Gray wolves, once nearly extinct, could be coming back to Colorado

Conservationists are applauding a ballot measure to reintroduce the gray wolf to the state. But ranchers and hunters are putting up a fight

Josiah Hesse

Thu 23 Jan 2020 11.00 GMTLast modified on Thu 23 Jan 2020 11.02 GMT


The gray wolf, once numbering in the tens of thousands throughout North America, have faced public vilification and extermination programs that drove it to near extinction in the US. Now Colorado will vote on whether to reintroduce them into the wild after an 80-year absence, thanks to an effort that has cattle ranchers outraged but which conservationists say could restore an ecosystem that has long suffered without the apex predator.

The species was systematically exterminated by controversial, US government-backed programs in the 19th and 20th centuries. This was primarily due to wolves’ attacks on the cattle, a booming industry that has been integral to the expanding west economy. By 1940, wolves were almost completely gone.

Their inclusion on the 1973 Endangered Species Act, along with a 1995 effort to build a home for them in Yellowstone national park, has helped bring their numbers back up to 5,500 in the lower 48 states.

This year, a ballot measure in Colorado will let voters decide whether a home should be built for the gray wolf in the state. Polling indicates the measure is likely to pass, though segments of both the ranching and hunting communities are strongly opposed.

Conservationists argue that eradication of wolves threw the ecology of the Rocky Mountains into disarray, with elk and deer excessively grazing in open lands where they otherwise would have been targets for wolves, created a domino effect that has harmed a variety of species.

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Gray wolf arrives at New Mexico zoo for recovery program

December 27, 2018

This Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018, photo shows a Mexican gray wolf that is introduced at the ABQ BioPark in Albuquerque, N.M. The Albuquerque zoo said Thursday, Dec. 27, 2018, it received the wolf earlier this month from the Binder Zoo in …more

Albuquerque's zoo has received another Mexican gray wolf as part of an international recovery effort that includes breeding the endangered animals in captivity to ensure their genetic viability.

The ABQ BioPark said Thursday it received the wolf earlier this month from the Binder Zoo in Michigan. The animal will be a mate for a 4-year-old female wolf already at the Albuquerque zoo.

The transfer stemmed from a coordinated effort by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Mexican Wolf Recovery Program, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan, and the zoos holding Mexican wolves.

The wild population in Arizona and New Mexico has struggled to gain significant ground since the first release in 1998. About 114 wolves are believed to be roaming the two states.

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Should the gray wolf keep its endangered species protection?

New genomic research provides the scientific answer

Date: July 27, 2016

Source: University of California - Los Angeles

Research by UCLA biologists published today in the journal Science Advances presents strong evidence that the scientific reason advanced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act is incorrect.

A key justification for protection of the gray wolf under the act was that its geographic range included the Great Lakes region and 29 Eastern states, as well as much of North America. The Fish and Wildlife Service published a document in 2014 which asserted that a newly recognized species called the eastern wolf occupied the Great Lakes region and eastern states, not the gray wolf. 

Therefore, the original listing under the act was invalid, and the service recommended that the species (except for the Mexican gray wolf, which is the most endangered gray wolf in North America) should be removed from protection under the act.

A decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act may be made as early as this fall.

In the new study, biologists analyzed the complete genomes of North American wolves -- including the gray wolf, eastern wolf and red wolf -- and coyotes. The researchers found that both the red wolf and eastern wolf are not distinct species, but instead are mixes of gray wolf and coyote.

Read more … 

New Golden Jackal species discovered

The Golden Jackal (Canis aureus) in Tanzania, Africa

For the first time in 150 years a new canid species has been discovered in Africa, by scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

The Golden Jackal of Africa (Canis aureus) has long been considered the same species as the Golden Jackals distributed throughout Eurasia, with the nearest source populations in the Middle East.

However, recent research indicates that they are actually two different species and that some African Golden Jackals aligned more closely to Gray Wolves (Canis lupus).

