Wolves In Colorado?

Good news wolf advocates. Wolves may have dispersed to Colorado and landed in just the right place, on the 300 square mile High Lonesome Ranch, northeast of Grand Junction. The famed wolf researcher, Cristina Eisenburg, is working closely with Paul R. Vahldiek, Jr., the major shareholder of the ranch. Wolf sightings, howls and scat have been identified by Cristina. The scat was sent to UCLA for DNA testing and the ranch is waiting for the results to postively confirm the presence of gray wolves on the ranch.  What welcome news this would be!!

“Committed to conservation of private lands and wildlife, Vahldiek has been working for several years to determine the baseline ecology of the ranch. To further that work, the rancher hired landscape ecologist and large carnivore specialist Cristina Eisenberg to study predator-prey relationships on the land, which was believed to be wolfless. Vahldiek hoped to complete these studies prior to any natural recolonization of wolves. Much to his and Eisenberg’s surprise, it now appears that the storied carnivore has already taken up residence on the property.

Asked about evidence for wolf presence on The High Lonesome Ranch, Eisenberg said, “Wolf sightings, tracks, howling, and other wolf sign gathered over the past eighteen months suggest likely wolf presence, pending DNA analysis results.”

Vahldiek recently became a board member of  the Wildland’s Network who’s mission ” is to reconnect and restore wildlands across North America to allow continued movement of wide-ranging species.” 

“Vahldiek first became interested in the role that wolves play in regulating healthy landscapes when he attended a talk by Eisenberg given at the Boone and Crockett Club’s annual conservation meeting at the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch. Her presentation made him realize that The High Lonesome Ranch’s approximately 300-square-miles of deeded private and permitted BLM lands might be likely habitat for natural wolf recolonization.

“It seemed logical to me, based on what happened in Yellowstone National Park, that keystone species like wolves might have a positive effect on biodiversity and restoring the health of aspen groves on this property,” notes Vahldiek. His interest in the ecological benefits of keystone species led him to attend further meetings on large landscape-scale conservation convened by the international conservation group Wildlands Network“

There are 292,000 elk in Colorado according to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s 2009 Spring press release, plenty of elk for wolves in the state.

Wolves have made a  few ventures into Colorado since they were exterminated from the state by the feds in the 1940’s,  almost seventy years ago.

A little Montana wolf , 314F, made an epic journey to Colorado, arriving in February 09.  There she met her sad end.  If wolves are on the High Lonesome Ranch this could be a better outcome for them in the Centennial State!

===========

Colorado Rancher Says Wolves May Have Arrived; Welcomes Their Return

According to a press release, wild wolves may have already reached a Western Colorado ranchland.

 

 

http://www.newwest.net/city/article/colorado_rancher_says_wolves_may_have_arrived_welcomes_their_return/C8/L8/

=========

Here is wolf 314F’s story:

The Amazing Journey and Sad End of Wolf 314F

She traveled through five states, her GPS collar registering 1000 miles.  This young Mill Creek Pack wolf  left her Montana home in September 08 and arrived in Colorado in February 09.  Her epic journey was long and precarious.  She was tracked through Yellowstone National Park, western Wyoming, the Bridger-Teton National Forest, southeastern Idaho , northeastern Utah, finally arriving in Eagle County, Colorado.  

Her journey ended in March 09 on a lonely hillside in Colorado called “No Name Ridge, where her bones were found.  Nobody is saying how she died.  The investigation into her death is ongoing.

314F’s life and death reinforces the argument wolves need ESA protection,  especially when they’re dispersing  in search of other wolves or a mate.  They’re under constant pressure from the SSS mentality, which makes this young wolf’s journey so incredible.  Hopefully more wolves will make the trip.  Colorado has some of the best wolf habitat in the lower forty-eight.

Against all odds, this eighteen month old wolf showed the world what wolves are made of. I hope Wildlife officials discover how she met her end.  If she died by human hands this person or persons should be prosecuted!  

============ 

Lonely Lady Wolf Looks For Love in All The Wrong Places

Rocky Mountain News

By Berny Morson

Published February 25, 2009 at 3:09 p.m.

Call it the power of  love.

A female wolf has wandered more than 1,000 miles through five states in search of a mate and is now in Colorado’s Eagle County, wildlife officials in Colorado and Montana said Wednesday.

The wolf, known only as 314F, set off on her lonely quest in September when, for reasons unknown, she became unhappy with the male prospects among the pack of seven animals she was born into 20 months earlier.

Since then, 314F has followed her heart from the Paradise Valley north of Yellowstone National Park through Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. She has trotted past areas where other wolf packs are known to live toward a state that has not had a wolf population for 60 years.

Montana officials follow her progress with a global positioning device on a collar that was fitted to her neck in July.

“Basically, what she’s doing is, she’s wandering around looking to see if there’s other wolves around,” said Carolyn Sime, wolf program coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Her prospects here are not good. The last confirmed wolf sighting in Colorado was a male who made his way from Yellowstone in 2004. But he was killed on Interstate 70 near Idaho Springs before anyone knew he was here.

Colorado Division of Wildlife biologist Shane Briggs said that when wolf packs get too large, some animals leave in search of a mate with whom to start a new pack in a different area, Briggs said. That’s how the species increases its range, he said.

Before the 2004 sighting, wolves were considered extinct in Colorado. The last confirmed one had been killed in 1943.

Wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park in 1995.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/25/yellowstone-wolf-travels-1000-miles-colorado/?partner=RSS

===================

Suspicion Surrounds Colorado Wolf Death

Did the epic journey of Wolf 341F from Montana to Colorado end at the hands of a human? Officials aren’t saying.

By David Frey, 9-27-09

http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/suspicion_surrounds_colorado_wolf_death/C41/L41/

* It’s been reported that wolf  314F’s number is actually 341F but since she is so well known as 314F, I didn’t make any changes.

 

Posted in : Wolves in Colorado,  wolf recovery, gray wolf/canis lupus

Tags: Dispersing wolves, wolf recovery, Colorado wolves

Turning Wolves Into Robots?

Just when I thought I’d heard it all.

Apparently a few researchers, led by National Park Service biologist Dan Licht, came up with a plan to turn wolves figuratively into slave/ robots so they can cull ungulate herds in our national parks. What next?

Here’s the screwball plan. Elk and deer are out of control in many of our national parks because of the lack of APEX PREDATORS.  Hmmmmm who’s fault is that?  This is what humans have wrought. If Wildlife Services wasn’t busy killing our native carnivores for agribusiness, maybe we wouldn’t have elk over-browsing in national parks.

The  ”researchers” came up with a brilliant idea of transplanting small wolf packs so they can cull elk and deer herds in the overbrowsed parks. But there’s a catch.  The wolves would have to be altered. Yes, they want to outfit the wolves with shock collars, sterilize them and  allow them to roam a small area because we can’t  have those pesky wolves killing all the cattle and sheep in the world.  Oh no, these braniacs have it all figured out:

“Neuter the wolves, fence them in, fit them with shock collars and – just in case – add a tracking device so they can be hunted and killed if they get too far afield.”

Everything that makes a wolf a wolf will be taken away from them, their freedom, their ability to raise their families.  In effect these wolves will be slave wolves controlled by their human masters.  What a wonderful concept. And yet in this madness a stark truth is revealed. The researchers are admitting  wolves and other apex predators are vitally essential to healthy ecosystems.  Too bad we didn’t hear this from the US Fish and Wildlife Wolf Recovery Coordinator, Ed Bangs.  Instead he made this comment about the animals whose welfare he is charged with:

“Wolves fix very few problems compared to the ones they create,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Ed Bangs, who leads the Northern Rockies wolf restoration program”.

