HELP SAVE AMERICA'S WOLVES!

We must prevail on Congress and the Obama Administration to take immediate action to defend critical protections for wolves across the Lower 48 states. Please make a tax-deductible donation to help NRDC mobilize vocal, nationwide support for wolf protection, turn back attempts to undermine the Endangered Species Act and prepare to go to court if that’s what it takes to save them. You can be sure we will defend our environment in the most effective way possible.

Climate Change Is Burning a Wolf Pack’s Last Bridge to Survival

By Taylor Hill | Takepart.com13 hours agoTakepart.com

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For the gray wolves of Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park, climate change has turned their island home from a refuge of solitude into untenable isolation. From a population of 50 at its height, the number of wolves has dropped to fewer than nine on the 206-square-mile enclave today.  

Soon the island population could go extinct, thanks to a warming world.

Isle Royale rises out of the northwest corner of Lake Superior, about 11 miles from Canada’s coastline. For its size, the island is thick with forest and teems with wildlife, especially moose.

Wolves were first spotted on Isle Royale in 1948; they were likely attracted by the moose. But how did either species get out there in the first place?

By way of ice bridges from the mainland to the island, said wildlife ecologist Rolf Peterson of Michigan Technological University. But continued burning of fossil fuels has warmed winter temperatures in the region. Ice formation on Lake Superior has decreased, and ice bridges are becoming increasingly rare.

“In the ’60s, an ice bridge would form about four out of every five years; now, it’s more like one out of every 10 years,” Peterson said.  

But during a February cold spell that nearly paved the Great Lakes in ice, two wolves made the trek from their home range in Minnesota’s Grand Portage Indian Reservation to Isle Royale. The pair were a young male and a female with a radio collar that allowed researchers to monitor their travels. 

Experts hoped that romance would blossom between the locals and the tourists during their five-day stay. But they saw no signs of mating before the pair crossed back to the mainland.

Peterson knows firsthand how critical ice bridges are to the survival of the Isle Royale wolves. In 1997, he observed how one male wolf that made the crossing affected the genetic health of the island pack. “He revitalized the wolf population,” Peterson said, “but now, 15 years later, all of the wolves on the island are descendants of his.” Generations of inbreeding have left the wolves susceptible to disease, heart abnormalities, and low sperm counts in males. 

From an average of 25 individuals over the past several decades, only nine wolves were spotted in 2014. Peterson will not be releasing this winter’s head count until the end of the month, but he admitted that, to his dismay, the number was fewer than nine.

“There’s no scientific doubt,” Peterson said. “The problem is genetic isolation, and if something isn’t done soon, the existing population will cease to exist.”

Nearly free of predators, the moose on the island have nearly doubled in number, from 500 in 2007 to more than 1,000 in 2014. That’s bad news for their favorite forage, the island’s balsam fir trees.

“Moose are at extremely high-density levels on the island, and when they’re not kept in check, they can decimate the forest vegetation and their own food supply,” Peterson said. Without wolves to thin the population, moose eat as much vegetation as they can. Once that supply is gone, they starve.

It’s a cycle Peterson recognizes from reports on moose populations prior to the 1948 wolf crossing.

After watching wolf numbers decline over the past decade, officials at the National Park Service announced last spring that they would look into introducing outside wolves to the island as a way to increase genetic diversity. But the agency has not yet reached a final determination.

“This issue is bigger than only wolf genetics,” Isle Royale superintendent Phyllis Green said in a statement. “We are charged with a larger stewardship picture that considers all factors.”

But Peterson, who has been advocating for a wolf introduction program similar to the program at Yellowstone National Park, doesn’t think there’s time to go through the usual decision-making process, particularly an environmental analysis that could take years to complete.

“The headlines are going to read, ‘They’ve studied the wolves to their death,’ ” he said. 

Original article from TakePart

legislation to cut Endangered Species Act protections for wolves across Wyoming and the Great Lakes.

