CPW confirms second wolf-kill in week

From Montrose Daily Press:

Just days after Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed a wolf killed a calf in Grand County, the agency confirmed a second wolf-kill in Jackson County, where a field investigation confirmed a calf found dead had injuries consistent with wolf predation. Partial wolf tracks also were found in the area, where CPW is aware of at least four wolves, including wolves released last December, and a wolf or wolves with known territory in North Park.

The kill was confirmed April 7. The Grand County depredation was confirmed April 2 and announced April 3. These were the first CPW-confirmed wolf depredations of livestock since wolves were reintroduced to parts of the Western Slope of Colorado late last year, as required under a law voters passed in 2020.

 

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Will wolf-watchers flock to Colorado? Tourism leaders have mixed opinions

From KUST:

Wolves don’t just fascinate or intrigue Nathan Varley. They’re his livelihood.

Varley and his wife, Linda Thurston, run a wolf-watching business called Yellowstone Wolf Tracker. For 17 years, they’ve helped hundreds of tourists glimpse and photograph the national park’s famous wolf packs. Customers also see bison, grizzly bears, and other wildlife, but it’s the wolves that most tourists travel for and pay specifically to see.

“If there weren’t wolves, we wouldn’t have a business,” Varley said last month near his home in Gardiner, Montana.

 

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Gray Wolf Updates

From California Department of Fish and Wildlife:

As of April 11, 2024, CDFW has updated the CDFW Wolf Livestock Compensation Grants webpage with the following information to reflect the current status of the pilot program.

 

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More details on wolf shot in southern Michigan, the first sighting in a century

From Outdoor News:

An animal a Michigan hunter thought was a big coyote when he shot it in January has been determined to be a gray wolf, the first time the species has been found in southern Michigan in more than a century, wildlife officials say.
The hunter shot the wolf in Calhoun County, in the southern reaches of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, while taking part in legal coyote hunting while accompanied by a guide, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources said.

 

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Lawsuit calls for gray wolf protections in the American West. Could it affect New Mexico?

From Carlsbad Current Argus:

Federal wildlife managers in February opted to not list a segment of gray wolf populations in the northern Rocky Mountains as endangered, triggering a lawsuit this week by conservation groups including one from New Mexico that argued a listing would help prevent extinction amid efforts to rebuild the species in the state.

The gray wolf is listed as endangered in New Mexico and 44 other states, affording it federal protections in those states, and managed by state agencies in the other six states, mostly in the northern Rockies. Groups advocated to list a distinct population segment (DPS) in those states for added federal protections but were denied by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which argued the species’ distribution and numbers meant it was not in danger of extinction in that area.

 

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Outrage after US hunter who reportedly took wolf in bar and killed it only fined

From The Guardian:

A Wyoming hunter who reportedly ran over a gray wolf with a snowmobile, taped the creature’s mouth shut, took a picture with it inside a local bar and then shot it to death behind the tavern has ignited calls for stiffer penalties in such an egregious case of animal abuse.

Cody Roberts, 42, is at the center of the uproar after being ticketed and fined a couple of hundred dollars for illegally possessing the wolf while it was still alive – but so far going unpunished for the manner in which he is said to have killed the animal.

 

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Black Wolf Photographed For The First Time In India, Here Is Why It Is Concerning

From India Times:

While they look stunning, BH Lab said that the animals are the result of hybridisation with dogs.

“Double Trouble – this is the first photograph of pure black wolf from India. An indication of hybridisation with dogs. Time to worry about the species, the numbers are so low, it may be real problem,” BH Labs said in a post on X.

 

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A Michigan Hunter Thought He Killed a Large Coyote. It Turned Out to Be an Endangered Gray Wolf

From Smithsonian Mag:

In January, a hunter shot and killed what he thought was a large coyote in southwest Michigan. Now, however, genetic testing has revealed that the animal was actually an endangered gray wolf—the first member of the species spotted in the region in at least a century, reports MLive.com’s Brad Devereaux.

It’s not clear how or why the animal ended up so far south. Michigan does have an established gray wolf (Canis lupus) population, but the creatures are located hundreds of miles away on the state’s Upper Peninsula. The Upper Peninsula and Lower Peninsula are separated by Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, with only the Mackinac Bridge connecting them.

 

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Wolf kills calf in Jackson County

From 9News:

JACKSON COUNTY, Colorado — A calf found dead in northern Colorado was killed by a wolf, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said.

CPW said they responded to “a report of a possible depredation incident” in Jackson County Sunday morning. Their field investigation found injuries on the calf “consistent with wolf depredation, including a partially consumed hindquarter.” Partial wolf tracks were also found in the area, CPW said.

 

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Conservation groups sue over gray wolf protections

From KTVH News:

HELENA — Ten conservation groups have filed a lawsuit in federal court over the U.S. Fish and Wild Service’s (USFWS) decision not to return Endangered Species Act protections to gray wolves in the Northern Rockies.

In February, the USFWS said an assessment using “the best available science” found that gray wolf populations in the West were not at risk of extinction.

 

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