First Published 8 hours ago
Collateral damage » Do wolves stand a chance here if their smaller cousins are always in crosshairs?
Another gray wolf has perished in Utah from lethal force targeting coyotes.
On Nov. 7, a private trapper discovered an
89-pound female dead in a neck snare he set west of Randolph near the
Idaho state line, according to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
"We're pretty sure it's a wolf and we sent out a
hair sample to a lab to be sure. At this point it's an open
investigation," said Kim Hersey, DWR's mammal conservation coordinator.
Officials will use genetic testing to rule out the possibility that the
uncollared carcass is that of a dog-wolf hybrid.
The death comes less than a year after a pair of hunters shot a wolf outside Beaver after mistaking the collared animal for a coyote.
The gray wolf remains a protected species
under the Endangered Species Act, but the Randolph animal died in the
small slice of northern Utah included in wolves' Northern Rockies
recovery zone spanning parts of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. Gray wolves
have been delisted for much of this region, thanks to their successful
re-introduction 20 years ago around Yellowstone, so the animal killed
outside Randolph was not protected under federal law.
This killing prompted wildlife advocates to
renew criticism of Utah policies that not only allow, but encourage
indiscriminate killing of coyotes, which bear some resemblance to the
gray wolf.
"Wolves that happen to move into Utah or
Colorado will most likely end up dead and hence we won't have wolves
established in either of those states," said Kirk Robinson, executive
director of the Western Wildlife Conservancy. "It's a real issue."
The wolf that died outside Beaver last year had
been observed that fall on the Grand Canyon's North Rim and was later
dubbed Echo following a naming contest. It had roamed all the way from
Wyoming, then back into Utah, where it took a .223-caliber round on Dec.
28 and was finished off with a pistol shot to the head.
Federal prosecutors declined to charge
the Beaver men who killed Echo or another hunter who shot a wolf last
spring near Kremmling, Colo. In both cases, federal authorities
concluded the hunters believed they were drawing a bead on coyotes,
which hunters may kill without a license or bag limit, and regardless of
the season.
Wolves' pesky, smaller cousins have
proliferated in Utah thanks in part to the elimination of the top dog
from the landscape. Utah taxpayers now subsidize coyote slaughter
through a $50 bounty established in 2012 in the name of protecting mule
deer. Thousands of coyotes are trapped, shot and poisoned each year, yet
their numbers remain strong in many places.
Coyote hunting contests remain common in some
Western states, despite intense opposition from some wildlife and
animal-welfare groups. A month before Echo's death, Beaver hosted a
coyote "calling" contest in which contestants killed 35 animals and
turned in the carcasses for points.
The ninth annual Beaver Utah Coyote Calling Contest will take place Saturday.
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