Tell Congress: Keep politics out of wolf recovery! Tell lawmakers to let science and law govern wolf recovery -- and reject this ruthless attempt to strip wolves of Endangered Species Act protections. TAKE ACTION Dear Ken, Unbelievable. Just six months after NRDC won a lawsuit restoring federal protections to wolves in Wyoming, these majestic animals are once again caught in the crosshairs.  Members of the new, anti-wildlife Congress have just introduced legislation to cut Endangered Species Act protections for wolves across Wyoming and the Great Lakes. Tell your lawmakers to oppose any legislation removing endangered species protections from wolves!  Thanks in part to the bedrock protections afforded to America's most vulnerable wildlife under the Endangered Species Act, the return of wolves to the Northern Rockies and the Great Lakes is one of the greatest conservation success stories of our time.  But now, members of Congress are undermining the very existence of the Endangered Species Act itself!  Make no mistake: If we let Congress strip protections from these wolves, we will open the floodgates to an endless series of proposals to remove endangered species protections from other threatened wildlife. I'm sure you agree: Endangered Species Act protections should be decided based on science and law, not politics. I can't stand by while lawmakers in Washington decide the fate of America's most iconic wildlife -- and I'm guessing you can't, either.  Tell your members of Congress: Keep politics out of wolf recovery! Thanks for adding your voice, Rhea Suh President, NRDC

The mission of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.

Another wandering wolf arrives in southwest Oregon

Editor's note:  Let's hear it for "Wandering Wolf".  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com     Another wandering wolf arrives in southwest Oregon By JEFF BARNARD Associated Press

AP Photo/Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife US Video Buy AP Photo Reprints GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- Another wandering wolf has found its way to the Cascades of southwestern Oregon, where OR-7 has established his pack after trekking thousands of miles in search of a mate. An automatic trail camera snapped a photo of the new wolf in timberlands west of the Klamath County community of Keno, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist John Stephenson said Tuesday. The camera was set out by an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist after he spotted a track in the snow in December. The arrival of another wandering wolf confirms that the animal continues to spread widely across the region after being reintroduced in the Northern Rockies in the 1990s. The area was actually frequented by OR-7 before he settled down farther north, Stephenson said. "I am surprised to see another wolf unrelated to (OR-7's) Rogue pack down in that area so soon," Stephenson said. "It does suggest some sort of dispersal corridor (through which) they are making their way over to that part of the state. But we have no way of knowing. We have a number of long-distance dispersers out there that aren't collared. Even though it appears this one is staying in this area, I don't think we completely know it will stick in that area or keep moving around." OR-7 became famous around the world after his GPS tracking collar chronicled his travels once he left the Imnaha pack in northeastern Oregon in 2011. He meandered across mountains, forests, deserts and highways to the southern Cascades, south into Northern California, and back again before finding a mate last winter and settling down on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and having a set of pups. The blurry photo taken Jan. 5 shows a grey wolf trotting down a gravel road past a stand of tall pine and fir trees. Though it does not show the animal's head, it is clear from the body that it is an adult, Stephenson said. He adds that though it is grey, like OR-7, they know it is not him because his GPS tracking collar showed him far away at the time. Based on the photo, Oregon Fish and Wildlife would establish a new Area of Known Wolf Activity in the area next week, spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy said. Wildlife agencies last week confirmed official pack status on OR-7, his mate and their pups. Rob Klavins of the conservation group Oregon Wild said he hoped the state would get ahead of the curve and work to prevent conflicts between the wolves and livestock by working with ranchers to take non-lethal steps to protect their herds grazing in the area. He cited U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics that about 1,000 cattle are lost each week in Oregon to weather, dogs, disease and other causes, while just five have been confirmed killed by wolves each of the last three years. Hugh Charley, past president of the Jackson County Stockmen, grazes cattle each summer in the area west of Keno where the wolf was sighted. Oregon Fish and Wildlife informed him and other ranchers of the wolf sighting last weekend at the group's annual meeting. Though ranchers were not happy to learn another wolf moved into the area, Charley said he expected they would learn to live with them. "It's not going to go away," he said of wolves.

Some gray wolves to be returned to endangered list

 

By JOHN FLESHER18 hours ago

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Editor's note:  Let's hear it for U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell!  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

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View photo

FILE - This April 18, 2008, file photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife shows a gray wolf. A federal judge on Friday, Dec. 19, 2014, 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 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dropped federal protections from those wolves in 2012 and handed over management to the states. (AP Photo/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Gary Kramer, File)

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A federal judge on Friday threw out an Obama administration decision to remove gray wolves 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, where the combined population is estimated at around 3,700. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dropped federal protections from those wolves in 2012 and handed over management to the states.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., ruled Friday the removal was "arbitrary and capricious" and violated the federal Endangered Species Act.

Unless overturned, her decision will block the states from scheduling additional hunting and trapping seasons for the predators. All three have had at least one hunting season since protections were lifted, while Minnesota and Wisconsin also have allowed trapping. More than 1,500 Great Lakes wolves have been killed, said Jonathan Lovvorn, senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States, one of several groups whose lawsuit prompted Howell's ruling.

