Endangered wolf leaving Brookfield Zoo to enter the wild

Ernesta, a Mexican gray wolf who will be leaving Brookfield Zoo on Oct. 27, to be released into the wild. Photo/Brookfield Zoo.

SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE October 25, 2012 

 

A Mexican gray wolf who has lived at Brookfield Zoo since 2010 will leave this week to prepare to enter the wild, joining 58 of the endangered animals roaming free in New Mexico and Arizona.

On Saturday, Ernesta will be taken to U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Wolf Management Facility at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro, NM, according to the Chicago Zoological Society. The goal is to bolster the population of a species once on the verge of extinction.

She will then choose a mate and the pair will receive survival skills conditioning — a sort of pre-release boot camp — to prepare them for life in the wild, according to a release from CZS. 

The boot camp is to assure the wolves are good candidates for release. Biologists will observe Ernesta and her mate as they slowly transition to feedings that mimic wild wolf food patterns, such as eating native prey (road-kill deer and elk); and experience the natural condition of feeding only every several days, the release said. 

They will also go through a process of taste aversion to beef so they will avoid cattle ranches once released.

Natural wolf behaviors have been encouraged since Ernesta first arrived at Brookfield Zoo, the release said. This includes keepers not interacting with wolves; and feeding them native prey such as elk and bison.

Their habitats are designed to mimic the wild environment, with heated rocks, pools and loose dirt; dens and tunnels of the size they can dig themselves; and buildings that blend in with nature so they don’t associate manmade structures with shelter or food.

Two potential mate have been chosen from the Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka, Mo., where Ernesta was born in April 2008 before coming to Brookfield Zoo with eight litter mates, who will remain at the zoo, the release said.

Mexican gray wolves are the rarest and most genetically distinct subspecies of wolf in North American gray wolves, and were listed as endangered 1976, the release said. There are 283 Mexican wolves living in captivity in the United States, and at ;east 58 were counted living in the wild in 2011. Five more were released later that year.

“Just a few decades ago, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Mexican Gray Wolf Species Survival Plan was put in place to save the wolves from absolute extinction,” Joan Daniels Tantillo, CZS associate curator of mammals, said in a statement.

“Ernesta’s potential transfer into the wild is an important step to help foster genetic diversity within the re-introduced population to allow this species to survive.”

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Image of the Day

DSC_2754, a photo by Anna MariaP on Flickr.

Groups seek red wolf protection from coyote hunt

The Associated Press

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

RALEIGH — Wildlife and environmental groups are asking a Wake County court to block a new rule allowing coyotes to be hunted at night with spotlights after the shooting death of a similar-looking but endangered red wolf.

The groups represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center and state attorneys for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission expect a hearing next week, when a judge could decide whether to freeze the statewide hunting rule that took effect in August.

About 100 red wolves live wild in a five-county region in northeast North Carolina, where scientists are trying to restore one of the two wolf breeds native to North America.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and red wolf groups are offering a reward of up to $8,000 for information that leads to the conviction of whoever killed a red wolf wearing a radio collar last month near Creswell in Tyrrell County, wildlife service red wolf recovery coordinator David Rabon said Wednesday.

Illegally killing a red wolf can be punished with up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.
“The killing of an endangered red wolf just over a month since the (state) commission allowed spotlight hunting of coyotes at night is a clear signal that the rule is a danger to wild red wolves,” Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Derb Carter said

About six to eight wolves have been gunned down yearly since 2007, Rabon said. He declined to say how many have been shot this year because suspicious cases are under investigation. Red wolves are most active at night.

Wildlife Resources Commission officials explained their reasons for expanding coyote hunting to overnight hours by saying it would better control the predators — which prey on poultry, small livestock, and pet dogs and cats. State officials said about four out of five of the 3,500 comments received favored hunting coyotes with spotlights.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office said the office had no response to the conservationists’ filing other than to say state lawyers expected a hearing sometime next week.
The Red Wolf Coalition and other groups initially filed a lawsuit against night hunting of coyotes last month. They argued the expanded hunting could endanger red wolves, which resemble coyotes and are hard to tell apart even during the day.

The wolves are named for the reddish color of their fur most apparent behind the ears and along the neck and legs, but the animals are mostly brown and tan with some black along their backs. They are larger than coyotes but smaller than gray wolves, with the average adult weighing 45-80 pounds and about 4 feet long from nose to tail.