That’s not what he said back in 2000 to NOVA in an interview called Bringing Wolves Home: Ed Bangs, Wolf Recovery Coordinator, US Fish and Wildlife Services  and I quote:

“Wolves are a top-line predator. They have a major influence.”

“Wolves are the parents, the mothers, the fathers, the brothers and sisters that we always hoped we could be. I mean there’s extreme loyalty among family members, it’s everything to them. And if they leave that, then they’re exposed to possible attacks by other wolf packs or families. So when you move them somewhere different, they want to go back home.”

Ed Bangs gave this interview to NOVA over ten years ago.  What’s clear is we should never consider sterilizing wolves and turning them into slaves to do our bidding.  Wolves very being centers around family.  We  have no right to take this away from them.  As Ed stated, family is everything to them.  If we want to cull ungulate herds in national parks then reintroduce wolves into the parks and let them do what apex predators can efficiently do but drop the crazy robot wolf idea.  Wolves are persecuted enough.

===============

Wolves pushed as “park stewards,” neutered and transplanted nationwide

By MATTHEW BROWN of the Associated Press | Posted: Monday, February 8, 2010 6:30 am

http://www.missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_49e1d4c0-13ff-11df-b395-001cc4c002e0.html

====================

Photos Courtesy:  beonarri Flickr

Posted in: graywolf/canis lupus, wolves under fire

Tags:  leave wolves alone, canis lupus, stand up for wolves

 

“I’ve always said that the best wolf habitat resides in the human heart. You have to leave a little space for them to live.”
~ Ed Bangs

Bad Moon Rising On Mexican Gray Wolves

In a season of bad wolf news, Mexican wolves have been dealt another blow.  Their numbers, already dismal, dipped from 52 wolves in 2008 to 42 wolves in 2009. 

“The Mexican wolf population in Arizona and New Mexico plunged to its lowest level in seven years in 2009, with eight wolves including four pups found dead last year, officials said Friday.

Last year’s total of 42 wolves found in the wild was down nearly 20 percent from 52 wolves in 2008. Since the wolf recovery plan began back in 1998, the U.S. government has spent about $20 million trying to restore wolves in Eastern Arizona and southwest New Mexico, federal records show. Ninety-two total wolves have been released into the wild.”

This sad little tale has been going on since the late seventies, when a captive breeding program was started because the Mexican gray wolf was technically extinct in the wild, the result of a hundred years of persecution.  The Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan was adopted in 1982.

In 1998 captive born wolves were released into Arizona and New Mexico. Before reintroduction began in 1998, the US Fish and Wildlife Service projected 102 wolves, including 18 breeding pairs, would be thriving on their historical range by 2006, with numbers expected to rise thereafter.  That was four years ago and twelve years have gone by since their release.  Not only are there not 100 Mexican gray wolves in the wild but their numbers have dipped even further from the handful of 52 animals counted in 2008. 

Is it any wonder the program has been a failure?  Up until last year the wolves were subjected to the three strikes rule, meaning kill three livestock and you’re out, as in dead. 

The three legged alphas of the highly endangered Middle Fork Pack  are up against a sea of cattle in the Gila National Forest, which is heavily grazed.  Many of those cows belong to the Adobe/Slash Ranch, which is owned by a Mexican businessman. One of the ranch hands was actually caught baiting wolves, a few years back, to get them in trouble and cause the three strikes rule to kick in.  

I sincerely hope these amazing wolves were not part of the reported grim statistics of dead wolves. Both alphas lost their left front legs. Alpha female AF861, lost her leg to a gunshot wound, that case is still being investigated. Alpha male AM871 lost his limb to a leg hold trap. Despite their handicaps they are able to hunt and raise pups!! 

Finally in 2009 the  US Fish and Wildlife Services settled a Settled a lawsuit:

“brought by conservation organizations, the Fish and Wildlife Service reasserted its authority over a multiagency management team and scrapped a controversial wolf “control” rule that required permanently removing a wolf from the wild, either lethally or through capture, after killing three livestock in a year. Conservationists had criticized the rigid policy, known as Standard Operating Procedure 13 or SOP 13, for forcing wolves to be killed or sent to captivity regardless of an individual wolf’s genetic importance, dependent pups or the critically low numbers of wolves in the wild.”

Since the three strikes rule was scrapped it looked like the beleaguered wolves would have a fighting chance to start their long awaited recovery.  That was until they counted them.

“The decline is “tremendously disconcerting and very disturbing,” said Benjamin Tuggle, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s regional director for the Southwest.

Two wolves were confirmed to have been shot to death last year. Tuggle said he is not ruling out the possibility that the other six dead wolves were shot. Those deaths are under law enforcement investigation.

An unusually poor survival rate among wolf pups appeared to play a key role in last year’s population decline, officials indicated. Thirty-one pups were born last year in seven wolf packs. Seven survived, the wildlife service said.”

Apparently the agency relies on captive wolves being reintroduced and pup survival to maintain or increase the population.  So with the loss of four pups to probable poaching. a poor pup survival rate and no reintroductions in 2009,  the wolf population declined significantly. 

I think it’s safe to assume that the other six wolves were the victims of foul play.  There is tremendous intolerance for wolves in the Southwest.  Big surprise.  The same attitudes that plague wolves here in the Northern Rockies are mirrored there.  How pathetic that in the expanse of the Gila and Apache National Forests there isn’t a place for a hundred wolves?  There’s plenty of room for cattle though.  And that’s the problem.

Michael Robinson of  the Center for Biological Diversity states: 

“Lackadaisical Forest Service management, severe grazing during drought, trespass stock, and scattered carcasses of cattle that died of non-wolf causes which draw wolves in to scavenge, all guarantee continued conflicts between wolves and livestock,” pointed out Robinson.

“Preventing conflicts with livestock on the national forests makes more sense than scapegoating endangered wolves once conflicts begin,” said Robinson.”

The Beaverhead area has a history of wolves scavenging on carcasses of cattle that they had not killed, and then subsequently beginning to hunt live cattle. This spring, the Center for Biological Diversity documented sixteen dead cattle, none of them with any signs of wolf predation, within a few miles of the Middle Fork’s den site.

Independent scientists have repeatedly recommended that owners of livestock using the public lands be required to remove or render unpalatable (as by lime, for example) the carcasses of cattle and horses that die of non-wolf causes — such as starvation, disease or poisonous weeds — before wolves scavenge on them and then switch from preying on elk to livestock. No such requirements have been implemented.”

It sounds like Fish and Wildlife is finally waking up to the seriousness of the situation.  Bud Fazio is now heading the Mexican Gray wolf program.  He ran the Red Wolf program successfully in the Carolinas so I  have  hope he can figure out how to help these animals survive before they go extinct in the wild AGAIN!  It should start with going after the  poachers and giving them substantial jail time. If they think they can shoot a wolf and get away with it, what incentive do they have to stop? 

Time is running out for the wolves in the Southwest.  Why not expand the wolves recovery area outside of the Gila and Apache National Forests?  How about Grand Canyon National Park for starters? 

The status quo won’t cut it anymore.  The wolves have been struggling ever since their reintroduction in 1998.  It’s going to take a major effort by Fish and Wildlife to protect these wolves and allow them to finally make their long awaited recovery.  Any good news on wolf recovery would be heralded. 

===========

Officials say total from last year was down nearly 20%

Mexican wolf population dipping

http://www.azstarnet.com/news/science/environment/article_1d9a72c2-9f55-5730-b948-b57533cd1620.html

Elk in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area

 

Photos: Courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Services

Posted in: Mexican gray wolf, gray wolf/canis lupus, wolf recovery, Wolf Wars

Tags: Mexican gray wolves,  wolf recovery, canis lupus, wolves or livestock

Sad Time For Wolf Advocates….

