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recent wolf news
ATTENTION! PLEASE HELP!
23/04/10
There are only 42 mexican wolves left in the wild, with two breeding pairs. The lobos were reintroduced to the wild in the 1990s after being declared extinct between 1980 and 1987. We can prevent a second extinction by visiting www.defenders.org to find out how we can help. Please, save the lobos!
30/03/10
Sarah palin is due to host a new show about the wildlife in Alaska on the discovery channel. She is an avid hunter and a supporter of wolf hunting and is hardly a good ambassador for Alaska, wildlife enthusiasts or humanity. She is set to make up to one million dollars per episode. She needs to be stopped! Please go to... www.defenders.org/ to sign the petition! Thank you!
Lovethewolf is now on twitter! Follow us by adding lovethewolfcom to your twitter account!
Join my groups love the wolf and campaign for a permanent memorial to the last wolf killed in the UK, and my causes save the wolf from extinction! And campaign for a permanent memorial to the last wolf killed in the UK on facebook!
Please scroll down to find recent news! Thank you! :)
I source my news from the Internet and from Wolf Print magazine. (living in the united kingdom, it is hard to find wolf news any other way!) If you have any wolf news items that you would like to share with me, please contact me at welovewolvesgroup@hotmail.com. Many thanks!
26/02/09
An 18-month-old female wolf, once a member of Yellowstone National Park's Mill Creek Pack, has reached Colorado after a journey of 1,000 miles, Colorado officials said Wednesday.
The Global Positioning System satellite collar on the young wolf indicates her last known position was in Eagle County.
The last confirmed wolf in Colorado also came from Yellowstone. A young female was killed by a vehicle on Interstate 70 near Idaho Springs in June 2004.Howard Pankratz, The Denver Post
(from the Denver post website)
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9/03/09
Gray Wolf to be Removed from Endangered List
Ken Salazar, the Interior Secretary, announced late last week that he is upholding the decision to remove gray wolves in the Great Lakes and Northern Rockies from the endangered species list.
The initial decision was made by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Salazar said: "The recovery of the gray wolf throughout significant portions of its historic range is one of the great success stories of the Endangered Species Act."
Wolves elsewhere in the country remain on the endangered list. Numbers in the effected areas have risen to a combined 5,600, and Salazar concluded that President Bush's decision to remove the gray wolf from the list was justified.
(from the short news website)
23/03/09
Colorado’s lone wolf has left the state and headed back north where her quest for a mate has a better chance at success.
The latest information from the wolf’s GPS tracking collar, taken earlier this month, showed that after a brief stint in Eagle County, the female wolf had wandered into south-central Wyoming. The wolf came to Colorado after a 1,000-mile trek from Montana, north of Yellowstone National Park. Wolves were eradicated in Colorado some 70 years ago.
Biologists had predicted the wolf might head back north, where wolf populations have established themselves.
“It’s not that surprising,” said Carolyn Sime, wolf program coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, which has been tracking the wolf’s movements. “If she finds no other wolves, she may be heading back to an area where there are wolves. They’re a pack-living animal. They’re not solitary animals.”
Known as 341F (she was misidentified previously by the Colorado Division of Wildlife as 314F), the 18-month-old female was a member of the Mill Creek pack, which lives between the towns of Gardiner and Livingston. She was collared by wildlife officials as part of a research program with the University of Montana to improve wolf monitoring techniques. Biologists say she strayed from her pack in late September in search of a mate.
Satellite data detailed an epic journey through some of the West’s wildest places. She crossed Yellowstone, wandered through western Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest and headed into southeastern Idaho and northeastern Utah before ending up in northern Eagle County.
Native wolf populations in Colorado were wiped out by the late 1930s. The last record of a native wolf killed in Colorado was in 1943.
In June 2004, a radio-collared wolf from Yellowstone was found killed by a passing motorist on Interstate 70 near Idaho Springs.
Photo courtesy of Montana Fish, Wildlife and ParksWolf 341F lies under anesthesia after being fitted with a GPS tracking collar by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks workers in Montana in July. The female wolf had wandered 1,000 miles to Eagle County, but the latest tracking data showed her in Wyoming.
In 2007, video footage captured what appeared to be a wolf near Walden, in northern Colorado, but it was not wearing a radio collar. The DOW has received numerous unconfirmed reports each year of sightings of what people believe are wolves.
It’s possible other wolves have wandered into the state and may be here now, said DOW spokesman Randy Hampton, because most wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone don’t have collars that allow them to be tracked. They’re most likely solitary wanderers like this one, he said.
“We have no reason to believe that there is a pack currently in Colorado,” he said. “If a pack establishes, there are certain things you might start to see in terms of killings of deer, elk, potentially livestock. We haven’t seen that, so to our knowledge there are no packs in Colorado. Could there be other wolves in Colorado? Certainly.”
A 2004 Colorado wolf management plan allows wolves to roam freely in the state unless they come into conflict with people or livestock, but the state has no plans to reintroduce them.
The Obama administration announced earlier this month that it was upholding the Bush administration’s decision to remove the wolf from the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho, finding that the animal had adequately recovered there. It kept the wolf on the list in Wyoming, where officials faulted the state for failing to come up with a plan to adequately protect wolves.
