Commission consideration of wolf delisting moved to October, November meetings
The informational briefing and rulemaking for
removing gray wolves from the state Endangered Species list have been
delayed until the Oct. 9 meeting in Florence and a November meeting tobe
held in Salem. These items were originally scheduled for September and
October but after consultation with the Chair of the Commission, the
decision was made to move the process back due to already full meeting
agendas. Commissioners want to provide adequate time for public
testimony and discussion during the meetings.
The date for the November meeting will be announced soon on the Commission webpage. Public testimony will be taken at the meetings but can also be emailed to odfw.comments@state.or.us Please make sure to include “Comments on Wolf Delisting Proposal” in the subject line of emails.
July 7, 2015
A remote camera captured a series of images of
Rogue Pack wolf yearlings (born spring 2014) playing in the Rogue
River-Siskiyou National Forest on June 24, 2015. While new pups have
not yet been seen, wildlife biologists found pup scat in the area,
which confirms the Rogue pack has new pups this year. See the sequence
on the USFWS webpage or ODFW’s Oregon Wildlife Viewing Facebook page. Images courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
A new species of wolf has been discovered in Africa after exhaustive
DNA and morphological analyses revealed it is evolutionarily distinct
from the Eurasian golden jackal, which it strongly resembles
Same or different? The African golden wolf, Canis anthus, (left) and Eurasian golden jackal, C. aureus (right), were originally thought to be the same species, formerly known as the golden jackal.
Photograph: D. Gordon E. Robertson, and Yaki Zander/Klaus-Peter Koepfli & John Pollinger et al./Current Biology 2015
GrrlScientist
The Canid family -- wolves, coyotes, jackals, foxes, domestic dogs
and others -- are so familiar to us, and have been so intensively
studied for so long that you might think that we know almost everything
there is to know about them. But a paper published today in Current Biology
belies that assumption. This paper describes the meticulous research
conducted by an international team of experts who report a surprising
discovery: a new species of wolf.
According to the authors, two golden jackal populations -- one in
Eurasia and the other in Africa -- split more than one million years
ago, which is sufficient to formally recognise each as separate species.
Further, after exhaustive DNA analyses, the authors were surprised to
learn that African golden jackals are more closely related to grey
wolves, even though there are no grey wolves in Africa
and even though grey wolves and African golden jackals look
dramatically different. Adding to the confusion, African golden jackals
are strikingly similar in appearance to their more distant relative, the
Eurasian golden jackal. This strong physical similarity has long been
the source of confusion over these animals’ taxonomy and evolutionary
relationships.
As a result of this study, the authors propose that the African golden jackal be renamed as the African golden wolf, Canis anthus.
The evolutionary relationships of canids are poorly understood
The evolutionary relationships, or phylogenetics, of jackals have
long been a mess, according to Adam Hartstone-Rose, an Associate
Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine,
who was not part of the study. Traditionally, most taxonomists have
recognised three jackal species: the black-backed, side-striped and
golden jackals -- all of which live in Africa, with the golden jackal
also ranging throughout much of Eurasia.
“The three ‘species’ were considered close relatives based mostly on
their similar body size and morphology”, explained Professor
Hartstone-Rose in email.
“However, as the first molecular analyses of canids became available,
it was obvious that ‘jackals’ are only similar based on amazing
morphological convergences”, said Professor Hartstone-Rose. “The
side-striped and black-backed species (historically called Canis adustus and C. mesomelas respectively) turn out to have split off of the stem of the large Canis group before the highly derived hunting dogs (Lycaon) and dholes (Cuon).”
“Those studies had only used one kind of genetic marker, sequences
from the mitochondrial genome, which are only inherited through the
maternal lineage”, explained Dr Koepfli in email.
“[E]volutionary history is best verified through concordance among
genetic markers from across the genome that are inherited maternally,
paternally and bi-parentally and that evolve at different rates to
capture different stages of divergence. Therefore, we wanted to test the
conclusions of the two previous studies by adding data from the nuclear
genome”, said Dr Koepfli.
African and Eurasian golden jackals are genetically distinct
The researchers started by generating new sequence data (sampling
sites are indicated with red dots in Figure 1B) for canid cytochrome b, a gene in the mitochondrial genome, and combined them with sequences from the two previously published studies (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016385 & doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0042740). Their analysis of these data incorporated a total of 104 cytochrome b sequences (1,140 bp each) to reconstruct a phylogeny (Figure 1A), for golden jackals from both Africa and Eurasia:
Figure1. Phylogenetic Tree (A) Based on Mitochondrial Cytochrome b Sequences & Sampling Localities (B) of Golden Jackals in This Study. Maximum-likelihood phylogram of 104 cytochrome
b sequences (1,140bp). Asterisks nodes indicate bootstrap
support ≥80% (1,000 pseudoreplicates) and ≥0.95 posterior probability
(Bayesian inference). Arrows:
Canis spp. from Egypt. African wolf is
Canis lupus lupaster. Outgroup: Sechuran fox,
Lycalopex sechurae. Photo credits: L, golden jackal from
Senegal (CIBIO/Raquel Godinho); C, Mexican gray wolf (Tom & Pat
Leeson); R, golden jackal from Israel (Yaki Zander). Composite:
Klaus-Peter Koepfli & John Pollinger et al./Current Biology 2015
“Consistent with two previous studies also based on mitochondrial
sequences, we find that golden jackals from Africa and Eurasia are NOT
each other’s closest relative as we would expect if they were the same
species”, said Dr Koepfli.