The wolf hunt in Idaho continues. My heart is heavy thinking about the packs that have been disrupted, the pups that have been killed or left as orphans to starve. I think of the pregnant alphas that will be shot as wolf breeding season is under way and wolves will be returning to their den sites in mid to late March in Idaho, well before the hunt ends. This is a disaster for wolf recovery in so many ways.

Wolves do not need to be managed. Lets be frank, managing wolves is a euphemism for killing them. Wolves are natural dispersers. They will seek new territory in search of good hunting grounds, if only they could cross state lines and claim new territory without being shot. They don’t need the states of Idaho, Montana or Wyoming to tell them how to be wolves. 

We’re killing wolves because ranchers have too much power in the West.  We’re killing wolves because elk hunters complain wolves are wiping out elk, which is patently untrue. I’ve refuted this so many times I feel like tatooing it on my forehead. But unfortunately state game agency budgets are funded by hunting fees, so wolves are culled to increase elk populations and please hunters. We’re killing wolves because many outfitters don’t like them.  Why do these groups have more clout then the rest of us? 

There doesn’t seem to be much conflict between wolf and man in Minnesota, with their large wolf population. When polled, the majority of Minnesotans support the wolf and want it to do well.  Western wolf  ”managers” state the reason wolves are doing better in Minnesota is because the state has a dense deer population, large forests and few public land disputes. Well I agree on the public land disputes. I disagree that we don’t have enough game or forests to go around in the West.  The reason there are problems living with the wolf in the West is because a small group of people, that are anti-wolf, have tremendous political clout here. If you asked most Americans if they approve of wolf hunts the answer would be a resounding no. BUT because a small minority want wolves ”managed”, the rest of us have to tolerate this brutal, senseless killing.  Montana, Idaho and Wyoming  could take a few lessons from Minnesotans on how live with wolves.

These things I do know.  Wolves are suffering and dying brutal, cruel deaths. The stability and structure of many packs have been disrupted.  The average age of wolves will be younger with the loss of alphas and older wolves. In effect all wolves are being forced to play Russian Roulette. Spin the barrel and shoot. Every wolf is at risk of being killed if the hunts continue, since the killing is indiscriminate. Younger wolves don’t have the hunting skills of older more experienced animals.  There will be a greater temptation for them to attack livestock as an easy kill. Which will lead to more wolves being killed by Wildlfe Services in the name of  livestock. 

The benefit of having an apex predator cull ungulate herds will be changed.  Hunters kill stronger, healthier ungulates, wolves kill easier prey, the sick, the weak, the old. They improve the health of the herd.  Wolves do a far better job managing ungulates then man.  The elk owes it’s fleetness of foot to the wolf, who has chased them through time.

It’s very clear the people that “manage” wolves aren’t paying attention to the science. They think it’s OK if wolves just replace themselves, every year.  Who cares about individual wolves or packs? They’re just focused on the numbers. That’s not how it should work. Wolves are highly organized social animals, there is order in the pack. They’re smart, they solve problems, yet they are being treated like deer and elk. WOLVES ARE NOT DEER OR ELK AND SHOULD’NT BE TREATED AS SUCH!!  It’s ridiculous.    

I know this is falling on deaf ears in the “management” community. The Idaho wolf hunt marches on.  If Judge Molloy finds for the plaintiffs and wolves ESA protections are restored  it will just be just a matter of time before Wyoming gets it’s act together and comes up with a plan similar to Idaho and Montana. Then we’ll be right back to square one, with wolves in the cross hairs.  The only way to have a different outcome is to address the science, which means there has to be proven genetic connectivity between the three Northern Rockies wolf sub-populations and I submit, killing over five hundred wolves in 2009 did not increase the likelihood of that.  Into this mix add Wildlife Services, who wipes out entire packs of wolves causing their genes to be lost forever. 

Yellowstone wolf numbers have dropped below 1oo, increasing the risk they could be vulnerable to inbreeding,  like the Isle Royale wolves, who are plagued by spinal deformities.

If Judge Molloy’s ruling encompasses more then Wyoming,  if it includes the genetics, then wolves may have a fighting change to stay listed for quite some time.  Then, just maybe we can redefine wolf recovery and stop playing the numbers game.

These are dark days for wolf advocates. Personally I abhor the designation of wolves as game animals to be shot for sport. They are so  much more then that.  They are a symbol and icon of freedom for so many Americans, people that appreciate the stark beauty and haunting presence of the wolf inhabiting what’s left of our wild lands.  This is a very sad time for wolf advocates. 

Photo wolf nursing her pups: Wikimedia Commons

Posted in: gray wolf/canis lupus, Idaho wolf hunt, howling for justice

Tags:  Esa lawsuit wolves, biodiversity, wolf extermination

The Wolf Numbers Game….

  

 

The deadline to file briefs in the wolf delisting lawsuit has ended. As we wait to see if Judge Molloy will hear oral arguments or rule without them, I reflected on what constitutes wolf recovery in the Northern Rockies? 2000, 4000, 6000 wolves? It occurred to me the numbers game has been the nail in the coffin for wolves ever since they were reintroduced to Yellowstone and Central Idaho in the mid-nineties. We’ve been stuck on numbers ever since. The number of breeding pairs, the number of pups, the number of packs, the number of livestock depredations. It’s always about numbers. But is it?

I challenge this paradigm. I believe wolf recovery has little to do with numbers. It’s the numbers game that’s betrayed gray wolves. The true test of recovery for wolves will be their ability to disperse across state lines, to achieve genetic connectivity among sub-populations, to overcome fragmentation and marginalization, in effect to repopulate their entire habitat that was lost to them when they were slaughtered by the federal government for agribusiness and eliminated from the West, without mercy. 

And something else. Wolf recovery is dependent upon humans finding a place in their hearts for wolves to dwell, only then will they have a chance.  

It wasn’t until the enactment of the Endangered Species Act that wolves began to stage a slow comeback. In the 1980’s, well before they were reintroduced to Yellowstone and Central Idaho, gray wolves dispersed on their own from Canada to Glacier National Park. They started to come home. 

In 1995 and 1996 sixty-six MacKenzie Valley wolves from Alberta, Canada were released into Yellowstone and Central Idaho. The official counting of wolves had begun and has never stopped.

 

The map shows part of their historic home range, wolves now occupy a tiny fraction of that in the lower forty eight. Click on the map to see their current range.

“At one time, wolves were distributed over an immense part of the northern hemisphere. Certainly, wolves lived across most of the United States within the last two hundred years. (The only exception was in the Southeast, where the red wolf filled the gray wolf’s niche in the environment.) Even today, there are still a few wolves left in the extreme Southwest and Mexico. (The Mexican wolf is a subspecies of the gray wolf, and is considered extremely endangered.) Today the gray wolf is found in a few northern states in very low numbers. Only Minnesota is home to enough gray wolves for them to be considered in the threatened category. (“Threatened” is one step safer than “endangered.”

 

Instead of obsessing over numbers we should be concentrating on education to dispel myths that surround wolves. If the wolf is to survive the old attitudes and hates must end. If the wolf is to survive they must be able to move freely across state lines to expand their territory. Yet, a Utah senator recently introduced a bill that would bar wolves from entering that state, on pain of death or relocation, as if wolves can read road signs or understand state boundary lines. 

 

Colorado is not welcoming them. Wyoming is hostile to them, except for the tiny island of wolves, now numbering below 100, that find refuge in Yellowstone.  Yes, Canadian wolves have dispersed to Washington, which seems the most reasonable of all the states but even there a Lookout Pack pup was killed and then his killers attempted to ship his bloody pelt FedEx to Canada.   