Wolf advocates saw the Montana wolf’s arrival in Colorado as an indicator that wolves may, slowly, start to reestablish themselves here in their own.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see wolf pups in the state within five years,” said Michael Robinson, conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, which favors a Colorado recovery plan to encourage wolves’ return, including a possible reintroduction plan for remote places like the Flat Tops north of Glenwood Springs or the San Juans in southwest Colorado.
From Aspendailynews.com
29/6/09
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Statement on Status of Gray Wolves in the Western Great Lakes
-- USFWS, 06/26/2009
Service Will Provide Additional Opportunity for Public Comment
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reached a settlement agreement with plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the Service’s 2009 rule removing Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the Western Great Lakes. Under the terms of the agreement, which must still be approved by the court, the Service will provide an additional opportunity for public comment on the rule to ensure compliance with the Administrative Procedures Act.
Gray wolves in the Western Great Lakes area have exceeded recovery goals and continue to thrive under state management. However, the Service agrees with plaintiffs that additional public review and comment was required under federal law prior to making that final decision.
Upon acceptance of this agreement by the court, and while the Service gathers additional public comment, gray wolves in the Western Great Lakes area will again be protected under the Endangered Species. All restrictions and requirements in place under the Act prior to the delisting will be reinstated. In Minnesota, gray wolves will be considered threatened; elsewhere in the region, gray wolves will be designated as endangered. The Service will continue to work with states and tribes to address wolf management issues while Western Great Lakes gray wolves remain under the protection of the Act.
This settlement agreement does not affect the status of gray wolves in other parts of the United States.
The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals and commitment to public service. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.
sourced from the international wolf center website
2/07/09
I wish to express my thanks to the UK Wolf conservation trust (www.ukwolf.org) for kindly providing some pictures of their wolves for my gallery. The trust has several open days coming up, the next one is on the 19th july and you can find information for this day on the above mentioned website. Many thanks again to the UKWCT!
27/07/09
Reintroduction of Wolves Would Boost Ecology of Scottish Highlands
Yale Environment 360
The reintroduction of grey wolves in the Scottish Highlands would create a beneficial “landscape of fear” that would prevent red deer from severely overgrazing the region, according to a new study. U.S. and Australian researchers studied the beneficial ecological effects of the reintroduction of grey wolves in Yellowstone National park in the 1990s and concluded that bringing wolves back to the Highlands would be equally salutary. Scotland’s grey wolves were extirpated by hunting 250 years ago, and without fear of predators the red deer — a species of elk — have badly overgrazed the hills and valleys, leading to a sharp reduction in tree species such as Scots pine and birch. In Yellowstone, the scientists found that the return of gray wolves kept elk from overgrazing many areas, leading to the regrowth of aspens, willows, and cottonwood trees. That, in turn, has led to a resurgence in bird and beaver populations. A co-author of the paper, to be published in the journal Biological Conservation, said “we want to broaden the discussion not just to the intrinsic value of the wolves but to the ecological effects.”
Taken from the worldchanging website
18/08/09
Deeply saddenend to read whats happening in Idaho right now...
Beginning September 1st, Idaho may become host to the greatest wolf massacre since the 1930s. At this point, over 1,000 wolves may be killed for sport.
After they were nearly wiped out in the lower 48 states, wolves in Idaho were declared endangered in 1974 under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 1987 recovery plan for wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains included reintroducing them in central Idaho in 1995 and 1996. Now they have plans to once again eliminate them.
Idaho Wolf Facts (as of year end 2008)
* 846 wolves, 88 packs of which 39 are considered breeding packs. About 1,500 are found in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
* 84 wolves in 50 packs have radio collars in December 2008.
"This year, Idaho officials estimate that they will issue up to 70,000 permits to hunt wolves. In-state wolf-killing permits will cost only $11.75." (Defenders, 2009)
Defenders of Wildlife is doing everythimg they can to seek a preliminary injunction and prevent the killing. However, please consider making a call, writing a letter or making a donation to further the process. This will be a difficult fight, but it's one that we must be victorious in. We've already brought wolves to the brink of extinction once, how many times does it take to learn from our mistakes?
Taken from Idaho examiner website
please visit www.defenders.org/ to make a donation to stop this!
Thank you!
Police hunt wolf after sighting in Lothians
Published Date: 26 August 2009
POLICE are investigating a reported sighting of a wolf in West Lothian.
The animal was reportedly seen being chased through a field by a herd of cattle.
Keith McDowell said he witnessed the scene while he was walking along the edge of Polkemmet Country Park near Whitburn in West Lothian on Tuesday.
Lothian and Borders Police, who sent a team of officers to investigate, say they have alerted local farmers at locations near the country park.
Mr McDowell, 38, who is a manager at the government's Housing Access department, reported the sighting to police because so many children walk through the area.
He said: "I was just having a walk alongside the park when I saw a bit of commotion with the younger calves in the field just across from me.
"I saw something circling the cattle – but at first I thought it was only the farmers dog or perhaps a fox.
"But then the larger cattle began charging right down the field after this animal I think it had been after the calves.
"It came right through the fence onto the road – the cattle were stamping their feet and roaring around behind the gate.
"A small blue car came down the road and slowed down – if it hadn't slowed down it would have hit the animal.
"I was about 30 yards away when I realised it wasn't a fox – and it was way too big for a dog.
"It was only when I saw the size of it I knew it was a wolf.
"It was silver with a sort of black dark streak along the back and it and quite a bushy tail.
