXICAN WOLF DOG

October 4th: The Mexican wolf dog emerges as a hybrid between the dog and the Mexican gray wolf, thanks to the similarities between the two species. This domestication process took place in pre-Hispanic times, approximately from the beginning of our era until the sixteenth century.

HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A WOLF AND A COYOTE

October 4th, Wyoming: Whether you saw a gray wolf or a coyote, both species add to Wyoming’s rich wildlife diversity and play a significant role as carnivores in their respective environments.

STATE KILLS A MEMBER OF GROUSE FLATS WOLF PACK

October 4th: The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said Friday that a wolf believed to be the breeding female of the pack was killed on Sept. 25. Environmental groups expressed outrage at the killing, noting that Washington Gov. Jay Inslee only this week asked the agency to seek ways to kill fewer wolves.

VICTORIA’S LONE WOLF: AFTER YEARS OF LIVING ALONE, HE MAY HAVE A POTENTIAL COMPANION

October 4th, British Colombia: Known as Takaya, he arrived seven years ago and has been alone ever since — unusual for an animal that typically lives in a family pack. After seven years, there may finally be an end to Takaya’s isolation.

NEW WOLF PACK IN WESTERN OREGON BOASTS 4 NEW PUPS

October 4th: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday that a photo from a trail camera confirmed the new pups' existence. Their fur gray with cream-colored streaks, three of them were photographed walking on an unpaved road with a larger wolf, with the fourth pup on the other side of the road and further back.

GOVERNOR INSLEE ASKS WASHINGTON WILDLIFE AGENCY TO KILL FEWER WOLVES, PURSUE NEW MANAGEMENT METHODS

October 1st: “We must find new methods to better support co-existence between Washington’s livestock industry and gray wolves in our state,” Gov. Inslee said in a letter. “The status quo of annual lethal removal is simply unacceptable.”