 

It’s a dramatic and horrific story, touched off by Tom White’s wife allegedly attempting to ship the pup’s hide to a Canadian taxidermist through a FedEx outlet at the WalMart in Omak. Fortunately an astute clerk noticed the parcel was leaking blood and called authorities.

 

How can the wolf ever hope to make a sustained recovery when they are so persecuted?

A major roadblock to wolf recovery is the livestock industry, who has a stranglehold on state politics, wolves don’t stand a chance until that changes. With the approval  of state “wolf managers”, Wildlife Services  acts  as the rancher’s personal wolf extermination service, courtesy of tax payer dollars.  Likewise state game agencies hamper wolf recovery because their coffers are filled by hunting and licensing fees. They cater to hunters that compete directly with the wolf for the same prey animals. Whose side do you think they will take, the hunter or the wolf ? There is no contest. The wolf loses every time.

We’ve come full circle. Wolves may be relisted by Judge Molloy, solely based on Wyoming’s recalcitrance,  since even the feds know Wyoming’s “management shoot on sight plan” will land wolves right back on the Endangered Species List. It’s an awful game that’s being played with the lives of a magnificent animal that has every right to exist on this earth.

The numbers game is responsible for much of wolf persecution because at some point that magic number will be reached, whether it’s 2000, 4000 or 6000 and the killing can begin again, just as it did in 2009, just as they were exterminated the first time around.  The numbers game says that wolves are living on borrowed time.  That they will always be in the crosshairs.  If we keep moving the numbers around,  how does that help wolves truly recover?

The fate of wolves hangs in the balance. Are we willing to open our hearts and minds to allow this vital apex predator, who is an integral part of a healthy ecosystem, to repopulate their historic habitat, not just a few marginalized pockets? Or will we continue to play the wolf numbers game? 

=============

Legal fight over wolves in Northern Rockies a question of numbers

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian | Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 11:00 pm

http://www.missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_dd632f76-113b-11df-8019-001cc4c002e0.html

Map: Courtesy of Siteline Institute

Posted in: gray wolf/canis lupus, howling for justice, wolf 2009 delisting, wolf recovery

Tags: wolf numbers game, delisting litigation, wolves in the crossfire

February 3, 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deadline for filing briefs in federal wolf lawsuit closes

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian | Posted: Friday, January 29, 2010 4:15 am

If gray wolves need any winter reading material, there’s stacks of it in U.S. District Judge Don Molloy’s office.

Thursday was the last day for filing final briefs in a federal lawsuit over removing wolves from the Endangered Species Act protection. The main contenders, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, EarthJustice and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition all delivered their arguments in past weeks. Wildlife managers in Montana and Idaho, as well as the farm bureaus of both states, the Safari Club and the National Rifle Association all sent intervener briefs just before the deadline.

The case looks at whether federal authorities properly took away the wolf’s threatened status in Montana and Idaho, and whether it was legal to do so while keeping the wolf a protected species in Wyoming. Montana and Idaho instituted big-game hunting seasons on the wolf last fall, killing 72 and 145 wolves, respectively.

Molloy may call for oral argument or choose to rule based on the written arguments alone.

http://www.missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_eae1f720-0c83-11df-93ab-001cc4c03286.html

Posted in: gray wolf/canis lupus, endangered species act,  howling for justice

Tags:  ESA lawsuit wolves, canis lupus, obama administration delisting wolves 

A WEST WITHOUT WOLVES……The Livestock Industry Hamstrings Wolf Recovery

On public lands in the great western ecosystem, livestock will not have priority. The grazing of livestock will and must be subordinated to the natural order of the bison and the predator……

 Former secretary of the interior Bruce Babbitt, speaking at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, January 2001

===========

Ranching has tremendous power and influence in the West, shaping policy and politics in the region. This has effected wolves for over a  century and until the balance of power shifts, wolves will continue to be caught in the crossfire.  

Michael Robinson explains how the livestock industry has done everything in it’s considerable power to rid the West of wolves. Their influence hangs over wolf recovery like a shroud, hampering it’s progress and causing countless wolves to lose their lives.

The article is dated but it clearly makes the case wolves are considered pests by agribusiness to be eliminated not recovered.  He wrote this piece while he was finishing his ground breaking book, Predatory Bureaucracy: The Extermination of Wolves and The Transformation of the West, published in 2005. 

=======

The Livestock Industry Hamstrings Wolf Recovery

By Michael Robinson

In the early twentieth century, the livestock industry lobbied for a government-sponsored campaign to eliminate wolves from the West. Today, the livestock industry is the major obstacle to wolf recovery. Cases in the northern Rockies and the Southwest illustrate how wolf management remains highly biased in favor of stock growers, even on public lands. Wolf predation was once a significant ecological force in many western ecosystems; public lands livestock grazing is at odds both with full wolf recovery and with ecosystem restoration.

Wolves were exterminated from the American West by a concerted campaign mounted by federal hunters and funded with local, state, and federal revenues. Using poison, traps, and bullets, the government pursued each wolf with the avowed goal of wiping the species off the face of the Earth.

The livestock industry was the sole beneficiary of, and the greatest political impetus for, this campaign. Today, the livestock industry stands at the heart of the opposition to wolf recovery and has blocked, hampered, and sabotaged reintroduction programs throughout the West. Unfortunately, the industry’s political clout has profoundly shaped wolf recovery programs that are supposed to be guided by science. (*instead it’s guided by pressure from ranching and hunting lobbies)

The Northern RockiesWolf reintroduction in the northern Rocky Mountains of Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho was contested by the livestock industry and its supporters in Congress for over two decades. Under the Endangered Species Act, critical habitat for a listed species is supposed to be designated, and the species protected from being killed-whether it is reintroduced or recovering through natural recolonization. However, because of the power of the livestock industry, the plan to reintroduce wolves to parts of Idaho and Wyoming resulted in a compromise that designated the wolves as an “experimental, nonessential” population. This designation meant there would be no special protections for wolf habitat and that wolves that preyed on livestock would be killed or removed from the wild. Provisions were even made to allow ranchers themselves legally to kill wolves rather than waiting for government agents to show up and do the job.

The fact that cattle require huge quantities of water means they will always be vulnerable to wolves in the American West. For in this largely arid region, water and water-loving vegetation are so scarce, and scattered over such wide areas, that cattle must be similarly spread out, and that makes protecting them from wolves uneconomical; thus, as their forebears did, ranchers rely on federal agents to kill or remove wolves. Domestic sheep, much less numerous in the West than cattle, are even more vulnerable to predators, especially when flocks are not well protected. Thus, although wolves are a federally listed endangered species, their containment and control by the federal government constitutes one more subsidy that taxpayers provide the livestock industry in the West. (Some ranchers would no doubt happily dispense with this subsidy, as long as they were free to kill wolves at will, including putting out poison baits for them, as was common in the nineteenth century.)

Since gray wolves were released into Idaho and Wyoming in 1995, the federal government’s “Wildlife Services” has executed numerous “control actions” because of wolf-livestock conflicts, killing a few dozen wolves (now thousands of wolves) either known or suspected of attacking cows or sheep. Particularly egregious has been the capture or “lethal control” of wolves on public lands. Privately owned livestock grazing on public lands clearly take priority over endangered gray wolves, restored at public expense. In addition, somewhere between ten and twenty wolves have been killed illegally in the reintroduction areas. In most of these cases, the perpetrator was never identified or charged.