"It was either a wolf or the biggest, strangest looking Alsatian I've ever seen."
Mr McDowell was concerned after the creature escaped into the country park where families and children often to play.
He added: "When I got home the only thing on my mind that was it was definitely a wolf."
A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police confirmed that they are investigating the sighting.
He said: "One patrol car was sent out to look for the creature.
"We've also spoken to the local farmer and made him aware of the sighting."
Richard Morely, Director of the Wolves and Humans Foundation, said: "It is unusual to see wolves in the wild – but there are a number of people who claim they have seen what they believe to be wolves.
"I can tell you that to my knowledge there aren't any wolves living wild in the UK.
"But if it is a wolf it's more likely to be escaped from a private collection or a zoo."
Sourced from the international wolf center and the scotsman
15/09/09
CAN YOU HELP?
The UK Wolf conservation trust has a number of items it could do with to help with the day to day running of the trust, as well as special events. Can you help?
portable tv/dvd combi to use at shows to play the trust dvds.
mops
brushes for cleaning the kennels
display stands for publicity at shows
trestle tables
wooden signs for around the site or material to make them
small marquees for open days
if you can help. or know anybody who can, please visit www.ukwolf.org
many thanks!
WORLD ANIMAL DAY SUNDAY 4TH OCTOBER 2009-NORTH AMERICAN WOLVES
This year, world animal day is focusing on the North American wolf. The UKWCT will be having a special open day for this event (see www.ukwolf.org for more details) as, i`m sure, many other places with wolves will be. Why not join them for the day and donate to a worthy cause? :)
02/11/09
How scientists cracked puzzle of the Falklands wolf
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Monday, 2 November 2009
The origin of the mysterious Falkland Islands wolf, which was persecuted to extinction in the late 19th century, may finally have been solved – 175 years after Charles Darwin puzzled over the nature of this curious fox-like creature.
A DNA analysis of four stuffed museum specimens has revealed that the wolf did not, as previously thought, come to the Falklands as the pets of early South American natives who voyaged to the islands, but travelled there long before humans had populated the Americas.
The genetic study of tissue samples taken from the four stuffed specimens has revealed that they last shared a common ancestor more than 70,000 years ago, showing that the species must have come to the Falklands long before the end of the last ice age.
But even though the study has gone some way to clarifying the evolutionary origins of the Falklands wolf, the species still represents a great biogeographical conundrum because the Falklands have never been connected to the South American mainland and no other land mammals – not even small rodents – have managed to live there.
“It is really strange that the only native mammal on an island would be a large canid. There are no other native terrestrial mammals, not even a mouse,” said Graham Slater of the University of California, Los Angeles, whose DNA analysis of the Falklands wolf is published in the journal Current Biology.
“It’s even stranger when you consider that the Falklands are 480km [300 miles] from the South American mainland. The question is, how did they get there?”
When Darwin wrote about the wolf in 1834 during his travels on HMS Beagle, he noted how peculiar it was for such a large animal to be living on a remote archipelago. He also commented on its unusually tame nature, which led others to speculate that the animals must be the descendents of escaped pets brought to the archipelago by natives.
The wolves grow to the size of coyotes or larges foxes, but are much stockier with thick, reddish fur and short muzzles, rather like grey wolves. Little is known about their behaviour but they probably lived off nesting ground birds, seal pups, insects and other grubs.
The DNA study found that the closet living relative of the Falkland Islands wolf, Dusicyon australis, is the maned wolf, an unusually long-legged, fox-like canid that lives on the South American mainland. But they last shared a common ancestor some 6 million years ago, Dr Slater said. “Canids don’t show up in the South American fossil record until 2.5 million years ago, which means these lineages must have evolved in North America. The problem is that there are no good fossils that can be assigned to the Falklands wolf lineages in North America,” he said.
Another close relative of the Falklands wolf is likely to be a canid species, called Dusicyon avus, which lived in Patagonia but went exinct about 7,000 years ago, Dr Slater said.
The Falklands wolf quickly went extinct after Europeans arrived on the islands from the 17th century. The last wolves are believed to have been killed in the 1870s by sheep farmers.
UK independant newspaper website
20/11/2009
Idaho extends length of wolf-hunting season
November 20, 2009 | 10:22 am
A wolf watches biologists in Yellowstone National Park after being captured and fitted with a radio collar.
In what may be an effort to assure quotas are reached, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission has decided to extend the wolf-hunting season through March 31 in all zones.
This will lengthen the season in seven areas which previously had a Dec. 31 closure. Hunting was already set to end March 31 in two other zones.
Of course, if a zone limit is reached prior to March 31 that area will close to further wolf hunting.
As of this morning, the number of wolves reported killed in Idaho was 111 -- just over half of the statewide quota of 220.
Three areas have already reached the limit and have closed, and three are nearing theirs.
All other rules remain unchanged, and hunters are required to report a wolf kill within 24 hours, and must present the skull and hide to a regional office or a Fish and Game conservation officer within five days.
Also, those planning to hunt wolves after Dec. 31 must purchase a 2010 license and wolf tag.
Neighboring state Montana ended its inaugural wolf hunt about two months after opening the season, though the statewide quota was only 75 and large numbers of animals were killed during the early season back-country hunts.
-- Kelly Burgess
Sourced from the LA times blog.
