Howling Against Ruling
FILE - In this undated photo provided by Jayne Belsky via the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, is a gray wolf in a wooded area near Wisconsin Dells, Wis. Federal officials removed Great Lakes wolves from the endangered species list in January. Given free rein to manage the species, Wisconsin and Minnesota lawmakers pushed aside the concerns of some environmentalists and established their first seasons allowing hunters to bait, shoot and trap wolves.
Posted: Tuesday, November 10, 2015
ELY — A recent Weather Channel documentary series
on wolves has received low ratings and plenty of criticism from
International Wolf Center officials.
Officials of the IWC, located in Ely and
with administrative offices in Minneapolis, helped the Weather Channel
production team gain access to biologists who are experts on wolf
behavior during filming of the wolf segment for the docudrama series,
“Natural Born Monsters.”
The result, according to IWC officials,
was a show that “manufactures drama from rumors to boost ratings and
revenue.” They are particularly upset with how an incident involving a
wolf bite of a teenage boy was portrayed.
Center officials said the Weather Channel ignored concerns brought forward by the IWC about the accuracy of content. “It’s sad that the show’s producers left
out important facts surrounding situations they highlighted,” said IWC
Executive Director Rob Schultz. “Despite published evidence, viewers are
misled by suggestions that a mutant wolf may have escaped Isle Royale
and attacked a 16-year-old boy.”
According to the IWC, the Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources investigated the incident and determined
that the teen had been bitten by a yearling wolf, but the injuries were
non-life threatening. That wolf was captured and found to have severe
facial deformity and brain damage caused by an infection that was likely
from an injury suffered as a pup.
DNR officials reported that the yearling
was in poor physical condition and they believe it was from a local
pack near the the incident scene on Lake Winnibigoshish, which is more
than 250 miles from Isle Royale.
IWC officials were also not pleased with
the feeding or baiting of wolves as depicted in the documentary. That
is an unsafe practice that has caused wild animals to lose their natural
fear of humans, they said. “Millions of people turn to the Weather
Channel seeking guidance on a collection of data from top scientists on
meteorology,” said Nancy Gibson, co-found of the IWC and a two-time Emmy
award winner for the family science show, “Newton’s Apple.”
“That science is now in doubt after this
despicable display of sensationalism regarding a predator intricately
connected with the wilderness,” she said.
Wolves and the IWC are not new to controversy.
In Minnesota and some other northern
tier states opinions are strongly mixed on whether there should be a
hunting season on the gray timber wolf, which was previously on the
endangered species list, then delisted in 2012, then relisted by a
federal judge’s ruling on Dec. 19, 2014.
That decision immediately reinstated
Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Michigan and placed the animals under protection of the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
There is now a public effort by those supporting another delisting of the wolf.
Minnesota had wolf hunting seasons in
2013 and 2014, but now it is only legal to kill a wolf in the defense of
human life. Only government agents are authorized to take wolves if
depredation occurs.
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