Seeking the Moon

Court ends Wyoming’s wolf-killing ways

Wyoming’s trigger-happy management of Gray wolves is over. A judge has restored federal protections for the species, invalidating the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2012 statewide Endangered Species Act delisting.

By Megan Gannon

The Southwest’s small population of endangered Mexican wolves, once driven to the brink of extinction, has grown for the fourth year in a row, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

By the end up 2013, there were at least 83 wolves roaming Arizona and New Mexico, up from 75 in 2012, a population survey found. Among the 14 known packs, there were five breeding couples and 17 newborn pups that survived until the end of the year.

Benjamin Tuggle, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Southwest regional director, said the Mexican wolf population has nearly doubled in the past four years and noted that the entire population consists of wolvesthat were born in the wild. The numbers, however, disappointed some conservationists who lament that the species’ population growth has been slow.

Eva Sargent, director of southwest programs for Defenders of Wildlife, said the wolf population has “stagnated” and is ”geographically and genetically stranded.” In a statement, Sargent urged the Fish and Wildlife Service to release more captive breeding pairs into the wild and establish additional core populations to boost the species’ numbers.

Meanwhile, Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, said the wolves “remain a long way from being recovered, but this is definitely encouraging news.” In 2008, the group helped overturn a policy that allowed wildlife managers in Arizona and New Mexico to remove and kill wolves involved in livestock depredations.

Mexican wolves, also known as lobos, once ranged throughout the Southwest, but were nearly extinct in the United States by the 1970s. After the species was listed as endangered, a captive breeding program was established to bring the animals back to the wild, starting with just seven wolves, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Wolf in The Netherlands officially becomes endangered species

What better gift could I recieve on this day to celebrate my 4th anniversary with David?! Now the only thing left to do is wait for their return!

The wolf will get a lawfully protected status. This will enable the Faunafund to grant compensations in damage caused by wolves if this will occur, writes Secretary of State Dijksma from the Ministry of Economic Affairs in a reaction to the advice from Alterra (Wageningen University) to the House of Representatives on the anticipation on the return of the wolf in The Netherlands. Wolves are inter alia coming from Germany, getting closer and closer to our borders. A possible return of the wolves after over 150 years to The Netherlands is not excluded.

The Faunafund and Dutch provinces are involved with the advice from Alterra. Provinces are significantly responsible for the implementation of the policy, also in relation to possible damage to cattle and compensations in this regard via the Faunafund.

A considerable part of the advice is on doing research. Particularly provinces will have to decide which research recommendations will be preformed short-term.

Within Europe, genetic reference material from wolves need to be shared more. This way, identifying wolves will become significantly easier. In The Netherlands, the joining of wolf knowledge will not take place via a wolf office, but will have to find a way via already existing organizations.

The Idaho Legislature today passed House Bill 470, a bill to create a new lethal “Wolf Depredation Control Board” to administer a fund for widespread killing of wolves in the state. The bill, expected to be signed into law by Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, sets aside $400,000 in state funds to kill roughly 500 wolves, leaving just 150 in the entire state.

The new board will consist of members appointed and overseen by Otter, who said in 2007 that he wanted to be the first to kill an Idaho wolf after federal protections were taken away. The board will be made up of representatives of the agricultural, livestock and hunting communities. The bill does not require any members of the board to represent the wolf conservation community.

More Wolves May Be Heading for California

New gray wolves confirmed as dispersing from northeastern Oregon in December are providing confirmation that left to their own devices, the charismatic predators may well recolonize California.

According to a report released in February by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, presence of a wolf in December has been confirmed in the White River Wildlife Management Unit (WMU), which surrounds Mount Hood east of Portland. ODFW confirmed wolf tracks in the area after a sighting was reported. ODFW also confirmed that on the same day of the White River wolf sighting, another wolf likely dispersing from the northeastern corner of the state was documented in the Heppner WMU, which encompasses much of the Umatilla National Forest and the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

The agency can’t tell whether the wolves are just passing through or have taken up residence, live alone or with other wolves, or are male or female. But the sightings are mounting evidence that if they aren’t hounded out of the Cascade Range, wolves are quite likely to re-establish themselves in California.

Like OR-7, who got quite a bit of media attention in 2011 when he became the first wild wolf to venture into the state of California since the early 1920s, the White River wolf likely dispersed from one of the eight or so packs ranging the northeast corner of Oregon, whose founders swam across the Snake River from Idaho sometime before 2009.

The White River WMU is just under 300 air miles from the California line, and a band of nearly unbroken wolf habitat connects the area with OR-7’s recent haunts in the vicinity. Adult grey wolves can cover as much as 30 miles in a day when hunting or searching for mates.

A coyote harassing a gray wolf. It is most likely that the coyote had pups in the area. 

WOLVES AND WATER

The wolf packs’ territorium often contains big water sources like a river or a lake. The wolves does not only use the water for drinking, but also for playing in and cooling down in the summer. Even in winter time the wolves does not hesitate to wade through ice cold water. 