Read the rest of the article:

Wolf Photos: Courtesy SigmaEye Flickr

Cattle Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Posted in: Public Land Degradation by Livestock, gray wolf/canis lupus, ranching and hunting influence, Wolf Wars

Tags: Wolves or livestock, wolf intolerance, Revised 10j rule bad for wolves, cattle, wolves in the crossfire

Utah Senator to Wolves….Do Not Enter Utah On Pain of Death (Alert Take Action)

Utah Senator Allen Christensen has introduced a bill, SB 36, that would allow any and all gray wolves that have the audacity to enter Utah’s borders, to be captured and removed or killed.  That’s right. He thinks wolves are not compatible with humans. Could a human being be more intolerant?  Does he realize how ridiculous this sounds?  Wolves don’t read signs, they don’t understand boundaries. Just when I thought wolf hysteria couldn’t get any worse, it does.

Even though this bill would likely be unconstitutional if passed, because federal law trumps state law, Christensen states they would fight it all the way to the Supreme Court.  

Sportsmen For Fish and Wildlife and the Cattlemen’s Association’s Utah chapter are supporters of the bill.  Big surprise. Apparently the “Sportsmen” and I use that term lightly, will bankroll the court battle, if the bill passes. Here’s a quote from The Salt Lake Tribune, showing the absolute arrogance of this man and the organizations that support this disgusting  bill.

“Wolves are out of control, says Utah Sen. Allen Christensen, and the state’s policy should be to kill them. Heck, he did. Went to Canada to bag one. It’s at the taxidermist.

And besides, Christensen says, passing a bill to declare Utah’s policy to destroy or remove all wolves is a simple case of states’ rights.

The North Ogden Republican’s goal is spelled out in SB36, which has caught the attention of legislative attorneys who attached a rare warning that the bill, if passed, probably would be found unconstitutional.

“Will it be a fight? Absolutely,” Christensen concedes. “We have enough money to take it all the way to the [U.S.] Supreme Court.”

The Utah chapters of the Cattlemen’s Association and Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife support the bill. The Sportsmen will contribute to litigation costs, says Byron Bateman, president of the Utah chapter.

“We’ve been in the fight from the get-go,” Bateman said, “and we’ll be in it to the end.”

SB36 is for people who enjoy wildlife, Christensen says, adding he knows wolves are wildlife, too. But they were exterminated in this region in the 19th century “for good reason,” he says. “They were simply not compatible with humans anymore.”

I have news for the Senator. Wolves are protected under ESA (Endangered Species Act) in much of Utah and it would be a federal crime to kill a wolf. 

An area in Utah east of Interstate 84 and Interstate 15 and north of I-80 is in the northern Rocky Mountain gray-wolf recovery area. This is the only area now where the state has any kind of management jurisdiction. Wolves are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act in the rest of Utah.

Anyone who kills a wolf without proper cause in most of Utah still could land in big trouble — to the tune of a $100,000 fine, a year in prison and loss of the gun that killed the beast and the truck the hunter rode in.

BUT, this awful bill, if passed, would supersede Utah’s wolf plan, which is almost as bad as the bill, allowing only two breeding pairs to produce two pups for two consecutive years.  Is Utah enamored with the number two?  What the heck kind of wolf plan is that? 

If this “legislation” passes I will never even fly into the Salt Lake airport again, let alone vacation or buy anything that is remotely connected to the state.

=================

Here is an Alert from Ralph Maughin’s website, with information about this deplorable bill and what you can do.

Alert on Utah wolves

January 28, 2010 — Ralph Maughan

What you can do if you oppose Utah state senator Allen Christensen wolf killing bill-

Wolves urgently need your help.  Please send the following alert to as many people as you can.  Use your organization’s email list if you can!  Do it right away, then act on it yourself!

The organization Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife has a bill before the Utah legislature that would require the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to prevent wolf packs from becoming established in the Utah portion of the Rocky Mountain gray wolf recovery area.  This part of the recovery area is where dispersing wolves from the Yellowstone country have been entering Utah, some of them traveling on to Colorado.  If this bill passes, any wolves entering Utah in this area will be subject to capture and return or death.

This egregious bill, identified as S.B. 36 first substitute, would supplant the Utah Wolf Management Plan – a plan which would at least tolerate up to two breeding pairs producing at least two surviving offspring for two consecutive years.  I know, this plan is really lame, but it is better than what the bill would require.  Furthermore, it was created through a public process that began with and ended with the Utah legislature – a process that involved 13 representatives of a diverse group of stakeholders, including ranchers and sportsmen, working for a year and a half.  Even then, the ranching and hunting interests on the working group violated the mutually agreed-upon protocols in order to ensure that the resulting plan is really weak.  Not satisfied with that, now they want to lord over the rest of us to ensure that there are never any wild wolves in Utah.  At bottom this is a moral issue: We must stand up for wolves and wild nature and for ourselves.  Here’s what you can do, but please do it quickly as this bill is on a fast track – do it NOW if you can: 

If you are a Utah resident, go to the following web-site and click on ‘Senate’ and ‘House’ to find your senator and your representative, then contact each and let him or her know in no ambiguous terms that you want this bill to fail.  This will be particularly important for those of you who live in the Republican-dominated rural parts of the state: http://www.le.state.ut.us/

If you live outside Utah and you want to exert influence on this, you might contact the Utah Office of Tourism and express your displeasure over this bill and tell them that, if it passes, it will make you less interested in vacationing and recreating in Utah: http://travel.utah.gov/contactus.html
 

If you would like to be added to the Utah Wolf Forum list serve to receive periodic updates on this and other wolf-related issues, contact lynx@xmission.com and state your request.  It is our policy that you also briefly state your reason.

Sincerely,
Kirk Robinson, PhD, Director of Western Wildlife Conservancy
Allison Jones, M.S., Conservation biologist with Wild Utah Project

====================

Please take action and stop the persecution of wolves!!  They have no voice, they need ours!!

For the wolves, For the wild ones,

Nabeki

Posted in: Wolf Wars, graywolf/canis lupus, howling for justice

Tags: Utah wolf killing bill, wolves in the crossfire, wolf intolerance, wolf myths

 

About Elk….

 

I’m re-posting this in response to anti wolf comments I received about elk numbers. I don’t spend my time worrying about elk or livestock but just in case you want to know where I stand on elk you can read this post. With that clarified you can stop writing to me about decimated elk and deer herds, or the need to kill wolves for elk and livestock.  We’ve lost 1/3 of the wolf population in the Northern Rockies this past year due to the hunts and Wildlife Services.  Idaho’s hunt is ongoing until March 31, 2010, with another 75 wolves left to kill, plus the Nez Perce tribe has 35 wolf tags, not sure if they’ve used any of them.  That means between Wildlife Services and the Idaho hunt we will lose well over a hundred more wolves this season, bringing the total to 600+ dead wolves in the Northern Rockies.  I wonder how elk hunters would feel if one third of the elk herd was culled. That would be about 50,000 elk, just in Montana alone?

Wolves are not the problem, it’s people that are intolerant of wolves. ”We humans fear the beast within the wolf because we do not understand the beast within ourselves” -Gerald Hausman

The links in the post below are highlighted for further information.

=============

About Elk….

The wolf debate has become intrinsically tied to elk numbers and endless conversations and arguments revolve around this subject. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation trumpeted, in an April 09 press release, that wild elk populations were higher in twenty three states then they were twenty five years ago, when the organization started.  YET, those facts don’t sit well with some people, who refuse to believe wolves aren’t decimating elk.  I can’t recall  how many times I’ve heard elk hunters say……Well elk may be thriving in one part of my state but their numbers are down in another area.  Or elk are harder to hunt….etc.  I agree elk are harder to hunt because they’re on high alert, acting more like, ELK.  They browse and move, browse and move. It makes hunting them more difficult but when you have a high powered rifle and the advantage of surprise I’m not going to feel sorry if you don’t bag an elk.  It’s not the responsibility of wildlife viewers to be concerned about the success of elk hunters.