Red wolves were declared an endangered species 45 years ago. The Fish and Wildlife Service declared red wolves extinct in the wild in 1980. In 1987, 14 animals bred in captivity were introduced to the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern North Carolina. The wolf area has expanded to 1.7 million acres including three national wildlife refuges, a Defense Department bombing range, state-owned lands, and private property.

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Wolves and Bees Featured at Christ Church’s Annual EcoDay

Posted October 25th, 2012

BY KATHRYN BAUMGARTNER

Photo credit: Kathryn Baumgartner

The Christ Church in Sparkill held its third annual EcoDay and fifth annual Blessing of the Animals on October 13, with presentations by beekeeper Ron Breland and representatives from the Wolf Conservation Center – including one of the wolves.

The purpose of this day, according to Father Tom Faulkner, is to thank God for the world and the environment, and for protecting both people and animals. It is also about educating people, particularly the younger generation, about how to live a greener, more eco-friendly lifestyle.

This year, for the first time, representatives from the Wolf Conservation Center (WCC) were in attendance. With them was Atka, a 10-year-old arctic grey wolf who serves as “wolf ambassador.” The center is located in South Salem, N.Y. and is a private not-for-profit group established in 1999 that rescues wolves as part of the Species Survival Plan Program.

Of the 25 wolves currently being housed at the Center, some serve as part of the educational facility and are known as ambassadors. Atka is the only one of these who travels for presentations. He was brought through the church and blessed by Father Tom.

A lot of information was given about wild wolves, including the fact that they are afraid of humans and will shy away from them. Information about color, communication, methods of marking territory, and hunting habits were also given, but the most important fact to have taken away from the day was that wolves are by no means pets.

When asked if the audience was allowed to pet Atka, speaker Maggie Howell, WCC managing director, said, “We really don’t want to do that when we’re doing our presentations because we want people to understand what and who he is.”

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DNR: Hunters have killed 20 Wisconsin wolves

Wolf hunt

Posted on: October 24, 2012, by Trisha Bee,

MADISON (AP) — Wisconsin wildlife officials say hunters have reported killing 20 wolves since the state’s first organized hunt began last week.

As of Tuesday, October 23rd, hunters reported taking six wolves in far northwestern Wisconsin’s management zone; six wolves in the far northeastern zone; two wolves in the mid-northwestern zone; two wolves in the mid-northeast; three in the mid-central; and one in the south.

The hunt began on Oct. 15th. It’s set to run until hunters kill a statewide total of 116 wolves or until the last day of February, whichever comes first.

The hunt could end sooner in management zones where hunters meet zone-specific quotas. They’re closet in the mid-northeast, where they can make three more kills before reaching the zone’s five-wolf limit.

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Eve of wolf hunt; disagreements running rampant

Oct 24, 2012

Written by Scott Seroka

ELY, Minn. - Throughout Minnesota's history, the wolf has been both mystical and misunderstood. Some find the nighttime howl of the animal soothing and comforting; the same sound can send shivers down the spine of a cattle farmer.
Federally protected for decades, the hunters are about to become the hunted. The population in the Land of 10,000 Lakes has rebounded dramatically, and the much-anticipated hunt will begin on November 3rd.

"There's been a lot of interest. We've had over 23,000 people apply for the lottery," the DNR's Dan Stark said outside his Grand Rapids office. 6,000 hunters got a license through a lottery and they're authorized to take 400 wolves in 3 seasons; 2 general hunting seasons and 1 trapping season.
"We've kind of estimated about a 7% success rate based on how many licenses we're offering," Stark remarked.

In 2011 in Montana, a wolf season drew more than 18,600 hunters. The pre-season quota was 220 wolves and hunters managed to harvest 166 during the initial season.

Mark Johnson, Executive Director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, is not surprised. The Northwoods-based organization has been lobbying for a wolf hunt and calls the DNR's harvest quota conservative, yet understandable. "I wouldn't mind seeing it more liberal, but it's a start and gives us a chance to really look at the hunt. What are the implications? What really happens from it? I think in 5 years we're going to find we'll be relaxing the regulations quite a bit," he said.