The wolf paws also makes the wolves great at swimming. Because of the size of the paws and the skin flaps between their toes, the wolf feet works as paddles in the water, and gives the wolves a good drive when swimming.

Wolves fish too! When fishing, the wolves often find a place where the fish has to cross on shallow water. Then when the fish crosses - usually in huge numbers - the wolves can simply grab the fish from the water and bring it to the shore.

John Hyde describes what he saw the first time he saw a wolf fish:

In one swift and suprisingly smooth motion, it lifted the salmon from the water and carried it back to the safety of the grass. About ten minutes later it returned and put on the same show; and then again and again. In less than an hour, that wolf had eaten five sockeye salmon weighing 5-6 pounds apiece. I’d been watching bears fish here for a few years and not one of them had anything on this wolf’s performance. This wolf was good!

Wolves return to Moselle (France)

After more than 100 years, a wolf has been spotted again in the French province Moselle. The wolf was caught on the picture above by use of a trap camera. More south, in the Vogezen, a small number of wolves is residing already.

There currently are three different wolf species. Below you will find each wolf species with a list of it’s subspecies - both the living and extinct ones.

Note that there has always been constant discussions on whether some subspecies are actually a species on it’s own, and the other way around. Some examples of this are the fact that there is no single hypothesis for the origin of the Red wolf is universally accepted by scientists. DNA analysis and morphological evidence support recognition of the Red wolf as a distinct species from the Gray wolf, but other scientists believe the Red wolf is a subspecies of the Gray wolf. Also, some scientists maintain the Eastern wolf (Canis lupus lycaon) as a species on it’s own (Canis lycaon). Also, some subspecies are yet to be determined, for example Canada’s Pacific Coastal wolves.

____________________________________________________________

Gray wolf (Canis lupus)

Gray wolf subspecies:

Euopean/Eurasian wolf (Canis lupus lupus)

Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus)

Italian wolf (Canis lupus italicus)

Tundra wolf (Canis lupus albus)

Hudson bay wolf (Canis lupus hundsonicus)

Arctic wolf (Canis lupus arctos)

Alaskan tundra wolf (Canis lupus tundrarum)

Alexander Archipelago wolf (Canis lupus ligoni)

Eastern wolf (Canis lupus lycaon) Note: Some scientists maintain this wolf is a species on it’s own (Canis lycaon).

Northern Rocky mountain wolf (Canis lupus irremotus)

Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi)

Mackenzie river wolf (Canis lupus mackenzii)

Mackenzie valley wolf (Canis lupus occidentalis)

Baffin Island wolf (Canis lupus manningi)

Labrador wolf (Canis lupus labradorius)

Greenland wolf (Canis lupus orion)

Steppe wolf (Canis lupus campestris)

Tibetan wolf/Himalayan wolf (Canis lupus chanco) Note: some recognize the Himalayan wolf as it’s own species (canis himalayensis).

Buffalo wolf (Canis lupus nubilus)

African wolf (Canis lupus lupaster) Note: Earlier considered a subspecies of the Golden Jackal, but recent research proves it is a wolf. read more.

Yukon wolf (Canis lupus pambasileus)

Vancouver Island wolf (Canis lupus crassodon)

Arabian wolf (Canis lupus arabs)

Indian wolf/Iranian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) Note: Recent genetic research suggests that the Indian Wolf, originally considered only as a subpopulation of the Iranian Wolf (Canis lupus pallipes), may represent a distinct species Indian wolf (Canis indica).

Dingo (Canis lupus dingo)

Domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris)

Extinct Gray wolf subspecies:

Kenai peninsula wolf (Canis lupus alces)

Newfoundland wolf (Canis lupus beothucus)

Bernard’s wolf (Canis lupus bernardi)

British Columbia wolf (Canis lupus comlumbianus)

Florida black wolf (Canis lupus floridanus)

Southern Rocky Mountains wolf (Canis lupus youngi)

Cascade mountain wolf (Canis lupus fuscus)

Manitoba wolf (Canis lupus griseoalbus)

Hokkaidō wolf (Canis lupus hattai)

Honshū wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax)

Mogollon Mountain wolf (Canis lupus mogollensis)

Texas wolf (Canis lupus monstrabilis)

____________________________________________________________

Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis)

Ethiopian wolf subspecies:

Northern Ethiopian wolf (canis simensis simensis) 

Southern Ethiopian wolf (canis simensis citernii)

____________________________________________________________

Red wolf (Canis rufus) Note: Some scientists maintain this wolf a subspecies of the Gray wolf, and there currently is a lot of debate on whether this species is completely extinct or not due to crossbreeding with coyotes

Extinct Red wolf supspecies:

Florida Black Wolf (Canis rufus floridanus)

Gregory’s wolf (Canis rufus gregoryi)