This mitochondrial gene tree indicates that the African golden jackal
is more closely related to the Eurasian gray wolf, and is distantly
related to the Eurasian golden jackal (with up to 6.7 percent
divergence).
“In fact, golden jackals from different localities in Africa share a
more recent common ancestry with gray wolves”, said Dr Koepfli.
The team then conducted another analysis using a more comprehensive
array of molecular markers that are inherited from both parents. All of
these DNA markers consisted of fragments of 20 chromosomal, or nuclear,
genes sampled from throughout the genome. These markers consistently
showed that golden jackals are separated into two well-supported clades,
as seen in this time tree, or chronogram (Figure 2):
Figure 2. Chronogram Estimated from Concatenated Analysis of 20 Nuclear Gene Pieces Using a Relaxed Molecular Clock. Analysis
of 13,727bp sequence from 17 intron- & 3 exon-containing pieces. 4
individuals each for gray wolf, golden jackal (Africa) & golden
jackal (Eurasia); 2 individuals for coyote. Outgroups: red fox,
Vulpes vulpes, & gray fox,
Urocyon cinereoargenteus. Time (bottom): million years ago
(mya), time (top): epochs. Photo credits: top, Mexican gray wolf (Tom
& Pat Leeson); middle, golden jackal from Senegal (CIBIO/Raquel
Godinho); bottom, golden jackal from Israel (Yaki Zander). Composite:
Klaus-Peter Koepfli & John Pollinger et al./Current Biology 2015
In addition to showing the family relationships between the species
examined, this chronogram shows an estimate of the sequence of those
speciation events, or lineage splits, in the order in which they
occurred and when.
“We found that the African golden jackal lineage split from gray
wolves plus coyotes about 1.3 million years ago. The Eurasian golden
jackal lineage, however, split about 600,000 years prior to that”, said
Dr Koepfli.
Not only does the chromosomal (nuclear) DNA data phylogeny suggest a
close relationship between African golden jackals and grey wolves, but
if you look carefully, you will also notice that it indicates that the
Eurasian golden jackal split away from from the grey wolf long before
grey wolves and coyotes diverged.
“If African and Eurasian golden jackals belonged to the same species,
we would expect these two groups to be more closely related (share
common ancestry)”, said Dr Koepfli.
Multiple DNA markers show African and Eurasian golden jackals are different
The researchers continued their investigation by analysing additional
molecular markers: sex chromosome sequences (Figure 3A); tiny
variations in the DNA sequence known as single nucleotide polymorphisms
(SNPs; pronounced “snips”) sampled from across the genome in
representative individuals (one golden jackal from Kenya, one golden
jackal from Israel and three grey wolves from different localities in
Eurasia) (Figure 3B); and in microsatellites (long tracts of non-coding
DNA comprised of short tandem repeating sequences), which are DNA
markers that represent different samples of the genome from SNPs and
which evolve differently than SNPs (Figure 3D):
Figure3. Patterns of Genetic Differentiation and Admixture of
African and Eurasian Golden Jackals Based on (A) Sex Chromosome
Sequences, (B) Genome-wide SNP Data, (C) Detectable admixture (gene
flow) between lineages and (D) Microsatellite Multilocus Genotypes. Illustration: Klaus-Peter Koepfli & John Pollinger et al./Current Biology 2015
Once again, every genetic marker that the team examined consistently
showed that the two golden jackal lineages are genetically distinct and
are following independent evolutionary trajectories -- which are several
of the main criteria for defining a species.
“The consistency of divergence between the two jackal lineages across
the suite of molecular markers used in our study provides compelling
evidence that the two lineages represent different species”, said Dr
Koepfli.
The research team also tested genome-wide SNPs data to see whether
African and Eurasian golden jackals show evidence of hybridisation with
each other, or with wolves and dogs (Figure 3C).
“[W]e did detect signals of hybridization between the gray
wolf/domestic dog lineage and the Eurasian golden jackal and African
golden wolf lineages. However, that signal was much stronger in the
Eurasian golden jackal lineage”, said Dr Koepfli.
“The individual we used for the genome-wide data came from Israel,
where these golden jackals overlap with gray wolves and (feral) domestic
dogs, so finding a strong signal of past hybridization is not too
surprising”, said Dr Koepfli.