This is surprising given the absence of Gray Wolves in Africa and the phenotypic divergence between the two species.

The DNA results of the study provide consistent and robust evidence that populations of Golden Jackals from Africa and Eurasia should be recognised as two separate and distinct species, and it has been suggested that the Eurasian species should be named Eurasian Golden Jackal.

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First gray wolf seen at Grand Canyon in 70 years killed by Utah hunter- UPDATE

Echo, who was spotted near the north rim of the famous Arizona landmark in 2014, was shot by a man who said he mistook her for a coyote

Wednesday 11 February 2015 22.25 GMT

A gray wolf killed last year by a Utah hunter was “Echo”, a female that had garnered international attention after roaming from Wyoming to become the first of the protected animals seen at the Grand Canyon in Arizona in 70 years, US wildlife managers said on Wednesday.

News that the lone wolf spotted last fall near the north rim of the Grand Canyon was the same animal later killed in Utah by a hunter who said he mistook it for a coyote ignited outrage among wildlife advocates.

“It’s tragic that Echo traveled over 500 miles (800km) only to be cut down by an incredibly irresponsible coyote hunter,” said Bethany Cotton, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians.

Authorities have not released the name of the coyote hunter, who in December reported to Utah wildlife officers that he had accidentally shot and killed a radio-collared wolf near the border with Arizona.

It is illegal to kill wolves without a special permit in the lower 48 states, where most wolves are protected under the US Endangered Species Act. Wolves in just two states – Idaho and Montana – are not on a federal list of endangered and threatened species and can be legally hunted.

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Grand Canyon Gray Wolf May Have Been Shot in Utah

by Megan Gannon, News Editor | December 30, 2014 12:40pm ET

After a 500-mile (800 kilometers) trek across the West, a lone wolf's journey may have come to an end this weekend.

A coyote hunter in Utah mistakenly shot and killed an endangered gray wolf, which wildlife groups worry was the same wolf photographed near the Grand Canyon this fall. That animal had strayed from its pack in the northern Rockies and was the first of its species to roam Arizona in 70 years.

The slain wolf, which was wearing a radio collar, was shot near the south end of the Tushar Mountains near Beaver, Utah, on Sunday (Dec. 28), the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) said in a statement.

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Judge rules to keep gray wolves on endangered species list

Order affects wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin after US Fish and Wildlife Service dropped federal protections from those animals in 2012

Associated Press in Traverse City, Michigan

Friday 19 December 2014 22.24 GMT

A federal judge on Friday threw out an Obama administration decision to remove the gray wolf population in the western Great Lakes region from the endangered species list – a decision that will ban further wolf hunting and trapping in three states.

The order affects wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The US Fish andWildlife Service dropped federal protections from those wolves in 2012 and handed over management to the states.

US District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, DC, ruled Friday the removal was “arbitrary and capricious” and violated the federal Endangered Species Act.

Unless overturned, his decision will prohibit further wolf hunting and trapping in the three states, all of which have had at least one hunting season since protections were removed. More than 1,500 Great Lakes wolves have been killed since federal protections were removed, said Jonathan Lovvorn, senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States. The group filed a lawsuit that prompted Howell’s ruling.

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Lone Wolf May Be Roaming Grand Canyon National Park

Lone Wolf May Be Roaming Grand Canyon National Park

by Megan Gannon, News Editor | October 31, 2014 02:26pm ET

Representatives with the Center for Biological Diversity say this is a picture of the wolf that has been seen around the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Credit: Courtesy of the Center for Biological Diversity

A wayward gray wolf has been spotted several times this month around the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, according to conservationists.

The wolf, which is wearing an inactive radio collar, could be the first of its species to roam Arizona in 70 years; gray wolves were exterminated from the state in the 1940s.

Federal authorities are investigating the sightings. Representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said they are trying to confirm whether the animal is actually a wolf or a "wolf-dog hybrid" by collecting a feces sample. 