24/12/09
HAPPY YULE!
i would like to wish everyone a happy and safe yule! If you`re stuck at home in the snow, why not consider donating to the many wolf charities around the world? Go to www.ukwolf.org and check out the trusts campaign to help Russian wolf cubs! Thank you!
NEWSLETTER!
I have had a request for a newsletter and will set one up if i get enough interest. If you are interested in recieving a newsletter at some point in the future, please mail me at welovewolvesgroup@hotmail.com (please place lovethewolf.com or wolves in the subject line as i get a lot of spam!) thank you!
28/02/10
Britain ponders return of the wolf and brown bear (taken from the calgary herald)
Brown bears, wolves, lynx and elk are among animals being considered for reintroduction to the British countryside.
A report for Britain's largest national park has identified 23 species of mammals, birds, amphibians and fish that once thrived in Britain and have the potential to live here again. Ecologists who wrote the draft report, said large carnivores, such as wolves, brown bears and the Eurasian lynx, could have beneficial impacts on tourism and the environment.
Campaigners have been pushing for lynx and wolves to be reintroduced because they could control deer numbers and protect forests.
Researchers said it would require at least 250 brown bears and a similar number of wolves to maintain viable populations of the animals.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
Is there a new pack of wolves at lake Chelan?
taken from winatcheeworld.com
CHELAN — They’ve had no confirmed sightings, but U.S. Forest Service biologists in Chelan think gray wolves might be living in remote areas above Lake Chelan’s north shore.
The Chelan Ranger District set out three cameras this winter to try to confirm it.
Just over the Chelan Ridge, which separates the Methow and Lake Chelan valleys, the state’s first confirmed wolf pack is being monitored.
“There could be a separate pack,” said Mallory Lenz, Chelan’s district biologist. Lenz said they’ve been getting reports since the early 1990s from hunters and outfitters who thought they saw or heard wolves.
“The outfitters that go up there have said for several years now they think there’s another pack,” she said. The areas include Miners Basin and the upper east fork of Prince Creek, she said. Both are more than halfway up the lake, across the lake and southeast of Lucerne.
The reports were basically discounted, she said. Everyone thought the animals were probably wolf-dog hybrids.
Then, after state officials confirmed in 2008 that the Lookout Pack members in the Methow Valley are pure wolf and genetically linked to wolves in British Columbia, biologists started to think those reported in the Chelan basin might also be purebred, Lenz said.
She said this winter was the first time her district has set up remote cameras for the purpose of finding wolves. A few years ago, she said, a remote camera did capture an image that could have been a wolf, but it was from the animal’s back side, and could also have been a very large dog.
Next week, Lenz will retrieve the three remote cameras and download the images to see if there’s any proof of another pack.
“I’m excited about the possibility, because it’s an indicator we have a healthy, working ecosystem out there,” she said. It’s also a unique opportunity to have wolves in an area where they’d have little impact, since there are no active livestock ranges in that area.
But this winter may not have been the best opportunity to capture proof, Lenz said. With so little snow, the deer have been ranging higher than usual, and the wolves —if there are any — would probably follow them to higher elevations where cameras are not set up.
John Rohrer, Forest Service biologist for the Methow Valley Ranger District, said the Lookout Pack has traveled over the Chelan Ridge crest, and up into the North Cascades National Park.
But it’s unlikely that the sightings in the Lake Chelan area are of the Lookout Pack. He’s been helping monitor the alpha male and female since 2008 and “They’ve never been down by Lake Chelan. They’re always up in the high country,” he said.
Residents in the Methow Valley have also been reporting what they believe is a second wolf pack, in the War Creek drainage of Twisp River. But Rohrer said feedback from radio collars shows the pack has been in that area a number of times, so it’s probable that those sightings are of the Lookout Pack.
Scott Fitkin, state Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist in Winthrop, agreed. “To what extent there are other individual wolves wandering on the landscape, or additional packs, that’s an unknown,” he said. “But War Creek is in the middle of the Lookout Pack’s range. A pack there more than likely will be the Lookout Pack,” he said.
At last count, the Lookout Pack included seven wolves — an alpha male, an alpha female, an adult pup born in 2008, and four pups born last spring
Fitkin said the pack continues to behave itself. “At least nobody’s reporting any problems,” he said.
The pack also appears to be healthy, and living longer than wolves that compete with other packs.
“The expected lifespan tends to be less than what we’re seeing on the Lookout,” Fitkin said. The adult male wolf was about 5 years old when they started monitoring the pack two years ago. “We’ve got pretty old adults. The fact that they’ve persisted this long makes it a pretty successful pack,” he said.
That may be because the habitat could support many more wolves, so there’s not as much competition for food, he said. The pack also doesn’t have to contend with “intra-species strife,” he said, and the fighting between males that can significantly reduce an individual wolf’s lifespan.
K.C. Mehaffey: 997-2512
28/03/10
British site viewers may be interested to hear that the UK Wolf conservation trust will be on countrywise tomorrow (29th march 2010) on ITV1. Tune in to learn more about the work they are doing to raise wolf awareness!
13/04/10
Taken from BBC Wales (with thanks to the UKWCT for featuring this link on their website)
A fitting tribute to the last wolf killed in Wales
news.bbc.co.uk/local/northwestwales/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8599000/8599476.stm
Please join my facebook group campaign for a permanent memorial to the last wolf killed in the UK. I would like to try and get something done in England, the welsh tribute is beautiful and fitting and exactly the sort of thing i am looking to create.