But African and Eurasian golden jackals look very very similar
Despite their distinct genetic ancestries, African and Eurasian
golden jackals look so much alike that most scientists classified them
as the same species. Thus, the research team wanted to see if their
genetic findings were reflected in the skull and tooth morphologies of
African and Eurasian golden jackals. They analysed 45 different skull
and tooth characteristics from more than 140 golden jackals from five
different geographic regions across Africa and Eurasia (east Africa =
red circles; north African = green circles; Middle East = blue
triangles; Eurasia = grey triangles; central and west Africa = grey
circles; Figure 4A):
Figure 4. Principal Component Analyses of the Morphometric Data for African and Eurasian Golden Jackals. (
A) Plot of principal component 2 (PC2) against PC1
based on 45 linear measurements of teeth and skulls of 140 African and
Eurasian golden jackals from five different geographic regions.
Illustration: Klaus-Peter Koepfli & John Pollinger et al./Current
Biology 2015
As you can see above, there are no distinct clusters of data, as you
would expect if there were significant species-based differences in
skull and tooth morphologies.
Analyses of these morphometric data revealed that despite their
genetic distance, the golden jackals have a strong resemblance to each
other, as revealed by these overlapping data clusters (east Africa = red
circles; north African = green circles; Middle East = blue triangles;
Figure 4B). These data certainly explain the difficulty in recognising
golden jackals as separate species:
Figure 4. Principal Component Analyses of the Morphometric Data for African and Eurasian Golden Jackals. (
B) Plot of PC2 against PC1 based on nine ratio
variables that describe dental and cranial shape for three populations:
North Africa (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Western
Sahara), East Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia) and the Middle East (Iran,
Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Greece). Illustration: Klaus-Peter Koepfli &
John Pollinger et al./Current Biology 2015
But why do these two species look so much alike that they fooled almost everyone for hundreds of years?
“Since the two jackal lineages are not closely related, this
morphological similarity may be due to parallel evolution, driven by the
ecological circumstances in which these animals live, especially with
regards to the competition from other carnivore species”, said Dr
Koepfli.
Parallel evolution is the development of a similar trait in related,
but distinct, species that share a common ancestor. This differs from
convergent evolution, where species with different evolutionary
histories independently evolve traits that are similar in form or
function (such as wings in flying insects, bats and birds) due to
similar ecological demands.
Jackals may have more surprises in store for us
Since they have such an extensive range, golden jackals may comprise
yet more cryptic species. Already, Dr Koepfli and his team are
collecting preliminary genetic data from some populations of Eurasian
golden jackals throughout Eurasia and they plan to do the same for the
African golden jackals.
Composite: Klaus-Peter Koepfli & John Pollinger et al./Current Biology 2015
“Some of the data we present in the Current Biology paper
suggests that the Kenyan population is genetically distinct across both
mitochondrial and nuclear markers”, said Dr Koepfli.
“However, we need more comprehensive geographic sampling to better
understand the population genetics and phylogeography of the two
lineages.”
The golden jackals are only distantly related to the other two
African jackal species, even though they are all placed into the same
genus.
“In fact, phylogenetic results of nuclear DNA sequences shows that
black-backed and side-striped jackals are each other’s closest relative
and very distant from Eurasian golden jackals and African golden
wolves”, said Dr Koepfli.
“All these are currently classified in the genus Canis, but
this needs to be changed to reflect the distinct position of the clade
that includes black-backed and side-striped jackals. This is something
we’re currently working on.”
African golden jackals renamed African golden wolves
This painstaking work shines a powerful light on the convoluted
relationship between ecology and evolution, and reveals how ecology can
lead to confusion amongst even the most astute experts when it comes to
identifying species. Further, these findings demonstrate why it is
critical to analyse living species from all perspectives -- anatomic,
behavioral, ecological and genetic -- in order to truly understand the
evolution of those species.
“This study demonstrates convincingly, using multiple lines of
genomic evidence, that African and Eurasian golden jackals represent
distinct lineages deserving of species-level separation”, said
vertebrate paleontologist Jack Tseng from the American Museum of Natural History, who was not part of this study.
“The fascinating conclusion of parallelism in the African and
Eurasian jackals gained from considering both molecular and anatomical
evidence attests to the success of dogs such as Canis in colonizing and adapting to new environments”, said Dr Tseng.
“Within eastern Africa where I do most of my work, all canids (not
just golden jackals) are relatively rare in the fossil record.
Therefore, this study provides us with an intriguing glimpse of
carnivore evolution that we might not otherwise know about”, said
vertebrate paleontologist, Margaret Lewis, a Professor of Biology at Stockton University, who was not part of this study.
This research also has important conservation implications. For
example, as established here, one widespread species may actually be
several cryptic species.