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Unsettled Science Behind Proposal to Lift Gray Wolf Protections, Panel Says

By Megan Gannon, News Editor | February 07, 2014 04:07pm ET

The drawn-out battle over the fate of gray wolves in the United States continues.

An independent panel of experts said Friday (Feb. 7) there is wide disagreement about some of the science the Fish and Wildlife Service used to make its case for ousting gray wolves from the Endangered Species list. The review could hinder the FWS proposal to lift federal protections for the animals throughout much of the United States.

"It was a very clean process and we got a unanimous result," said Steven Courtney, one of the scientists charged with setting up the independent panel at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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On 40th Anniversary of US ESA, as Conservationists Celebrate it’s Successes-- Meet the Wolf Haters - via Herp Digest

By LAWRENCE DOWNES, Editorial New York Times, 12/29/13

The federal government removed the gray wolf from the endangered list in the Northern Rocky Mountains in 2011, essentially leaving wolves’ fates in the hands of state fish-and-game departments, hunters and ranchers. The predictable happened: hunting resumed, and the wolf population fell. In states like Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, an age-old antipathy to wolves flourishes, unchecked. 

In Idaho, two recent developments have alarmed those who want to protect wolves and see them not as vermin, but as predators necessary for a healthy ecosystem.

First was the hiring, by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, of a hunter to travel into federal wilderness to eliminate two wolf packs. The reason: wolves kill elk, and humans want to hunt elk. Normally the agency would just rely on hunters to kill the wolves, but because the area where these packs roam — in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness — is remote, the agency decided it would be more efficient to bring in a hired gun. A photo last week in The Idaho Statesman showed the hunter, Gus Thoreson, astride a horse, with three pack mules, looking like a modern-day Jeremiah Johnson.

Advocates for wolves are angry at the United States Forest Service for giving a state agency free rein to practice predator eradication on protected federal land — meaning, of course, our land — without public comment or review and in apparent violation of well-established wilderness-management regulations and policies. They point out, too, that it’s not clear how many wolves are there for Mr. Thoreson to wipe out, and little evidence that wolves in that area have done any damage to elk herds or livestock.

The other example of wolf-animus will be on display this weekend outside Salmon, Idaho, at a Coyote and Wolf Derby sponsored by a group called Idaho for Wildlife. A not-too-subtle poster for the event shows a wolf with its head in the cross hairs of a rifle scope and announces $2,000 in prizes to defend “our hunting heritage” against “radical animal-rights groups.” Organizers say they want to raise awareness of the potential risk to humans from a tapeworm that wolves — as well as elks and dogs — can carry. State officials say there are no known cases of people contracting tapeworm from wolves.

Environmentalists sought a court order to block the event, saying the Forest Service violated federal law and failed to follow its own procedures in allowing the killing contest. But a judge on Friday said it could proceed. The derby’s ugly depiction of wolves as diseased predators is a throwback to the bad old days when wolves, like coyotes, were vilified and bounty-hunted nearly to extinction.

It’s a sad coincidence that this weekend is also the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, which was signed into law on Dec. 28, 1973. That act sought to enshrine sound science and wise ecosystem management over heedless slaughter and vengeful predation. Idaho is showing what a mistake it was to lift the shield from wolves too soon.

Gray Wolves May Lose Endangered Status, But Not Without a Fight

WASHINGTON — In passionate and at times tearful testimony at the U.S. Department of the Interior Monday night (Sept. 30), Americans who say they have admired, studied, defended and even kissed gray wolves offered a plea to federal officials: Don't take the animals off the endangered species list.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to lift federal protections for all gray wolves in the continental United States, except for a struggling population of a subspecies, Mexican wolves, found in the Southwest. The agency argues the threat of extinction has been eliminated; wolves' numbers have bounced back to healthy levels and have even surged beyond recovery goals.