Wolf recovery and wolves presence in the Northern Rockies is not about elk hunters or hunting in general, although many people want it to be.  It’s about wolves fulfilling their role in our wild places. It’s about tolerance and allowing the wolf to be the wild animal, apex predator they are, to do their job in culling ungulates and making herds stronger, what they’ve been doing for millenia.

“The dance of life and death between predator and prey makes many of us uncomfortable, and yet, prey species are also benefiting from the return of the wolf. Unlike human hunters who target healthy adult animals, wolves cull the sick and elderly from elk, deer, moose and bison herds, reducing the spread of disease and keeping the prey population as a whole healthier.”

“It’s important to remember that predators and prey evolved in lockstep together over millions of years,”

It’s also not about conducting polls to see if  hunters are happy with wolves, or whether hunters think there are enough elk.  It may be important in their world but ninety percent of Americans don’t hunt.  In fact US Fish & Wildlife 2006 figures report there were 12.5 million hunters nationally with expenditures of 22.9 billion dollars BUT wildlife watchers numbered 71.1 million and generated 45.7 billion dollars.  Does it make sense that wildlife watchers have so little input in how wildlife is managed, particularly wolves, when wildlife viewers outnumber hunters by such a large margin and generate more revenue? 

Wolves have been persecuted for well over a  hundred years in the West, they were exterminated once for ranching interests by the feds.  It wasn’t until the advent of the Endangered Species Act that wolves slowly began to recover. 

It’s constantly repeated wolves were forced on Idaho and Montana by the reintroduction program in 1995 but wolves dispersed to Glacier National Park  long before they were brought back to Yellowstone and Central Idaho by the federal government. 

The fact almost any discussion about wolves is accompanied by a critique of elk or livestock status, speaks volumes.  If by some miracle we could move past these two issues and realize the wolf is a top predator that has a role to play in nature.  If emotion was replaced with science that tells us the  disappearance of apex predators around the world is causing ecosystem collapse, the science that shows the benefit wolves bring to ecosystems they inhabit, we could make progress in ending this battle.  

Don’t get me wrong, I like elk, they are beautiful creatures.  Of course I like my elk living and breathing but the material point is, it’s not about elk.  It’s about wolves and what’s in their interest. They’ve been so demonized but in reality wolves are animals, the direct ancestors of our beloved dogs. There is no reason to assign motives to their behavior.  They are doing what they were born to do.  Somehow the focus must be shifted from elk, ranching, livestock and outfitters to the benefit of having apex predators roaming our wildlands instead of debating if elk numbers are up or down.

Photos: Wikimedia Commons

Posted in:  elk flourishing among wolves, biodiversity, Canis lupus

Tags: wolf recovery, dispersing wolves, wolf myths, elk

Isle Royale Wolves Cautionary Tale For Beleagered Northern Rockies Wolves?

What damage has been done to the Northern Rockies wolf population? 

For starters there are more then 500 dead. Killed for no reason other then hatred and persecution of a species, hunted by the states of Idaho and Montana, mere months after their delisting in the Spring of 2009.  Wolf advocates knew this would happen if wolves were delisted. We knew the states wouldn’t be reasonable once “wolf management” was handed over to them by the Obama Administration. The feds (WS) have been killing wolves for years in the name of agribusiness, keeping a low profile but now wolves are being slaughtered on two fronts, the hunts and Wildlife Services.  Don’t forget WS gets their marching orders from the state game agencies, ie: IDFG and Montana FWP.  

The killing has been out of control and deadly.  Idaho’s wolf hunt extends to March 31, 2010, right through wolf breeding  and denning season. A SEVEN MONTH LONG HUNT!!  Is this responsible wolf management?  Of course not. Did anyone doubt this would happen?  No!

Wolves lost a large gene pool with the demise of the 500. Entire packs were eliminated in 2009 and Wildlife Services is still out gunning for them. 

Yellowstone wolves, already isolated, suffered a 27% decline by the end of 2008, their numbers dropping from 171 to 124 wolves, with high pup mortality.  For the first time since their reintroduction, their numbers did not rebound the following year.  It didn’t help that Montana opened their misguided wolf hunt right outside of Yellowstone, decimating the famous and studied Cottonwood Pack.

 Will Yellowstone’s wolves deteriorate on their “island”?   “Hunting in key dispersal corridors could disrupt the ability for wolves to move around, colonize new areas and breed with other wolves.”

With the loss of such a large gene pool will this further fragment their population?  It’s anyone’s guess because wolves have been reduced to numbers. They are relentlessly, tracked, darted, collared and killed, packs destroyed, the numbers reported BUT I have yet to read one scientific study on what all this wolf killing has done to the Northern Rockies gray wolf?  With their diminshed numbers will they be plagued by inbreeding, as has happened to the Isle Royale wolves, their tiny population isolated, suffering from spinal deformities.

“Scientists found that 58 percent of the wolves on Isle Royale exhibit a congenital malformation that can cause full or partial paralysis of the rear legs and tail”

Is this the future of the Northern Rockies wolf population? 

============

Isle Royale Wolves’ Inbreeding Spells Caution for Northern Rockies Wolves

The gray wolves of Isle Royale in Lake Superior are suffering from backbone malformations caused by genetic inbreeding, wildlife biologists from Michigan and Sweden report in the May 2009 issue of the journal Biological Conservation.  While this discovery threatens the long-term survival of wolves on Isle Royale, it also heightens the importance of ensuring genetic connectivity among the three subpopulations of wolves in the Northern Rockies.

http://www.ecosilly.com/2009/04/08/isle-royale-wolves%E2%80%99-inbreeding-spells-caution-for-northern-rockies-wolves/

===============

Bone Deformities Linked To Inbreeding In Isle Royale Wolves

ScienceDaily (Apr. 11, 2009) — The wolves on Isle Royale are suffering from genetically deformed bones. Scientists from Michigan Technological University blame the extreme inbreeding of the small, isolated wolf population at the island National Park in northern Lake Superior.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090402171440.htm

Posted in:  Wolf Wars, graywolf/canis lupus

Tags: wolf inbreeding,   wolves in the crossfire, genetic diversity,  ken salazar delists wolves, Wildlife Services

The Birth of Lily’s Black Bear Cub – Jan. 22, 2010

This is a wolf blog but I thought this was such an amazing video of Lily the black bear giving birth to her little cub, I wanted to post it.  A chance to see life brought into this world.  Enjoy and listen for the little bear cub crying.  Beautiful.

From The Buzz Log:

Lily the bear gives birth
“The Minnesota black bear is the subject of a research study — and fascination on the Web. Lily may live in a cave, but she’s also very much present on Facebook and Twitter. The three-year-old has been trying to hibernate — and gestate — while her daily activities were caught on tape 24/7. So when she gave birth to cub number one, the Web went wild. You can see the video, below.  Biologists who noted her contortions concluded that congratulations were in order. Although Lily is pretty private, you can hear the first sounds of her baby. Searches in the last week for “lily the bear” shot up over 1,600%. Those searching for Lily’s bundle of joy wanted to know “did lily the bear have cubs yet” and how to access the “bear cam.”

Posted in: biodiversity

Tags: Lily the black bear, black bear cub birth, bear cam

The Odd Couple….Wolves And Pronghorn Antelope

Wolves are the Pronghorn antelope’s best buddy because they control coyote populations, who prey heavily on Pronghorn fawns.  The irony is wolves rarely prey on the fawns themselves.  There is a symbiosis between wolves and the antelope.  When wolves are around the survival rate of  Pronghorn fawns goes up.  

This article, in Science Daily, was written before wolves were delisted but it shows the delicate dance between predator and prey.  Nature creates strange bedfellows.  HOWL for biodiversity!!

============

Are Wolves The Pronghorn’s Best Friend?

ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2008) — As western states debate removing the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act, a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society cautions that doing so may result in an unintended decline in another species: the pronghorn, a uniquely North American animal that resembles an African antelope.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080303145300.htm

Posted in: biodiversity, gray wolf/canislupis

Tags: Pronghorn Antelope, wolves, biodiversity

“We listened for a voice crying in the wilderness. And we heard the jubilation of wolves!” -Durwood L. Allen

Posted in: gray wolf/canis lupus

Tags: wolf howl,  Canis Lupus, stand up for wolves,

Missoulian Article Admits Wolves Kill Few Livestock…So Why No Love For Wolves?

 

A recent Missoulian article stated: 

“Wolf attacks account for only a small fraction of sheep and cattle losses in the Northern Rockies. Disease, weather and coyotes each take more”

You would think that would be the title of the article,  instead it was:

 ”Gray wolves killed 1 stock animal per day in 2009, depleting compensation program”

So after admitting wolf kills were responsible for a tiny fraction of livestock deaths. the article went on to say,

“But wolves attract particular disdain because of their viciousness – many killed animals are left uneaten – and because of historic prohibitions against hunting the predators.”

First, I take strong issue with wolves being termed vicious, a predator’s job is to kill and survive. Look at the ugly pictures of dead wolves, killed with high powered rifles to find out which predator enjoys killing!! 

Read Predatory Bureaucracy, The Extermination of Wolves and the Transformation of the West, by Michael Robinson, if you want to learn about the viciousness of man toward the wolf.

Secondly, was the reference to wolves leaving prey uneaten directed at the Dillon sheep  incident?  That story has been sensationalized and beaten into the ground. In my opinion, all the facts are not known and may never be known concerning Dillon but some of the answers may be explained here:

“Sheep and cattle, unlike their wild ungulate cousins, lack any kind of defense against wolf attacks. This mismatch can lead to the occasional slaughter, raising outcries from Western ranchers who demand greater measures to prevent wolf attacks. However, wolves only turn to livestock when their natural prey is unavailable, so these killings are infrequent. In 2008, wolves are known to have killed fewer than 200 cattle and sheep in Montana, and 100 wolves were hunted down in response.

Dogs are the only animal that definitely kills for sport, but that’s only because humans taught them to do so. When a farmer finds a few dead chickens killed during the daylight hours with no missing body parts, the neighbor’s dog is almost always the culprit.”

The Missoulian article goes on to say there is disdain for the wolf because of :

“historic prohibitions against hunting the predators” 

What?  So people hate wolves because they weren’t allowed to legally kill them?  Who is the one that enjoys killing again?

Wildlife Services blows wolves away every year for agribusiness. The SSS crowd has been in full force. There may not have been a legal wolf hunt until now but there’s been plenty of wolf killing since their reintroduction. All we have to do is look to the past to see what the future could hold for wolves.  They were exterminated in the West by the federal government working hand in hand with ranchers. The state of Montana even introduced sarcoptic mange into the wolf population in the early 1900’s to get rid of wolves. The reason wolves made it back from the brink  is because of the Endangered Species Act, passed in the 1970’s.  The protection of ESA was the single most important factor in wolf recovery. It will be their downfall if their ESA protections are not reinstated.  Wolves need help and they need good press, not constant reporting of minimal livestock depredations.  Or to be fair let’s have media coverage of every cow that’s stolen or dies giving birth.  Sound ridiculous?  It is.  Just as the wolf coverage has been ridiculous and unfair.

Since wolves kill so few livestock, why does the media continue to report wolf depredations like it’s big news?  What’s behind this obsession?  It only feeds into myths and stereotypes about wolves.  Lets look at the facts:

“The governments own figures again show that mammalian carnivores kill very few livestock (0.18%)  Of the 104.5 million cattle that were produced in 2005, 190,000 (or 0.18%) died as the result of predation from coyotes, domestic dogs, and other carnivores (USDA, 2006). In comparison, livestock producers lost 3.9 million head of cattle (3.69%) to all sorts of maladies, weather, or theft, respiratory problems, digestive problems, calving, unknown, other, disease, lameness, metabolic problems, poison (USDA, 2006)

Coyotes were the primary cattle predators — they killed 97,000 cattle in 2005, followed by domestic dogs — which killed 21,900 cattle. Wolves killed remarkably few cattle, 4,400 head, as did the felids (USDA, 2006)” 

Yet the drumbeat of media coverage on wolf  kills seems to have no end. Here’s a tiny sampling of headlines from different news outlets. From the headlines it looks as if wolves are on a livestock killing spree. That is simply not true,  as the Missoulian article admits.

========

Kill order placed on Ore. wolves killing livestock

September 01, 2009

======

Wildlife agencies kill 19 wolves in three days

Wolves Killed as Tensions Rise

12-17-08

======

Wolf Pack Killed near McCall, Idaho

July 22, 2004

=======

Idaho’s Whitehawk wolf pack killed

September 01, 2009

=======

Feds OK killing of wolf pack

March 5, 2004

=======

Feds kill 7 wolves in Stanley Basin

December 5, 2009

========

I’d like to see the numbers of cattle and sheep losses from other causes, specifically disease, weather, theft, reproductive issues even altitude sickness.  It will show the majority of cattle die from causes unrelated to predation, over ninety percent. So why no love for the wolf, when wolves show remarkable restraint when it comes to livestock?  Why aren’t ranchers complaining about livestock losses from other causes?  

Well for one thing, ranchers aren’t compensated for losing cows or sheep to lightening.  That’s why I don’t believe in paying rancher’s for wolf kills.  They aren’t compensated for coyote kills or losses from calving or disease. I suppose the idea of paying ranchers for wolf kills is thought to increase their tolerance of wolves. Well, how’s that policy working out?  Not very well because paying ranchers for wolf kills only gives them a vested interest in reporting them.  It also increases scrutiny of wolves.  We have entire state and federal programs dedicated to hounding wolves as if they’re deadly criminals or terrirosts.  They are darted, collared, tracked, trapped and gunned from helicopters.  All a wolf has to do is look at a cow sideways and ranchers will be on the phone to the state game agencies, looking for a kill permit (shoot on site) or getting Wildlife Services involved to kill wolves, sometimes entire packs. This is happening now in Montana with kill orders out on the Miner’s Lake Pack, The Battlefield Pack, The Mitchell Mountain Pack, The Elevation Pack and Horse Prairie Pack.

500 wolves died in the Northern Rockies in 2009 and almost 300 of them were killed for livestock depredation.  Eight Montana wolves have already been killed for livestock in 2010 and the new year is barely over two  weeks old. 

Making wolves out to be the bad guys is an old tactic that’s worked for hundreds of years. It caused their extermination in the West the first time. Wolves are predators, just like the grizzly or mountain lion. It doesn’t make them bad. It doesn’t make them viscious. Wolf kills provide food for other predators and scavengers, especially in winter. Grizzlies feed on wolf kills, so do coyotes, foxes, ravens and eagles. Wolves provide for others by providing for themselves.

Wolves also influence their surroundings in a positive way. After they were exterminated in a VISCIOUS campaign in the West, elk and other ungulates overbrowsed the landscape, stunting willow and ash. The trees could never make it past a few feet before they were grazed down.  Years after wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995, scientists discovered something amazing. The ash and willow trees rebounded. The elk were no longer standing around browsing, they were on high alert, after the return of canis lupus. With the ash came the beaver, songbirds and other animals. It was a rebirth. All because the wolf came home to Yellowstone.

I’d like to see more positive articles about wolves. They have many altruistic qualities people could aspire to. They mate for life, they live in large close families, they have tight social bonds, they show an exhuberance for life, they have a unique playfulness, a healthy wolf rarely attacks people. Aside from those admirable qualities wolves are also smart, smarter then dogs. A dog’s brain is 30% smaller then a wolf. Wolves solve problems, they cooperate with each other, there is order in the pack.