“What if your two new species represented vastly different
percentages of the former species? One of the new species could be doing
relatively well while the other population is on the verge of
extinction”, said Professor Lewis in email.
Currently, golden jackals (Eurasian and African) are listed by the IUCN as of Least Concern, but this assessment was made in 2008, before any of the recent genetic work on this group.
“While they are considered to be fairly common (particularly in
Asia), it will be interesting to see if African golden wolves and
Eurasian golden jackals will each retain this ranking in the next
assessment. Jackals in general are declining as traditional land use
practices disappear and are replaced by industrialization and
urbanization. All jackals and jackal-like animals, not just African
golden wolves, play a critical role in the ecology of their respective
habitats”, said Professor Lewis.
“Hopefully, this research will raise awareness of the importance of
jackals and similar species around the world before it is too late”,
said Professor Lewis.
Meet the African golden wolf,
Canis anthus, the most recently discovered canid species in
Africa. Photograph: D. Gordon E. Robertson/Klaus-Peter Koepfli &
John Pollinger et al./Current Biology 2015
Taken together, these remarkable findings provide strong and
compelling evidence that the African golden jackal represents the first
discovery of a canid species in Africa that is new to science in over
150 years.
“We propose that the African golden jackal be re-named the African golden wolf and the scientific name be Canis anthus,” said Dr Koepfli.
This scientific name was first proposed in 1820 by Frédéric Cuvier in his description of this species.
Source:
Klaus-Peter Koepfli, John Pollinger, Raquel Godinho, Jacqueline
Robinson, Amanda Lea, Sarah Hendricks, Rena M. Schweizer, Olaf Thalmann,
Pedro Silva, Zhenxin Fan, Andrey A. Yurchenko, Pavel Dobrynin, Alexey
Makunin, James A. Cahill, Beth Shapiro, Francisco Álvares, JoséC.
Brito, Eli Geffen, Jennifer A. Leonard, Kristofer M. Helgen, Warren E.
Johnson, Stephen J. O’Brien, Blaire Van Valkenburgh,and Robert K. Wayne.
(2015). Genome-wide Evidence Reveals that African and Eurasian Golden Jackals Are Distinct Species, Current Biology, published online on 30 July 2015 ahead of print | doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.06.060
Grrlscientist sincerely thanks Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Jack Tseng, Adam
Hartstone-Rose, and Margaret Lewis for sharing their expertise,
excitement and insights into the nuances of this research.
Also cited:
Eli Knispel Rueness, Maria Gulbrandsen Asmyhr, Claudio
Sillero-Zubiri, David W. Macdonald, Afework Bekele, Anagaw Atickem, Nils
Chr. Stenseth. (2011). The cryptic African wolf: Canis aureus lupaster is not a golden jackal and is not endemic to Egypt, PLoS ONE6, e16385 | doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016385 (OA)
Philippe Gaubert, Cécile Bloch, Slim Benyacoub, Adnan Abdelhamid,
Paolo Pagani, Chabi Adéyèmi Marc Sylvestre Djagoun, Arnaud Couloux,
Sylvain Dufour (2012). Reviving the African Wolf Canis lupus lupaster in north and west Africa: A mitochondrial lineage ranging more than 6,000 km wide, PLoS ONE7, e42740 | doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0042740 (OA)
Kerstin Lindblad-Toh , Claire M Wade, Tarjei S. Mikkelsen, Elinor K.
Karlsson, David B. Jaffe, Michael Kamal, Michele Clamp, Jean L. Chang,
Edward J. Kulbokas III, Michael C. Zody, et al. (2005). Genome sequence, comparative analysis and haplotype structure of the domestic dog, Nature438, 803-819 (8 December 2005) | doi:10.1038/nature04338 (OA)
Analysis: Republican Attacks on Endangered Species Up 600 Percent Per Year
Unprecedented Assault Undermines Landmark Law Protecting America's
Most Vulnerable Animals, Plants
WASHINGTON— Over the past five years, Republicans in Congress have launched 164 attacks on the Endangered Species Act
— a 600 percent increase in the rate of annual attacks over the
previous 15 years, according to a new analysis by the Center for
Biological Diversity.
The report, Politics of Extinction,
also identifies five Republicans responsible for nearly a quarter of
legislative attacks who have received millions of dollars in campaign
contributions from special interests opposed to Endangered Species Act
protections: Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rep.
Don Young (R-Alaska), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rep. Rob Bishop
(R-Utah).
“We’re witnessing a war on the Endangered Species Act
unlike anything we’ve seen before,” said Jamie Pang, an endangered
species campaigner with the Center. “If it’s allowed to succeed, this
Republican assault will dismantle the world’s most effective law for
protecting endangered wildlife and put scores of species on the path to
extinction.”
The Center reviewed congressional and legislative records over the past 20 years. Among the findings:
There have been 164 legislative attacks on endangered species since 2011 or an average of 33 attacks per year.