23/04/10
There are only 42 mexican wolves left in the wild, with two breeding pairs. The lobos were reintroduced to the wild in the 1990s after being declared extinct between 1980 and 1987. We can prevent a second extinction by visiting www.defenders.org to find out how we can help. Please, save the lobos!
30/03/10
Sarah palin is due to host a new show about the wildlife in Alaska on the discovery channel. She is an avid hunter and a supporter of wolf hunting and is hardly a good ambassador for Alaska, wildlife enthusiasts or humanity. She is set to make up to one million dollars per episode. She needs to be stopped! Please go to... www.defenders.org/ to sign the petition! Thank you!
Lovethewolf is now on twitter! Follow us by adding lovethewolfcom to your twitter account!
Join my groups love the wolf and campaign for a permanent memorial to the last wolf killed in the UK, and my causes save the wolf from extinction! And campaign for a permanent memorial to the last wolf killed in the UK on facebook!
Please scroll down to find recent news! Thank you! :)
I source my news from the Internet and from Wolf Print magazine. (living in the united kingdom, it is hard to find wolf news any other way!) If you have any wolf news items that you would like to share with me, please contact me at welovewolvesgroup@hotmail.com. Many thanks!
26/02/09
An 18-month-old female wolf, once a member of Yellowstone National Park's Mill Creek Pack, has reached Colorado after a journey of 1,000 miles, Colorado officials said Wednesday.
The Global Positioning System satellite collar on the young wolf indicates her last known position was in Eagle County.
The last confirmed wolf in Colorado also came from Yellowstone. A young female was killed by a vehicle on Interstate 70 near Idaho Springs in June 2004.Howard Pankratz, The Denver Post
(from the Denver post website)
9/03/09
Gray Wolf to be Removed from Endangered List
Ken Salazar, the Interior Secretary, announced late last week that he is upholding the decision to remove gray wolves in the Great Lakes and Northern Rockies from the endangered species list.
The initial decision was made by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Salazar said: "The recovery of the gray wolf throughout significant portions of its historic range is one of the great success stories of the Endangered Species Act."
Wolves elsewhere in the country remain on the endangered list. Numbers in the effected areas have risen to a combined 5,600, and Salazar concluded that President Bush's decision to remove the gray wolf from the list was justified.
(from the short news website)
23/03/09
Colorado’s lone wolf has left the state and headed back north where her quest for a mate has a better chance at success.
The latest information from the wolf’s GPS tracking collar, taken earlier this month, showed that after a brief stint in Eagle County, the female wolf had wandered into south-central Wyoming. The wolf came to Colorado after a 1,000-mile trek from Montana, north of Yellowstone National Park. Wolves were eradicated in Colorado some 70 years ago.
Biologists had predicted the wolf might head back north, where wolf populations have established themselves.
“It’s not that surprising,” said Carolyn Sime, wolf program coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, which has been tracking the wolf’s movements. “If she finds no other wolves, she may be heading back to an area where there are wolves. They’re a pack-living animal. They’re not solitary animals.”
Known as 341F (she was misidentified previously by the Colorado Division of Wildlife as 314F), the 18-month-old female was a member of the Mill Creek pack, which lives between the towns of Gardiner and Livingston. She was collared by wildlife officials as part of a research program with the University of Montana to improve wolf monitoring techniques. Biologists say she strayed from her pack in late September in search of a mate.
Satellite data detailed an epic journey through some of the West’s wildest places. She crossed Yellowstone, wandered through western Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest and headed into southeastern Idaho and northeastern Utah before ending up in northern Eagle County.
Native wolf populations in Colorado were wiped out by the late 1930s. The last record of a native wolf killed in Colorado was in 1943.
In June 2004, a radio-collared wolf from Yellowstone was found killed by a passing motorist on Interstate 70 near Idaho Springs.
Photo courtesy of Montana Fish, Wildlife and ParksWolf 341F lies under anesthesia after being fitted with a GPS tracking collar by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks workers in Montana in July. The female wolf had wandered 1,000 miles to Eagle County, but the latest tracking data showed her in Wyoming.
In 2007, video footage captured what appeared to be a wolf near Walden, in northern Colorado, but it was not wearing a radio collar. The DOW has received numerous unconfirmed reports each year of sightings of what people believe are wolves.
It’s possible other wolves have wandered into the state and may be here now, said DOW spokesman Randy Hampton, because most wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone don’t have collars that allow them to be tracked. They’re most likely solitary wanderers like this one, he said.
“We have no reason to believe that there is a pack currently in Colorado,” he said. “If a pack establishes, there are certain things you might start to see in terms of killings of deer, elk, potentially livestock. We haven’t seen that, so to our knowledge there are no packs in Colorado. Could there be other wolves in Colorado? Certainly.”
A 2004 Colorado wolf management plan allows wolves to roam freely in the state unless they come into conflict with people or livestock, but the state has no plans to reintroduce them.
The Obama administration announced earlier this month that it was upholding the Bush administration’s decision to remove the wolf from the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho, finding that the animal had adequately recovered there. It kept the wolf on the list in Wyoming, where officials faulted the state for failing to come up with a plan to adequately protect wolves.