Wolves are the super stars in Yellowstone, even though for the first time since their reintroduction,  their population is in decline, down 33 percent.  The wolf hunt had something to do with that, since Montana opened the hunting season right outside Yellowstone’s boundary. which decimated the famous, studied Cottonwood Pack.  Still people come from all over the world to view Yellowstone wolves, which brings in 35 million annually to the GYA.  If the states would think outside the box, they’d be  promoting wolf viewing in the Northern Rockies, which has the potential to be a huge money maker, if Yellowstone is an indicator.  Instead they’re killing them.  How short-sighted and tragic. 

I challenge Western media to stop sensationalizing wolf kills. It serves no purpose but to inflame passions and cause wolves to be demonized more then they already have been.  It’s a fact, “wolf attacks account for only a small fraction of sheep and cattle losses in the Northern Rockies” By concentrating on cows and sheep it shifts the focus away from wolves welfare to wolves elimination. 

If more people cared for their families the way wolves do, it would be a better world.  Show some love for wolves!

 

Posted in:  Wolf Wars, wolf intolerence

Tags:  wolves in the crossfire, wolf myths, trophy hunting wolves, Wildlife Services,

 

 

Graphic Photo: This Is What They’re Doing To Wolves

What’s left of wolf B341.

I’m sorry to show you this photo but this is what they’re doing to wolves.  This is the ugly face of the wolf hunts. These are the mangled bones of a wolf, once beautiful, once breathing and alive, now left like garbage to rot, killed for no reason except the enjoyment of killing a magnificent animal.

This is the story of wolf B341, whose bones are pictured above:

September 1, 2009 in Central Idaho:

A beautiful three-year old wolf from Idaho’s Archery Mountain Pack, is walking through a meadow and sniffs the smell of cooked meat. The wolf comes toward a hunter’s camp where there is a barbecue (hibachi) setting on a stump next to a horse. The hunter tears out of tent, fumbles for his rifle and shoots the wolf, which has moved 100 yards away. The man, Jay Mize of Emmett, Idaho, posts a video on the internet and claims the “wulf was tryin’ to eat muh hoss”. Mize shows the dead wolf stuffed into the cargo basket of his ATV. Mize then proceeded to skin, behead and take B341 home as a “trophy” – the second wolf to be killed in Idaho’s infamous hunt. Mize was interviewed by the Idaho Statesman and his story appeared in an article written by Rocky Barker.

Trees where horse was tied and stump that hibachi was setting on.

 

The wolf was shot here, some 100 yards from the hunter’s tent. He used his ATV to haul the wolf back to camp.

 

A startled hiker finds B341’s carcass in the woods.

 

What’s left of wolf B341.

I said a prayer for wolf B341 and the over 500 wolves killed  in 2009.  Wolves are still dying!! Please share this story with everyone you know!!

How many more wolves have to be slaughtered to satisfy this blood lust?  We must have our voices heard!!  Please scroll down for contacts information!!  Stand up for wolves!! LIVE BY THESE WORDS!!

“If the wolf is to survive the wolf haters must be outnumbered. They must be outshouted, out financed, and out voted. Their narrow and biased attitude must be outweighed by an attitude based on an understanding of natural processes.” ~ L. David Mech

PHOTOS COPYRIGHT 2009 Idaho Wildwolf Images

Contacts:

=========

Department of the Interior: Secretary Ken Salazar

202-208-3100
E-Mail: feedback@ios.doi.gov
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20240

=========

Write to Carolyn Sime:

Carolyn Sime, Helena
Montana Statewide Wolf Coordinator
(406) 444-3242 (work)
(406) 461-0587 (cell)

Write to Idaho Fish and Game:

Idaho Fish and Game…click here

Jim Lukens 1-208-756-2271 IDFG Salmon Region Supervisor in Central Idaho

==========

Governor Butch Otter:

208.334.2100
http://gov.idaho.gov/WebRespond/contact_form.html

============

Write or call the Idaho Fish and Game Commissioners:

http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/about/commission/members.cfm 

==========

Write or call Idaho Fish and Game:

Headquarters Mailing Address:

P.O. Box 25
Boise, ID 83707

Headquarters Street / Walk-in Address:

600 S. Walnut
Boise, ID 83712

Telephone: (208) 334-3700
Fax: (208) 334-2148 / (208) 334-2114

=============

Write the Idaho tourism office:

http://www.visitidaho.org/contact/

===========

Write the Potato Commission:

http://contact.idahopotato.com/

=============

Write to Idaho Newspapers:

Post-Register, Idaho Falls           

www.postregister.com

Letters over the 300 word limit will be subject to editing. 
Send letters by e-mail to taulcore@postregister.com
(Note: This is the abbreviated name of the person who handles letters)

=============
Idaho State Journal

Pocatello and SE Idaho        

305 S. Arthur, Pocatello ID  83204

Press Release E-mail: pressrelease@journalnet.com
Letters to the Editor E-mail: letters@journalnet.com 

============
The Times-News       

http://www.magicvalley.com

Box 548, Twin Falls ID  83303

Phone: 733-0931
Limit letters to 400 words. Longer letters will be shortened. The Times-News reserves the right to edit all letters. 

E-mail  letters@magicvalley.com

READER’s CORNER – 600 words - has to be approved by editorial dept. * Each letter should include the writer’s signature, mailing address and telephone number. Typewritten letters are preferred, because they allow faster handling with less chance of error.
=========

Idaho Statesman

1200 N. Curtis Road Boise, Idaho 83706

Editorial@idahostatesman.com
MAILING: Rocky Barker, Environment; Pete Zimowski (?) outdoor editor P.O. Box 40 Boise, ID 83707

News (main office)  (208) 377-6449 FAX 208/377-6449

==================

Write or Call Montana Governor Brian D. Schweitzer:

Office of the Governor
Montana State Capitol Bldg.
P.O. Box 200801
Helena MT 59620-0801
(406) 444-3111, FAX (406) 444-5529

Send comments:

http://governor.mt.gov/contact/commentsform.asp

============

MONTANA NEWSPAPERS

Billings Gazette

Phone: (406) 657-1200

Toll Free: 1-800-543-2505

Postal Mail: P.O. Box 36300,

Billings, MT 59107-6300

==============

BOZEMAN DAILY CHRONICLE

(406) 587-4491

2820 W College St

Bozeman, MT

===============

The Daily InterLake

727 East Idaho, PO 7610-59904,

Kalispell MT, 59901

Tel:406-755-7000

FAX:406-752-6114

============

MISSOULIAN

PO Box 8029
Missoula, MT 59807
Newsroom: newsdesk@missoulian.com
Phone: (406) 523-5240
Toll free: 1-800-366-7186
Fax: (406) 523-5294

============= 

Bozeman Daily Chronicle

bozemandailychronicle.com

newsdesk@missoulian.com
Phone: (406) 523-5240
Toll free: 1-800-366-7186
Fax: (406) 523-5294

=============

Independant Record

HelenaIR.com

Mailing Address:

P.O. Box 4249
Helena, MT 59604

Newsroom:

irstaff@helenair.com

===========

Posted in: Wolf Wars, Montana wolf hunt, Idaho wolf hunt, wolf

Tags: wolves in the crossfire, dead wolf, Montana wolf hunt, Idaho wolf hunt, wolf hatred

For The Fallen 500….You Are Not Forgotten

Over 500 hundred wolves died in the Northern Rockies in 2009 and the killing continues. Hunted, persecuted, eliminated for livestock, we who love you won’t forget you and will continue to fight for the rights of your brothers that remain. 

For The Wolves, For The Wild Ones,

Nabeki