By contrast, from 1996-2010 there were only 69 attacks for an average of five per year.
So far in 2015, there have already been 66
legislative attacks on endangered species, ranging from bills to strip
endangered species protections from gray wolves, American burying
beetles and other species to bills to weaken the ability of citizens to
go to court in defense of species.
All the bills attacking endangered species this year,
and 93 percent of those over the past 20 years, have been sponsored by
Republicans.
The increased pace of attacks on endangered species
corresponds to a massive increase in campaign contributions from the
oil and gas industry, big agriculture and other industries that oppose
endangered species protections. Between 2004 and 2014, for example,
campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry increased from
roughly $10 million to more than $25 million, according to
OpenSecrets.org.
“It's no coincidence that the species that are most
targeted, from the gray wolf to the sage grouse to the lesser prairie
chicken, are those that the oil and gas industry and big agriculture
view as standing in the way of their bottom line,” said Pang.
Many of the attacks on endangered species have come as
riders on must-pass spending bills, including three that have passed so
far. These include a 2011 rider that stripped protection from wolves
in Montana and Idaho; a 2014 rider allowing trophy hunting and
importation of scimitar-horned oryx, addax and Dama gazelle from
Africa; and another 2014 rider that prohibited the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service from expending any resources to protect sage grouse.
Overall 54 of the 164 attacks since 2011 have been
riders, compared to just two between 1996 and 2010. These riders have
no relevance to the spending priorities of Congress, but are added
through secretive, closed-door processes as a means to pass
controversial provisions that would otherwise not pass as stand-alone
bills.
Among the slate of legislative threats that species
currently face is a congressional rider in the 2016 Department of the
Interior appropriations bill that would strip protections from gray
wolves across most of the country. Another rider would delay protection
of sage grouse.
An opinion poll released earlier this month shows that more than 90 percent of Americans support the Endangered Species Act.
“Republicans in Congress have essentially taken
life-and-death decisions for species away from expert scientists for
the benefit of special interests that have no interest in saving
species,” said Pang. “That’s not what the American public wants, and it’s certainly not what species at the brink of extinction need.”
The Center for Biological Diversity is a
national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 900,000
members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered
species and wild places.
Juneau Empire, July 23, 2015
By Dan Joling, The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE — Six conservation organizations
want to stop hunting and trapping of a rare southeast Alaska wolf while
the federal government decides whether the animals merit endangered
species status.
The groups asked Fish and Game Department Commissioner Sam
Cotton on Thursday to preemptively close hunting and trapping seasons
for Alexander Archipelago wolves, a southeast Alaska species that den in
the root systems of large trees.
They also asked the Federal Subsistence Board to close
subsistence hunting and trapping, and the U.S. Forest Service to suspend
logging and road-building for the Big Thorne timber sale on Prince of
Wales Island, which will include old-growth forest.
Greenpeace and the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned
to list the wolves as endangered in August 2011. The estimated
population in the mid-1990s was 250 to 350 animals. The estimated wolf
population last fall was 89, the groups said, with no more than 159 and
perhaps as few as 50 animals, according to the groups.
That estimate was made before 29 wolves were legally
harvested by hunters and trappers during the 2014-2015 hunting and
trapping seasons.
“Alexander Archipelago wolves are one-of-a-kind, and once
they’re gone, they’re not coming back,” said Rebecca Noblin, Alaska
director of the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. “We
have to protect the few remaining wolves on Prince of Wales Island right
now, or they’ll be gone.”
Alexander Archipelago wolves feed on Sitka black-tailed deer.
The listing petition said large-scale logging fragments forests and
reduces carrying capacity for deer.
After a lawsuit last year claiming inaction by federal
regulators, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed in September to
decide by late 2015 whether the wolves warrant endangered species
protection.
Bruce Dale, state director of wildlife conservation, was not immediately available for comment.
The groups seeking the hunting and trapping suspensions
include Cascadia Wildlands, Greenpeace, Center for Biological Diversity,
Greater Southeast Alaska Conservation Community, The Boat Co., and
Alaska Wildlife Alliance.
Oshkosh
city officials are instituting changes at the Menominee Park Zoo after a
wolf bit a child's fingers in May, causing authorities to euthanize the
animal, newly obtained documents show.
Among the changes are the
updating of operating procedures, conducting additional employee
training, posting new signs and installing an additional fence around
the non-public area of the zoo where the child entered and put its
fingers through a fence, according to a memo from city parks director
Ray Maurer to Oshkosh Common Council members.
"We have determined
that the incident was a result of human error after a gate to a
non-public area of the zoo was left open by staff," Maurer wrote in the
June 22 memo. "Due to the multiple causes that resulted in this
incident, there is no employee discipline planned."