Wolf advocates saw the Montana wolf’s arrival in Colorado as an indicator that wolves may, slowly, start to reestablish themselves here in their own.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see wolf pups in the state within five years,” said Michael Robinson, conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, which favors a Colorado recovery plan to encourage wolves’ return, including a possible reintroduction plan for remote places like the Flat Tops north of Glenwood Springs or the San Juans in southwest Colorado.
From Aspendailynews.com
29/6/09
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Statement on Status of Gray Wolves in the Western Great Lakes
-- USFWS, 06/26/2009
Service Will Provide Additional Opportunity for Public Comment
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reached a settlement agreement with plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the Service’s 2009 rule removing Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the Western Great Lakes. Under the terms of the agreement, which must still be approved by the court, the Service will provide an additional opportunity for public comment on the rule to ensure compliance with the Administrative Procedures Act.
Gray wolves in the Western Great Lakes area have exceeded recovery goals and continue to thrive under state management. However, the Service agrees with plaintiffs that additional public review and comment was required under federal law prior to making that final decision.
Upon acceptance of this agreement by the court, and while the Service gathers additional public comment, gray wolves in the Western Great Lakes area will again be protected under the Endangered Species. All restrictions and requirements in place under the Act prior to the delisting will be reinstated. In Minnesota, gray wolves will be considered threatened; elsewhere in the region, gray wolves will be designated as endangered. The Service will continue to work with states and tribes to address wolf management issues while Western Great Lakes gray wolves remain under the protection of the Act.
This settlement agreement does not affect the status of gray wolves in other parts of the United States.
The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals and commitment to public service. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.
sourced from the international wolf center website
2/07/09
I wish to express my thanks to the UK Wolf conservation trust (www.ukwolf.org) for kindly providing some pictures of their wolves for my gallery. The trust has several open days coming up, the next one is on the 19th july and you can find information for this day on the above mentioned website. Many thanks again to the UKWCT!
27/07/09
Reintroduction of Wolves Would Boost Ecology of Scottish Highlands
Yale Environment 360
The reintroduction of grey wolves in the Scottish Highlands would create a beneficial “landscape of fear” that would prevent red deer from severely overgrazing the region, according to a new study. U.S. and Australian researchers studied the beneficial ecological effects of the reintroduction of grey wolves in Yellowstone National park in the 1990s and concluded that bringing wolves back to the Highlands would be equally salutary. Scotland’s grey wolves were extirpated by hunting 250 years ago, and without fear of predators the red deer — a species of elk — have badly overgrazed the hills and valleys, leading to a sharp reduction in tree species such as Scots pine and birch. In Yellowstone, the scientists found that the return of gray wolves kept elk from overgrazing many areas, leading to the regrowth of aspens, willows, and cottonwood trees. That, in turn, has led to a resurgence in bird and beaver populations. A co-author of the paper, to be published in the journal Biological Conservation, said “we want to broaden the discussion not just to the intrinsic value of the wolves but to the ecological effects.”
Taken from the worldchanging website
18/08/09
Deeply saddenend to read whats happening in Idaho right now...
Beginning September 1st, Idaho may become host to the greatest wolf massacre since the 1930s. At this point, over 1,000 wolves may be killed for sport.
After they were nearly wiped out in the lower 48 states, wolves in Idaho were declared endangered in 1974 under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 1987 recovery plan for wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains included reintroducing them in central Idaho in 1995 and 1996. Now they have plans to once again eliminate them.
Idaho Wolf Facts (as of year end 2008)
* 846 wolves, 88 packs of which 39 are considered breeding packs. About 1,500 are found in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
* 84 wolves in 50 packs have radio collars in December 2008.
"This year, Idaho officials estimate that they will issue up to 70,000 permits to hunt wolves. In-state wolf-killing permits will cost only $11.75." (Defenders, 2009)
Defenders of Wildlife is doing everythimg they can to seek a preliminary injunction and prevent the killing. However, please consider making a call, writing a letter or making a donation to further the process. This will be a difficult fight, but it's one that we must be victorious in. We've already brought wolves to the brink of extinction once, how many times does it take to learn from our mistakes?
Taken from Idaho examiner website
please visit www.defenders.org/ to make a donation to stop this!
Thank you!
Police hunt wolf after sighting in Lothians
Published Date: 26 August 2009
POLICE are investigating a reported sighting of a wolf in West Lothian.
The animal was reportedly seen being chased through a field by a herd of cattle.
Keith McDowell said he witnessed the scene while he was walking along the edge of Polkemmet Country Park near Whitburn in West Lothian on Tuesday.
Lothian and Borders Police, who sent a team of officers to investigate, say they have alerted local farmers at locations near the country park.
Mr McDowell, 38, who is a manager at the government's Housing Access department, reported the sighting to police because so many children walk through the area.
He said: "I was just having a walk alongside the park when I saw a bit of commotion with the younger calves in the field just across from me.
"I saw something circling the cattle – but at first I thought it was only the farmers dog or perhaps a fox.
"But then the larger cattle began charging right down the field after this animal I think it had been after the calves.
"It came right through the fence onto the road – the cattle were stamping their feet and roaring around behind the gate.
"A small blue car came down the road and slowed down – if it hadn't slowed down it would have hit the animal.
"I was about 30 yards away when I realised it wasn't a fox – and it was way too big for a dog.
"It was only when I saw the size of it I knew it was a wolf.
"It was silver with a sort of black dark streak along the back and it and quite a bushy tail.
"It was either a wolf or the biggest, strangest looking Alsatian I've ever seen."