But folks opposed to this hunt are lining up, hiring lawyers trying to stop it. One of the most vocal groups is "Howling for Wolves," founded by Dr. Maureen Hackett. "We're not being overrun by wolves so it's not like we have so many wolves running around that we need to manage their population. So this hunt is being done to please people who want to shoot them," she said. She also believes there wasn't adequate public comment before the hunt was approved.

Howling for Wolves has purchased more than a dozen billboards around the state. A PSA the organization produced states "we are about to lose all that we worked so hard to save. Don't silence our wilderness."

We asked Dr. David Mech, the world's foremost wolf expert, if Minnesota's population could sustain a hunt. Mech has been studying wolves in Northern Minnesota for 5 decades; having collared more than a dozen in different packs around Ely. "The number of wolves had to be at least 1,250 before the wolf could be de-listed. Well, we reached that number in about 1978 and then just continued to increase since then," he said.

The DNR puts Minnesota's current overall population at 3,000 this winter. Mech said it's a conservative estimate and during the summer, after the pups are born, the population can almost double. Plus, the expert says, wolves aren't aware of political borders. "Our Minnesota population is connected to the 60,000 wolves in Canada," he explained.

It's not what John Chute, who raises beef cattle near Aitkin, wants to hear. He says he's surrounded by hungry packs of wolves and he hears them almost nightly. "They'll be off in the north and there will be another group off in the south and here I am in the middle," he told KARE 11.

Chute says he's had a-half-a-dozen verified kills over the last 10 years. According to state numbers, an average of 170 wolves are captured or killed annually across the state in a depredation program set up to manage wolf-livestock conflicts. The state reported 128 wolf damage payment claims in 2011.
"Everyone that we lose is like saying I'll donate 2% of my gross and give it to the wolf fund, so it kind of hurts," Chute said.

The Native American tribes of Northern Minnesota have banded together, forbidding the hunting of wolves on their lands. The White Earth tribe is taking this hunt personally. "In our history it says the wolf walked with us, the Anishinaabeg people," Mike Swan, the White Earth Director of Natural Resources, said.

Several members of the wolf clan on the reservation have also strongly opposed the new hunt. "What they're going to be doing is they're going to be killing my brothers and my sisters. You know, that's my family, that's always been my family," tribal member Mary Favorite said.

Wolves in Minnesota are not often seen in the wilderness but they are certainly a large part of the current conversation, as opening day for a controversial hunt nears.

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Image of the Day

Angry wolfs in Wildpark Lüneburger Heide (explore), a photo by Photo-Wolfy on Flickr.

Wolf management will require cooperation, more money

Posted by Rich

Oct. 23, 2012 

ENDANGERED SPECIES — Wolves continue to consume, among other things, a lot of time, money and attention in Washington.

Read on for an Associated Press report that rounds up what state Fish and Wildlife officials are doing and proposing as we head into winter, a critical time for wildlife as well as for wildlife officials seeking funding from the Legislature.

By PHUONG LE
Associated Press

SEATTLE — Taking aim from a helicopter flying over northeastern Washington state, a marksman last month killed the alpha male of a wolf pack that had repeatedly attacked a rancher's cattle. The shooting put an end to the so-called Wedge pack, but it did little to quell the controversy over wolves in the state.

The issue has been so explosive that state wildlife officials received death threats and the head of the Fish and Wildlife Commission warned the public at a recent hearing in Olympia on wolves that uniformed and undercover officers were in the room ready to act.

More conflicts between wolves and livestock are inevitable, officials say, as wolves in Washington recover, growing in number more quickly than expected. The animals numbered a handful in 2008, and are now estimated at between 80 and 100.
“What are we going to do so we don't have this again?” asked Steve Pozzanghera, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife regional director.

He said officials are trying to be proactive to prevent the need to kill wolves in the future. They plan to collar more wolves this winter to keep better track of them. They plan to ask the Legislature to beef up money to compensate livestock owners whose animals are killed by wolves. And they're urging livestock operators to sign agreements with the state to share the cost of using a broad range of non-lethal measures to prevent livestock-wolf conflicts.

So far, only one livestock owner has signed an agreement, with four to six others in the hopper - underscoring the challenges the agency faces as it tries to recover the endangered native species while encouraging social tolerance of the wolves by minimizing livestock losses.
“We understand there is some resistance out there,” said Pozzanghera, but the agency is committed to working with ranchers and cattlemen.