The
changes were the result of a joint investigation by the city Parks,
Human Resources and Risk Management/Safety departments, according to the
memo, which Oshkosh Northwestern Media obtained Tuesday, July 28, along
with a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection report.
"Gates
that are left open that serve as a part of the public barrier pose a
danger to the animals and the public by not restricting access to the
animals by members of the viewing public," according to the USDA report,
dated May 27. "The integrity of the public barriers must be maintained
to assure the safety of the animals and the viewing public."
The gate in question was one that staff uses to access the wolf and elk exhibits, according to the inspection report.
"Safety
is of the utmost importance to our zoo facility in order to ensure that
our visitors, employees and animals are safe," Maurer said. "Although I
regret that this incident occurred, I am confident that the assessments
conducted and the measures taken will allow the zoo to be a safer and
more enjoyable place."
The
child was transported to a local hospital for treatment of minor finger
injuries, Maurer said previously. The child's parents did not want to
put their child through rabies shots, and because the incubation period
for rabies in wild animals is unknown, the animal was euthanized. A
brain sample then was sent to Madison for a rabies test, which came back
negative.
Reach Nathaniel Shuda at 920-426-6632 or nshuda@thenorthwestern.com; on Twitter @onwnshuda.
The
wolves are back at the Menominee Park Zoo which opens to the public May
2, 2015. The wolves are 12 years old and are named Sienna, Echo,
Thunder and Rebel. All are active and like to be out and about in their
acre of the zoo. Oshkosh Northwestern Media, Joe Sienkiewicz / Oshkosh Northwestern Media
Pictured: Wolf tracks frozen in the mud along side a patch of ice along the Savage River in Denali National Park. Sept. 23, 2014
Bob Hallinen / ADN
I
write this in support and encouragement of the state of Alaska taking
immediate action to secure a permanent no-take wildlife conservation
easement on state lands surrounded by Denali National Park.
Gov.
Bill Walker and Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten can help
ensure long-term viability of park wildlife populations in a critical
area for wolf viewing by facilitating an easement purchase by the U.S.
Department of Interior. The easement could either be purchased directly
or created through a transfer of an equal-value asset located elsewhere.
The
well-documented decrease in wolf sightings since the repeal of a wolf
protection area in 2010 has all but extinguished the likelihood of park
visitors seeing wolves. Wolf-viewing success has reached embarrassing
lows (4 percent in 2013) at a cost to the local and state tourism
economy. Not to mention the disruption of ecological balance and loss of
aesthetic value provided by viewing keystone species like wolves.
As a July 22 Alaska Dispatch News article
described, an easement purchase, either made directly or created
through a transfer of an equally valued asset located elsewhere, could
help curb the wolf decline. To be sure, biologists note many factors
could be contributing to the fluctuation in wolf population, but
limiting access to critical habitat is the only one wildlife managers
can control.
The state and Interior Department have joint
responsibility for “managing wildlife resources and their habitats.” It
is the duty of the National Park Service to, “conserve the scenery and
wildlife therein, unimpaired for the enjoyment of the public and future
generations.” Cooperatively, through an agreement like that requested by
Rick Steiner of Oasis Earth (among other groups as well), both goals
can be achieved.
In addition to the federal mandate of the
Park Service, Article VIII of the Alaska Constitution requires wildlife
resources be managed, “for maximum use consistent with public interest.”
Surely, the public interest includes both consumptive use
(hunting/trapping), and nonconsumption use (wildlife viewing). In any
case, consideration of a balance of interests is necessary to achieve a
workable outcome.
The Alaska Board of Game stated in
Emergency Order 03-02-15 that, of the average 500-600 wolves taken
statewide each year, only about four per year are taken in the area in
question. This demonstrates an easement having minimal impact on hunters
and trappers. The conservation value of such an exchange would be
enormous.
A no-take easement preventing harvest of wolves
and other park animals would mitigate the threat of future wolf pack
decline in and around Denali. The larger the area of easement and the
more animals included in the protection, the higher the conservation
value becomes. Extending the eastern boundary of easement area to the
Parks Highway (or better yet, the Nenana River) would create an easily
recognizable physical boundary.
The contentious history between the state and the
federal government must be set aside to move forward. Pursuing creative
solutions is necessary to protect one of the last intact functioning
ecosystems in the country.
We have a duty to protect
that ecosystem, and an easement in this area would help achieve that
end. The eyes of the nation and the broader conservation community are
on Alaska at this crucial time. Nearly 230,000 people from all 50 states
and over 100 different countries have signed an online petition calling
for action. I am writing in support of that action and encourage others
to do the same until the state and Interior Department cooperatively
reach a permanent solution.
Michael Johnson
is pursuing a master’s degree at the Yale School of Forestry &
Environmental Studies. He spent this summer in Alaska as an Edna Bailey
Sussman Fellow researching hunting regulations and predator populations
in and around national parks and preserves.