Mr McDowell was concerned after the creature escaped into the country park where families and children often to play.
He added: "When I got home the only thing on my mind that was it was definitely a wolf."
A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police confirmed that they are investigating the sighting.
He said: "One patrol car was sent out to look for the creature.
"We've also spoken to the local farmer and made him aware of the sighting."
Richard Morely, Director of the Wolves and Humans Foundation, said: "It is unusual to see wolves in the wild – but there are a number of people who claim they have seen what they believe to be wolves.
"I can tell you that to my knowledge there aren't any wolves living wild in the UK.
"But if it is a wolf it's more likely to be escaped from a private collection or a zoo."
Sourced from the international wolf center and the scotsman
15/09/09
CAN YOU HELP?
The UK Wolf conservation trust has a number of items it could do with to help with the day to day running of the trust, as well as special events. Can you help?
portable tv/dvd combi to use at shows to play the trust dvds.
mops
brushes for cleaning the kennels
display stands for publicity at shows
trestle tables
wooden signs for around the site or material to make them
small marquees for open days
if you can help. or know anybody who can, please visit www.ukwolf.org
many thanks!
WORLD ANIMAL DAY SUNDAY 4TH OCTOBER 2009-NORTH AMERICAN WOLVES
This year, world animal day is focusing on the North American wolf. The UKWCT will be having a special open day for this event (see www.ukwolf.org for more details) as, i`m sure, many other places with wolves will be. Why not join them for the day and donate to a worthy cause? :)
02/11/09
How scientists cracked puzzle of the Falklands wolf
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Monday, 2 November 2009
The origin of the mysterious Falkland Islands wolf, which was persecuted to extinction in the late 19th century, may finally have been solved – 175 years after Charles Darwin puzzled over the nature of this curious fox-like creature.
A DNA analysis of four stuffed museum specimens has revealed that the wolf did not, as previously thought, come to the Falklands as the pets of early South American natives who voyaged to the islands, but travelled there long before humans had populated the Americas.
The genetic study of tissue samples taken from the four stuffed specimens has revealed that they last shared a common ancestor more than 70,000 years ago, showing that the species must have come to the Falklands long before the end of the last ice age.
But even though the study has gone some way to clarifying the evolutionary origins of the Falklands wolf, the species still represents a great biogeographical conundrum because the Falklands have never been connected to the South American mainland and no other land mammals – not even small rodents – have managed to live there.
“It is really strange that the only native mammal on an island would be a large canid. There are no other native terrestrial mammals, not even a mouse,” said Graham Slater of the University of California, Los Angeles, whose DNA analysis of the Falklands wolf is published in the journal Current Biology.
“It’s even stranger when you consider that the Falklands are 480km [300 miles] from the South American mainland. The question is, how did they get there?”
When Darwin wrote about the wolf in 1834 during his travels on HMS Beagle, he noted how peculiar it was for such a large animal to be living on a remote archipelago. He also commented on its unusually tame nature, which led others to speculate that the animals must be the descendents of escaped pets brought to the archipelago by natives.
The wolves grow to the size of coyotes or larges foxes, but are much stockier with thick, reddish fur and short muzzles, rather like grey wolves. Little is known about their behaviour but they probably lived off nesting ground birds, seal pups, insects and other grubs.
The DNA study found that the closet living relative of the Falkland Islands wolf, Dusicyon australis, is the maned wolf, an unusually long-legged, fox-like canid that lives on the South American mainland. But they last shared a common ancestor some 6 million years ago, Dr Slater said. “Canids don’t show up in the South American fossil record until 2.5 million years ago, which means these lineages must have evolved in North America. The problem is that there are no good fossils that can be assigned to the Falklands wolf lineages in North America,” he said.
Another close relative of the Falklands wolf is likely to be a canid species, called Dusicyon avus, which lived in Patagonia but went exinct about 7,000 years ago, Dr Slater said.
The Falklands wolf quickly went extinct after Europeans arrived on the islands from the 17th century. The last wolves are believed to have been killed in the 1870s by sheep farmers.
UK independant newspaper website
20/11/2009
Idaho extends length of wolf-hunting season
November 20, 2009 | 10:22 am
A wolf watches biologists in Yellowstone National Park after being captured and fitted with a radio collar.
In what may be an effort to assure quotas are reached, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission has decided to extend the wolf-hunting season through March 31 in all zones.
This will lengthen the season in seven areas which previously had a Dec. 31 closure. Hunting was already set to end March 31 in two other zones.
Of course, if a zone limit is reached prior to March 31 that area will close to further wolf hunting.
As of this morning, the number of wolves reported killed in Idaho was 111 -- just over half of the statewide quota of 220.
Three areas have already reached the limit and have closed, and three are nearing theirs.
All other rules remain unchanged, and hunters are required to report a wolf kill within 24 hours, and must present the skull and hide to a regional office or a Fish and Game conservation officer within five days.
Also, those planning to hunt wolves after Dec. 31 must purchase a 2010 license and wolf tag.
Neighboring state Montana ended its inaugural wolf hunt about two months after opening the season, though the statewide quota was only 75 and large numbers of animals were killed during the early season back-country hunts.
-- Kelly Burgess
Sourced from the LA times blog.