"We are pleased that the court has recognized that the basis for the delisting decision was flawed, and would stop wolf recovery in its tracks," Lovvorn said.

Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Gavin Shire said the agency was disappointed and would confer with the U.S. Department of Justice and the states about whether to appeal.

"The science clearly shows that wolves are recovered in the Great Lakes region, and we believe the Great Lakes states have clearly demonstrated their ability to effectively manage their wolf populations," Shire said. "This is a significant step backward."

State officials acknowledged being caught by surprise and said they would study the judge's 111-page opinion before deciding what to do next.

"It's an unusual turn of events," said Tom Landwehr, Minnesota's natural resources commissioner.

The ruling is the latest twist in more than a decade of court battles over the gray wolf, which has made a strong recovery after being shot, poisoned and trapped into near-extermination in the lower 48 states in the last century. Only a remnant pocket in northern Minnesota remained when the species was added to the federal endangered list in 1974.

The wolf is now well-established in the western Great Lakes and in the Northern Rockies, where the minimum population is estimated at around 1,700.

Animal protection advocates repeatedly have sued over federal efforts to drop federal protections in both regions, arguing that the wolf's situation remains precarious. Meanwhile, ranchers and farmers complain of heavy financial losses from wolf attacks on livestock.

A judge in September restored endangered status to wolves in Wyoming, although those in Montana and Idaho remain off the list. The Fish and Wildlife Service is nearing a final decision on whether to lift protections across the remainder of the lower 48 states, except for a fledgling population of Mexican gray wolves in the desert Southwest.

In her opinion, Howell acknowledged the issue inspires passions on all sides but said the administration's "practical policy reasons" for its action in the Great Lakes region don't trump the requirements of the federal law, which "offers the broadest possible protections for endangered species by design."

"This law reflects the commitment by the United States to act as a responsible steward of the Earth's wildlife, even when such stewardship is inconvenient or difficult for the localities where an endangered or threatened species resides," Howell wrote.

The ruling came too late to halt this fall's hunting and trapping seasons. They have concluded in Minnesota, where 272 wolves were killed, and Wisconsin, where the total was 154.

Michigan's only hunt was in 2013, when 22 wolves were taken. During the November election, voters rejected two pro-hunting laws approved by the Legislature. But a third remains on the books, and regulators had been expected to consider scheduling another hunt next year.

Minnesota and Wisconsin officials warned residents that with wolves classified as endangered once again, it's no longer legal to shoot those preying on livestock or pets. Wolves can be killed only if threatening human life, said Chris Niskanen of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

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Associated Press reporters Brian Bakst and Kyle Potter in Minneapolis, Todd Richmond in Madison, Wis., and Matthew Brown in Billings, Mont., contributed to this story.

How the wolves saved our rivers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q&app=desktop

When They Brought These Wolves Into The Park, They Had No Idea This Would Happen

8 October, 2013 in Article, Images | Comment

In 1995, wolves were re-introduced into the Yellowstone National Park, after being wolf-free for 70 years. What naturalists and biologist never imagined, was that the most remarkable thing would take place. Mother Nature knows what she’s doing if we just leave her alone.

Wyoming Proposes to Legalize Wolf Hunting—Again

Editor's note: Shame on Wyoming!!!  Lucius Verenus Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com and Cheyenne (Wolf)

 

Wyoming Proposes to Legalize Wolf Hunting—Again

By Kristina Bravo | Takepart.com19 hours agoTakepart.com

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Wolves can’t get a break.

After U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson restored protection of Wyoming’s wolves under the Endangered Species Act on Tuesday, Gov. Matt Mead immediately appealed.

The judge on Friday ordered the federal government and conservative groups to respond to the appeal by Monday, according toThe Associated Press.

The Obama administration in 2012 removed federal protection for the species in Wyoming. At the time, 270 wolves lived in the state outsideYellowstone National Park. According to The New York Times, in the year that followed, trophy hunters killed 62 wolves, and an undetermined number were legally shot or trapped.

On Tuesday, Jackson ruled that the state’s management plan—which designated the wolf as a trophy-game species and a predator that could be killed in four-fifths of the state—was ineffective, saying that officials were “arbitrary and capricious” in enforcing it.

In response, Mead the next day issued an emergency rule that would enforce Wyoming’s initial pledge to preserve at least 100 wolves and 10 breeding pairs outside Yellowstone National Park.  