“The whole situation is really tragic, most of all because it could have been avoided,” said Jasmine Minbashian, of the nonprofit Conservation Northwest, which supported the decision in the end to kill the wolf pack because the animals had become reliant on livestock.
“If you remove the pack without changing something on the ground, this situation is bound to repeat itself,” she said.

The Stevens County Cattlemen's Association is urging its roughly 50 members not to sign those agreements. It wants the commission to remove gray wolves from the state endangered list in Eastern Washington in the near future.

“Our guys are willing to use these nonlethal methods … The problem is these methods are not always effective,” said the group's spokeswoman Jamie Henneman, noting the agreements address only symptoms. “The illness happens to be that we're oversaturated with wolves.”

Grey wolves are protected as an endangered species throughout Washington state. The animals are federally listed as endangered only in the western two-thirds of the state. Removing the animals from the state endangered list could open the way to future wolf hunting.

While Montana, Idaho and Wyoming have been grappling with wolves in the past decade, Washington has dealt with wolves only in recent years. In 2008, a wolf pack was documented for the first time in 70 years. Now, there are eight confirmed packs, with four others suspected.
The killing of seven members of the Wedge Pack - named for the area they inhabit along the Canadian border near Laurier - has prompted an outcry from some wolf advocates. Some have criticized the owners of the Diamond M ranch for not taking enough non-lethal measures.

“As far as I know, we've done everything that they suggested might be effective,” Bill McIrvin said during a recent Olympia hearing. McIrvin is one of the owners of the ranch, where wolves killed or injured at least 17 animals on both private and public land. The ranch employed cowboys, delayed the turnout of their cow-calf pairs until the animals were bigger and quickly removed injured cattle, state officials said.

Wildlife officials say they're working on new rules to compensate ranchers for losses, including for reduced weight gain or reduced pregnancy rates.
Ranchers who sign onto nonlethal agreements with WDFW would have priority for livestock compensation.

Sam Kayser, an Ellensburg cattle rancher, said he signed an agreement with the state because he knows wolves will eventually target his cattle and he wanted help.
“What are the wolves going to eat? They're going to eat elk. If the elk numbers go short, they're going to eat my cattle,” said Kays

“Fish and Wildlife (department) was trying to be proactive and I was trying to be a little proactive myself,” he added.
The state is sharing the cost of a range rider who stays with the cattle to make sure they don't become prey to wolves.

Range riders have been used in other states to prevent wolf-livestock conflicts. A pilot project in Stevens County over the summer is testing the concept in this state. Officials have been working with a rancher there and will review the success of that project in coming months to see whether and how it can be duplicated elsewhere.

Kayser says he and other cattlemen saw the conflicts coming.
“If they're willing to try, I'm willing to try,” Kayser said. “(But) I think it's putting off the eventuality of what's going to be.”

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Young wolf killed on Trans-Canada Highway belonged to Bow Valley pack

 

By Colette Derworiz, Calgary Herald October 24, 2012

 

There are now only five members of the Bow Valley wolf pack after a yearling was hit and killed by a vehicle early Monday near Castle Junction.

Photograph by: A Section

CALGARY — A young wolf killed on the highway early this week was part of a well known pack often spotted along the Bow Valley parkway in Banff National Park.
Early Monday morning, Parks Canada received a call from a passing motorist about a wolf being on the Trans-Canada Highway just west of the Castle junction.

A wildlife technician was on the way to the scene when the animal got hit by another vehicle.
“If he had arrived a few minutes sooner, he may have been able to get the wolf off the road and behind fencing,” said Omar McDadi, a Parks Canada spokesman for the Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay field unit.

However, the yearling wolf was hit and killed by an unknown motorist before the technician arrived.
McDadi said it’s believed the wolf got onto the highway because the gate to a construction yard — where equipment and asphalt is kept for the twinning of the highway — was left open.

“There are question marks,” he said, noting parks officials are investigating all of the circumstances leading up to the wolf’s death.

The wolf was one of an estimated 35 wolves in Banff National Park and belonged to the Bow Valley wolf pack — tracked in the area by radio collars on the alpha male and alpha female’s necks.
The now five-member pack’s travels east of the Banff townsite through the Bow Valley to the north end of Kootenay National Park. They are often spotted along the Bow Valley Parkway.