24/12/09
HAPPY YULE!
i would like to wish everyone a happy and safe yule! If you`re stuck at home in the snow, why not consider donating to the many wolf charities around the world? Go to www.ukwolf.org and check out the trusts campaign to help Russian wolf cubs! Thank you!
NEWSLETTER!
I have had a request for a newsletter and will set one up if i get enough interest. If you are interested in recieving a newsletter at some point in the future, please mail me at welovewolvesgroup@hotmail.com (please place lovethewolf.com or wolves in the subject line as i get a lot of spam!) thank you!
28/02/10
Britain ponders return of the wolf and brown bear (taken from the calgary herald)
Brown bears, wolves, lynx and elk are among animals being considered for reintroduction to the British countryside.
A report for Britain's largest national park has identified 23 species of mammals, birds, amphibians and fish that once thrived in Britain and have the potential to live here again. Ecologists who wrote the draft report, said large carnivores, such as wolves, brown bears and the Eurasian lynx, could have beneficial impacts on tourism and the environment.
Campaigners have been pushing for lynx and wolves to be reintroduced because they could control deer numbers and protect forests.
Researchers said it would require at least 250 brown bears and a similar number of wolves to maintain viable populations of the animals.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
Is there a new pack of wolves at lake Chelan?
taken from winatcheeworld.com
CHELAN — They’ve had no confirmed sightings, but U.S. Forest Service biologists in Chelan think gray wolves might be living in remote areas above Lake Chelan’s north shore.
The Chelan Ranger District set out three cameras this winter to try to confirm it.
Just over the Chelan Ridge, which separates the Methow and Lake Chelan valleys, the state’s first confirmed wolf pack is being monitored.
“There could be a separate pack,” said Mallory Lenz, Chelan’s district biologist. Lenz said they’ve been getting reports since the early 1990s from hunters and outfitters who thought they saw or heard wolves.
“The outfitters that go up there have said for several years now they think there’s another pack,” she said. The areas include Miners Basin and the upper east fork of Prince Creek, she said. Both are more than halfway up the lake, across the lake and southeast of Lucerne.
The reports were basically discounted, she said. Everyone thought the animals were probably wolf-dog hybrids.
Then, after state officials confirmed in 2008 that the Lookout Pack members in the Methow Valley are pure wolf and genetically linked to wolves in British Columbia, biologists started to think those reported in the Chelan basin might also be purebred, Lenz said.
She said this winter was the first time her district has set up remote cameras for the purpose of finding wolves. A few years ago, she said, a remote camera did capture an image that could have been a wolf, but it was from the animal’s back side, and could also have been a very large dog.
Next week, Lenz will retrieve the three remote cameras and download the images to see if there’s any proof of another pack.
“I’m excited about the possibility, because it’s an indicator we have a healthy, working ecosystem out there,” she said. It’s also a unique opportunity to have wolves in an area where they’d have little impact, since there are no active livestock ranges in that area.
But this winter may not have been the best opportunity to capture proof, Lenz said. With so little snow, the deer have been ranging higher than usual, and the wolves —if there are any — would probably follow them to higher elevations where cameras are not set up.
John Rohrer, Forest Service biologist for the Methow Valley Ranger District, said the Lookout Pack has traveled over the Chelan Ridge crest, and up into the North Cascades National Park.
But it’s unlikely that the sightings in the Lake Chelan area are of the Lookout Pack. He’s been helping monitor the alpha male and female since 2008 and “They’ve never been down by Lake Chelan. They’re always up in the high country,” he said.
Residents in the Methow Valley have also been reporting what they believe is a second wolf pack, in the War Creek drainage of Twisp River. But Rohrer said feedback from radio collars shows the pack has been in that area a number of times, so it’s probable that those sightings are of the Lookout Pack.
Scott Fitkin, state Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist in Winthrop, agreed. “To what extent there are other individual wolves wandering on the landscape, or additional packs, that’s an unknown,” he said. “But War Creek is in the middle of the Lookout Pack’s range. A pack there more than likely will be the Lookout Pack,” he said.
At last count, the Lookout Pack included seven wolves — an alpha male, an alpha female, an adult pup born in 2008, and four pups born last spring
Fitkin said the pack continues to behave itself. “At least nobody’s reporting any problems,” he said.
The pack also appears to be healthy, and living longer than wolves that compete with other packs.
“The expected lifespan tends to be less than what we’re seeing on the Lookout,” Fitkin said. The adult male wolf was about 5 years old when they started monitoring the pack two years ago. “We’ve got pretty old adults. The fact that they’ve persisted this long makes it a pretty successful pack,” he said.
That may be because the habitat could support many more wolves, so there’s not as much competition for food, he said. The pack also doesn’t have to contend with “intra-species strife,” he said, and the fighting between males that can significantly reduce an individual wolf’s lifespan.
K.C. Mehaffey: 997-2512
28/03/10
British site viewers may be interested to hear that the UK Wolf conservation trust will be on countrywise tomorrow (29th march 2010) on ITV1. Tune in to learn more about the work they are doing to raise wolf awareness!
13/04/10
Taken from BBC Wales (with thanks to the UKWCT for featuring this link on their website)
A fitting tribute to the last wolf killed in Wales
news.bbc.co.uk/local/northwestwales/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8599000/8599476.stm
Please join my facebook group campaign for a permanent memorial to the last wolf killed in the UK. I would like to try and get something done in England, the welsh tribute is beautiful and fitting and exactly the sort of thing i am looking to create.