“Now that Wyoming has resolved the court’s concern, I hope the court will amend its ruling and allow Wyoming’s continued management of gray wolves,” Mead said in a statement.

Since 2012, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed removing protection for the wolf everywhere except in New Mexico and southern Arizona.

Related stories on TakePart:

• Getting Ranchers to Tolerate Wolves—Before It's Too Late

• Decades After Exterminating the Gray Wolf, California Welcomes It Home

• Bring Back the Wolf—Everywhere

Original article from TakePart

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How wolves change rivers

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/how-wolves-change-rivers/

Call of the wild beckons former Brookfield Zoo wolf

Editor's note: Yes, Cheyenne, this Shark's pet 160 lb. Timber Wolf has a pin up photo of Ernesta above his bed. I do not have the heart to tell him that Ernesta has found another.  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com





 

 

 

                             

A smiling Cheyenne in happier days

                                                            

 

 

 

Call of the wild beckons former Brookfield Zoo wolf

 

 

Ernesta, mate expected to be released this spring in a Southwestern forest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ernesta, a wolf who once lived at Brookfield Zoo, is now in a New Mexico “wolf boot camp" and is soon to be released into the wild. (Jim Schulz, Chicago Zoological Society / January 21, 2012)

 

By Joan Cary, Special to the Tribune

February 16, 2014

After living in captivity for five years, a Mexican gray wolf once on display at Brookfield Zoo has met a mate and is expected to be released this spring to roam the Apache National Forest near the Arizona-New Mexico border.
There, biologists hope, Ernesta and her mate will raise pups and be part of a growing success story: the reintroduction into the wild of one of the most endangered land mammals in North America.
Ernesta was born in a Missouri wolf facility in 2008 and moved with her siblings to Brookfield Zoo in 2010. In 2012 she was chosen to participate in "wolf boot camp" at Sevilleta Wolf Management Facility near Socorro, N.M., and become prepared for release in the wild. Experts believe she's ready to go.
"The wolves tend to mate for life so if they really like each other we would expect her to stick with him," said Maggie Dwire, biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Albuquerque, N.M.
Mexican wolves once numbered in the thousands in the Southwest, but were wiped out in the wild of the U.S. by the mid-1970s. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed them as endangered in 1976. In the late '70s, five were caught wild in Mexico to pair with some in captivity, starting the captive breeding program to save the animal from extinction, Dwire said. In 1998, the first 11 Mexican wolves were reintroduced to the landscape.
From those original captive breeding pairs in the late '70s, the population has grown to include 83 wolves in the wild of Arizona and New Mexico, based on a field count in January, which showed an increase of about 10 percent from 2012. There also are 300 in captivity at zoos and facilities in the U.S. and Mexico.
It was during that recent count when workers were able to capture Ernesta's mate. The two wolves now live together in a 1.5-acre wilderness area.
Breeding season is February and March and if Ernesta continues to be receptive to her new mate, the two will be released about midway through the 63-day gestation period, before she has pups.
"Part of the plan is to let her get her feet on the ground before she has pups," Dwire said. "We're hoping because he is a male with success in the wild that he will teach her the ropes."

Beijing dog lovers worry amid crackdown on large canines

Editor's note: First they kill our wolves, next our dogs! Your ProbateShark warned you about this.  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

 

Beijing dog lovers worry amid crackdown on large canines

Pet owners in the Chinese capital worry that their dogs will be seized by officers enforcing what police say is a decade-old rule.

 

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The owners of QQ, a 2-year-old Scottish shepherd, are boarding him on the eastern edge of Beijing to avoid a crackdown on what police describe as “large and vicious dogs.” (Julie Makinen, Los Angeles Times / April 29, 2013)

• Related
• Pollution cuts life spans by 5.5 years in north China, study says
• Seaweed blankets beaches in Qingdao, China
• China sends armored vehicles to volatile Xinjiang region

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By Julie Makinen

10:34 p.m. CDT, July 8, 2013

BEIJING — With his Lassie-like looks, QQ might seem like the kind of dog that would win kudos from cops for thwarting a break-in or rescuing a neighbor from a burning home.