On August 7-9, 2015 Americans from all over the
country will meet in West Yellowstone, Montana to discuss, strategize
and unite in building a coalition to address the need to reform wildlife
management in America. It’s time for wildlife management to integrate
the science of the 21st century and the ever-changing demographics and
values of our citizenry. The status quo of wildlife management in
America is broken and it needs to be fixed.
Gray wolves are keystone predators that fill a crucial ecological niche
across the landscape. Known throughout the scientific community as
trophic cascade, wolves are apex predators whose behavior affects dozens
of other species, leading to an increase in biodiversity. Soils, plant
communities, other wildlife species, riparian areas and forests are all
effected by the presence of wolves.
2015 EVENT LOCATION: UNION PACIFIC DINING LODGE
WEST YELLOWSTONE, MONTANA AUGUST 7-9, 2015 Location Here
A 3-day family-friendly event that will feature
prominent speakers, panel discussions, live music, education booths,
children’s activities, local food vendors and screening of wildlife documentaries.We hope you can join us on August 7-9, 2015 at the historic Union Pacific Dining Lodge in West Yellowstone, Montana for Speak for Wolves! 2015 Speak For Wolves Home Website
To be notified of the Speak for Wolves 2015 updates – please subscribe here.
7:00pm Screening of OR-7 the Journey
with filmmaker Clemens Schenk. Amaroq Weiss of the Center for
Biological Diversity will be part of the Q&A session following the
film. Tickets cost $10 and can be bought online athttp://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1634194. They can also be purchased at the door-cash only.
Saturday August 8
11:30am doors open.
12:00pm opening remarks.
12:30pm Kim
Wheeler, Executive Director of the Red Wolf Coalition, will discuss the
plight of red wolves and the USFWS Red Wolf Recovery Program.
2:00pm activist
Oliver Starr will discuss the reasons for the sharp decline in gray wolf
populations in Denali National Park in Alaska and offer remedies.
3:00pm Brian Ertz,
founder and Board President of Wildlands Defense, will discuss the
failure of the controversial McKittrick Policy and why it needs to be
reformed.
BREAK
6:30pm doors open with live music by Matt Stone.
7:00pm Camilla
Fox, founder and Executive Director of Project Coyote, will discuss
current efforts to end wildlife killing contests on public and private
lands. A panel discussion will follow with Amaroq Weiss, West Coast Wolf
Organizer of the Center for Biological Diversity, Kevin Bixby, founder
and Executive Director of the Southwest Environmental Center, and
author/ecologist George Wuerthner.
The entire program on Saturday is free.
Sunday August 9
9:00am doors open with music by Goodshield Aguilar.
9:30am Mike Mease,
co-founder and Board President of Buffalo Field Campaign, will discuss
the continued hazing and slaughter of wild buffalo in/around Yellowstone
National Park and efforts to list the species under the Endangered
Species Act.
10:30am Louisa
Willcox, wildlife advocate and long-time conservationist, will discuss
the government’s ill-conceived push to remove federal protections for
grizzly bears and examine the role that states play in wildlife
management.
11:15am Interpretive dance by choreographer MaryLee Sanders.
11:30am Inspirational talk by Jimmy St. Goddard of Blackfeet Nation.
Dear Wolf Advocate:
We are sorry for making a lion related plea. But we think you will agree
that this unusual geopolitical wildlife poaching case deserves our
attention. There are few times when illegal and unethical hunters are
charged; but this is one of those times.
Cecil the Lion, a resident of Zimbabwe's national park, and a national
icon was poached and killed this week. Media reports in the Guardian,
Wall Street Journal and elsewhere have identified American Walter
Palmer, a dentist from Eden Prairie - Minneapolis Minnesota suburb, as
the poacher. He is alleged to have lured Cecil from the safety of the
national park to kill him. Two of Palmer's local accomplices are already
in custody. Zimbabwe authorities now actively seeking Palmer in
connection with this incident.
This
weekend, wolf attacks were responsible for the deaths of a number of
sheep and lambs in northern Sweden, in Sågmyra and Insjön, and on
Monday, the County Administrative Board will be reviewing an application
that came in to carry out a protective hunt.
Twenty-four sheep
and lambs were killed in Sågmyra on Saturday, and 10 in Östra Insjön on
Sunday. Last week, nine sheep were also killed by wolf attacks in
Insjön, and more sheep have disappeared from the areas because of the
attacks.
Residents have witnessed wolves standing and eating the
animals, and Bert Eriksson, a surveyor for the county administrative
board, told Swedish Radio P4 Dalarna that it’s very sad for the owners
of these animals.
In Sågmyra, there is a good game fence, but Eriksson says the wolves may have been able to get under it in one place.
After
the weekend’s attacks in the “Gimmen” wolf range, the county board has
warned the owners to be extra careful with their domestic animals, and
to put them inside at night.