“We really regret and are saddened by the loss of this wolf,” McDadi said. “Wolves are amazing creatures and we are lucky to have them in the national park.
“It’s a sad day for everyone when we lose a wolf.”

Mike McIvor, of the Bow Valley Naturalists, said the wolves in the Bow Valley are significant.
“They were wiped out at one time,” he said, noting they started showing up again in the 1980s due to a high elk population. “They are very much part of the ecosystem.”
McIvor said he’s disappointed to hear about another human-caused death of a wolf.

“Obviously they’re hanging on by a pretty thin thread when they are being killed on the railway track and the highway,” he said, noting it’s extremely unfortunate it appears to have been linked to a moment of carelessness.
McIvor said there should be closer monitoring, although he suggested it could become more difficult with a reduction in parks staff this summer due to federal budget cuts.

Starting next spring, Parks Canada will attempt to reduce wildlife mortality by preventing overnight traffic along the Bow Valley Parkway, from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m., between March 1 and June 25.
The overnight driving ban on the 17-kilometre stretch of roadway, which cuts through critical habitat for wolves, grizzly bears and moose, will give animals free rein to move about and feed in the critical spring months following winter hibernation.

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Group blasts feds over redacted wolf documents

Massively redacted wolf documents show Mexican wolves about as sensitive a nuclear weapons

By Ralph Maughan On October 23, 2012

Not really, but why were 80% of released documents on Mexican wolf capture plans  redacted?

Last August the conservation group WildEarth Guardians requested the documents about a planned removal of a female Mexican wolf whose pack might have killed up to six cattle near the SW corner of New Mexico.

Folks are often suspicious of the federal agency Wildlife Services in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Wildlife News has covered many stories related to controversy surrounding the agency.

On October 23 WildEarth Guardians received 870 pages of documents about the planned removal of the wolf (note: a public outcry had, in the meantime, stopped the action).  Folks can imagine with 870 pages, a lot was learned about the decision.  Amazingly 80 per cent of the documents were blacked out — redacted.

Draw your conclusions . . .

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Group blasts feds over redacted wolf documents

SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Environmentalists on Tuesday accused federal wildlife managers of keeping secret some of the details behind decisions that led to the capture of a female Mexican gray wolf whose pack was blamed for several cattle killings in southwestern New Mexico.
The criticism comes after a public records request by WildEarth Guardians netted hundreds of pages of blacked-out documents.

Nearly 80 percent of the 870 pages released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services were redacted, said Wendy Keefover, director of the group's carnivore protection program.
"It looks like this is a national security threat and they have to hide these records," Keefover said, referring to the stack of black pages. "This is public information, but the federal government simply won't account for the loba's incarceration."

Wildlife Services did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment, but the agency noted in a letter to the environmental group that some of the information requested was exempt under the Freedom of Information Act because it included employee opinions and recommendations and other draft documents.

WildEarth Guardians is planning to appeal and is calling for a congressional investigation of the agency's handling of the records request.

WildEarth Guardians requested the documents in August after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ordered the capture of the pack's alpha female. An initial order to have the wolf shot was withdrawn after it sparked public outcry.

The pack has been blamed for six cattle kills, including four that happened outside the wolf recovery boundaries within a four-month period.

WildEarth Guardians had sought to review necropsy results from the cattle deaths along with photographs and other documentation to determine whether the wolves were in fact the culprits.
Carter Niemeyer, a Wildlife Services retiree and the former wolf recovery coordinator for Idaho, reviewed some of the documents. He questioned whether the cause of death in some cases could be accurately determined given that the cow carcasses were decomposed.

Niemeyer said the government should be conducting each investigation with "total clarity" given the controversy surrounding efforts to reintroduce the Mexican gray wolf in the American Southwest.
"I don't think it is unreasonable to provide irrefutable evidence in a form that the public can visualize and understand since these kinds of investigations will always be challenged now and in the future," he said.

WildEarth Guardians has also requested related documents from the Fish and Wildlife Service, but that agency has yet to respond.

A subspecies of the gray wolf, the Mexican wolf was added to the endangered species list in 1976. A captive-breeding program was started and the first batch of wolves was released into the wild in 1998.

Efforts to re-establish the predators in the Southwest have stumbled due to legal battles, illegal shootings and other problems. A survey done at the beginning of the year showed there were at least such 58 wolves in the wild along the New Mexico-Arizona border.

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