But these days, the 2-year-old Scottish shepherd is in hiding on the eastern edge of the Chinese capital, his owners seeking to keep him out of sight of the police.
QQ's downtown-dwelling owners have shelled out nearly $700 to keep their pooch boarded at a veterinarian's office for a month, hoping that a crackdown on what Beijing police describe as "large and vicious dogs" will be eased.
The campaign — targeting canines that stand more than 13.8 inches at the shoulder, including greyhounds, chow chows and Dalmatians — has angered and panicked many Beijing dog lovers. By some estimates, there are about 2 million dogs in the city of 20 million, a remarkable figure considering man's best friend was banned here in the 1980s (along with ducks, pigs and several other animal species).
Police began posting fliers around central Beijing last month, warning residents that large dogs were not allowed and that owners had 10 days to relocate theirs to the edge of the capital or beyond. Then, red-and-white warning banners began to appear even in suburbs such as Shunyi, where Labradors, German shepherds and other big breeds frolic on the lawns of homes that look as if they were transplanted from the cul-de-sacs of suburban America.
"We've had dozens of calls," said Nis Peter Lorentzen, cofounder of Doctors Beck & Stone Pet Health Care Center, which has four branches in Beijing. "The notices have created a lot of chaos."
Authorities say they are merely enforcing a rule that has been on the books for 10 years. But veterinarians, animal rescue groups and pet parents point out that thousands of "big" dogs have been legally registered for the last decade at local police stations. The licenses cost about $160 for the first year and $80 annually after that.
Some dog owners are afraid to renew the registrations for fear of having their pets seized; some have been walking their animals early in the morning or late at night to minimize the chance of encountering an officer on patrol.
With the official registration renewal period having ended June 30, dog fanciers are waiting to see if police will get even tougher or back off.
"I'm worried about it," said Wilson Huang, who had paid $3.30 recently to bring his two Samoyeds — QiQi, 8, and Siling, 5 — to romp in the pet play area of Chaoyang Park in central Beijing, a district now supposedly off limits to large canines. "My dogs are registered, but I've heard that if they take them, it's very hard to get them back, especially if it's a good breed."
Lorentzen and several other veterinarians in Beijing said they had no firsthand accounts of clients having their pets taken away on the streets, though some knew of incidents where police impounded dogs large and small after neighbors complained.
When a reporter anonymously phoned the Chaoyang district police station to inquire, an officer replied: "We are definitely confiscating big dogs; you should take them to the countryside. If it's a big dog, you cannot register it."
Online, tales are circulating of police hauling away dogs whose masters can't produce registration cards. One video that went viral last week shows an elderly man on a curb, pleading with an officer not to take a fuzzy white dog he says he is caring for while its owner is out of town; the policeman, unmoved, tosses the animal into the back of a pickup.
Just what is motivating the crackdown remains murky since police say only that they are enforcing a law already on the books. Mary Peng, cofounder and chief executive of the International Center for Veterinary Services in Beijing, said one factor may be that as the number of dogs in Beijing has exploded, more people are showing up at hospitals with bites and scratches. The capital has also seen a jump in rabies cases, she noted, though she added that there are no records to indicate the increase is tied to big dogs.
"The ownership of dogs has increased so fast, police say, 'We must do something, at least enforce the rules we have,' " said Lorentzen, of the pet care center. But he expects authorities to back off soon. "It's too late to change the reality.... What are they going to do, put down 500,000 dogs?
"Besides," he added, "there's another issue: There's no doubt that high-level officials have such dogs, and clearly those aren't going to be banned."
A number of Beijingers involved in animal welfare groups worry that the crackdown will make it even harder to find adoptive homes in China for larger dogs.
Chris Barden, an Orange County native who runs the Little Adoption Shop in the Shunyi area of Beijing, said he's heard from other rescue groups that are actively trying to set up programs to find adoptive homes for their big dogs abroad — an idea he finds discouraging.
"Their best hope is that the dogs can leave the country? That's embarrassing for China," said Barden.
Peng believes that Chinese are getting more knowledgeable and sophisticated about dogs but that the society's relationship with companion animals is in a formative stage.
"We still have two generations of people who didn't grow up with dogs in their houses, who didn't have casual contact with them," she said. "First, attitudes will evolve and change, and then rules and laws will follow."
Luo Ming, a 34-year-old designer, agrees that education and outreach are important. Luo, who was playing with Rourou, his 18-month-old Labrador, in Chaoyang Park last week, wore a homemade T-shirt that said "35cm ≠ danger" on the front and "Don't Kill Friends" on the back.
Luo said he's frustrated with the legal uncertainty.
"We're so upset about Beijing, with this cloud hanging over our heads," he said. "Next week we are going on a road trip, and then to Shanghai. My company has a branch there, and if I can legally register my dog there, I'm moving."
julie.makinen@latimes.com
Tommy Yang in The Times' Beijing