Jonas Bergman, at the board, wrote in
a press release that they see the incidents as serious, and on Monday,
the board will be considering an application to carry out a protective
hunt.
A male red wolf enjoys a feeding in its
habitat at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. Federal officials
say they won't release any more endangered red wolves in eastern North
Carolina while they study the viability of the only wild population of
the species.
Posted: Sunday, July 26, 2015
Associated Press |
RALEIGH - A revised population estimate puts the
world's only wild population of endangered red wolves at their lowest
level since the late 1990s amid recent moves to protect the bigger,
predatory relatives of dogs from hunters' misdirected bullets.
Once common in the Southeast, the red wolf had
been considered extinct in the wild as of 1980 for reasons including
hunting and lost habitat. In 1987, wildlife officials released
captive-bred red wolves into the wilds of a federal tract in North
Carolina. For years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that
about 100 wolves roamed the land in coastal Dare, Hyde, Washington,
Tyrrell and Beaufort counties and also drifted onto neighboring private
property.
Now the federal agency has drastically cut its
population estimate to between 50 and 75 wild red wolves. The revision
was the result of fewer breeding adult wolves producing fewer babies to
replace those animals that die, FWS supervisory wildlife biologist
Rebecca Harrison said.
"The decrease is a reflection of two years in a
row of very low pup production in combination with the standing
mortality," Harrison said.
While in the past wildlife officials have found
30 to 50 pups a year, last year 19 were found and this year only seven,
Harrison said. The wolves breed a single litter of pups annually that
are born in the spring.
An outside study last year of the red wolf
recovery program by the nonprofit Wildlife Management Institute said it
couldn't determine the specific reasons for the red wolf decline.
Over the past decade, there was a tripling of
wolf deaths from gunshots, the report said. Illegal killings of red
wolves was the leading cause of deaths over the first 25 years of the
program, the report said, with shootings and poisonings making up 30
percent of their deaths.
Most of the red wolf shooting deaths of
breeding-aged red wolves happened during the last three months of the
year just before the animals breed, the report said. Deer season also
increases hunters in the forests in the fall.
The threats to red wolves from gunfire have
increased as coyotes, which often are confused for their bigger,
endangered cousins, multiplied across the state into the red wolf's
range.
North Carolina's Wildlife Resources Commission in
2013 decided to allow coyote hunting at night on private land and under
certain circumstances on public land. Conservationists said that
resulted in the shooting deaths of red wolves since even experts often
couldn't distinguish them from coyotes in a distant flashlight's glare.
Non-native coyotes threaten pets, livestock and
native wildlife so in the rest of the state they can be hunted on
private land at any time without any bag limit and on public land at
night with a permit.
Concerns include a case earlier this month in
which three coyotes stalked a man walking with his dog in a Raleigh
forest. After police arrived to help, the coyotes stalked them, too.
There hasn't been an unprovoked attack on humans recorded in North
Carolina, state wildlife officials said.
A federal judge meanwhile is monitoring events
because of a lawsuit challenging nighttime coyote hunting. A settlement
agreement led to new regulations this year again banning night hunting
for coyote in the red wolf zone, but the General Assembly has about a
year to decide whether to oppose it.
State Sen. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, who represents a
region that includes the red wolf zone, declined comment on whether
lawmakers will object to the rules.
Anti-environment interests in Congress are currently attacking the
40-yearold Endangered Species Act, which has been quite effective
protection for wildlife. The House and the Senate have been attaching
riders to the Interior Appropriations Bill that put species at greater
risk than they currently are. This year, there have been dozens of
underhanded legislative proposals introduced.
Their tactics go against what the American people want and play into
the hands of shortsighted greed They are attaching controversial
legislation that would never pass on its own. They are creating
limitations on citizens’ ability to help enforce the act because 90
percent of the American people do not want these laws dismantled so
large corporations can continue destroying our habitat for their
individual profit.
Caeleigh MacNeil of Earthjustice notes that riders in the base text of
the House bill attack federal protections for three imperiled species:
the sage grouse; gray wolves in Wyoming and the Midwest; and the
northern long-eared bat. More riders were added later to undermine ESA
protections for the “Sonoran desert tortoise, the lesser prairie
chicken, Preble’s meadow jumping mouse and six different types of
mussels,” Maceil says. “Riders in the Senate bill target gray wolves in
Wyoming and the Midwest, the lesser prairie chicken and the sage
grouse.”
This attack to the Endangered Species Act come at a time when studies
have shown that the rapid loss of biodiversity over the past few
centuries indicate that a sixth mass extinction is already underway.
We must not allow reckless decisions and irresponsible partisan
political moves with no thoughtful reasonable debate to become law. It
is up to us to protect the Endangered Species Act and stop the
exploitation of our resources by anti-environment lawmakers who are
rolling back protections for all of us! Be the change.
Dear Wolf Advocate: 