But critics, including several biologists, say the move is premature. They are concerned that the proposal would result in more aggressive management tactics and hunting policies, and could hurt the species' chances of recolonizing other parts of their historic range. Some scientists wonder if the battle raging over wolves stems from greater confusion about how to define recovery and deal with threatened wildlife in the United States — especially species as storied and controversial as the wolf.

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Draft rule ends protections for gray wolves

Interior Department draft rule ends protections for gray wolves across Lower 48 states 

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Federal wildlife officials have drafted plans to lift protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states, a move that could end a decades-long recovery effort that has restored the animals but only in parts of their historic range. 

The draft U.S. Department of Interior rule obtained by The Associated Press contends the roughly 6,000 wolves now living in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes are enough to prevent the species' extinction. The agency says having gray wolves elsewhere — such as the West Coast, parts of New England and elsewhere in the Rockies — is unnecessary for their long-term survival. 

A small population of Mexican wolves in the Southwest would continue to receive federal protections, as a distinct subspecies of the gray wolf. 

The loss of federal protections would be welcomed by ranchers and others in the agriculture industry, whose stock at times become prey for hungry wolf packs. Yet wildlife advocates say the proposal threatens to cut short the gray wolf's dramatic recovery from widespread extermination. 

The proposal was first reported by the Los Angeles Times. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday the rule was under review and would be published in the Federal Register and opened to public comment before a final decision is made. 

If the rule is enacted, it would transfer control of wolves to state wildlife agencies by removing them from the federal list of endangered species. The government has been considering such a move since at least 2011, but previously held off given concerns among scientists and wildlife advocates who warn it could effectively halt the species' expansion. 

John Vucetich, a wolf specialist and biologist at Michigan Tech University, said suitable habitat remains in large sections of the Rockies, the nation's midsection and the Northeast. Wolves presently occupy only about 15 percent of their historical range, but that could be greatly expanded if humans allow it, he said. 

"It ends up being a political question more than a biological one," Vucetich said. "It's very unlikely the wolves will make it to places like the Dakotas and the Northeast unless the federal government provides some kind of leadership." 

Read on: http://www.newsdaily.com/article/9207be6175afdabcfcb13c480e94e518/draft-rule-ends-protections-for-gray-wolves

Washington’s fifth wolf pack confirmed

Another breeding population established

August 2011: Washington's fifth gray wolf pack has been confirmed in northeast Stevens County.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) biologists caught, tagged and then released a two-month-old wolf pup from the pack. Biologists have since been trying to capture one of the pack's breeding adult wolves to radio-collar it for monitoring. The effort to document the pack began after local ranchers reported observing three wolf pups and hearing howling in late June.

The pack is believed to include a breeding-age male and female and at least three pups. The group has been named the Smackout Pack, in reference to geographic features in the area.

'Wolves are re-establishing here on their own'
The Lookout Pack, confirmed in Okanogan and Chelan counties in 2008, was Washington's first documented resident gray wolf pack since a breeding population of wolves was extirpated from the state in the Thirties. Two more packs have been documented in Pend Oreille County - the Diamond Pack was confirmed in 2009 and the Salmo Pack a year later.

Just a couple of months ago, the state's fourth documented pack - dubbed the Teanaway Pack - was confirmed in Kittitas County. DNA analysis of that pack's adult female wolf indicated she is probably a recent descendant of the Lookout Pack.

The gray wolf is protected throughout Washington as a state endangered species. In the western two-thirds of Washington, the species is also federally protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), making it illegal to harm or harass them.

‘Wolves are re-establishing here on their own,' said Nate Pamplin, who heads WDFW's Wildlife Programme. ‘The confirmation of additional breeding wolf packs moves us closer to achieving a sustainable population, and also highlights the need to finalise a state wolf plan that sets recovery targets and management tools to address livestock and ungulate conflicts.'

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/wolves-washington.html