A Pack of Wolves Turned up in Berlin
for the first time in 100 years
o Naturalists in Berlin celebrate over
recent news: farmers spotted a pack of wolves in a village 15 miles south of
Berlin for the first time in more than 100 years. The wolves seem to have moved
into a deserted former Soviet army military exercise area, the Independent reports.
o The wolf pack includes both adults
and pups, which the World Wildlife Fund is now excitedly monitoring with
infra-red night vision cameras.
o Germany’s “last wolf” was reputed to
have been shot and killed by hunters in 1904. In 1990, a year after the fall of
the Berlin Wall, the animals were declared a protected species and the
population began to grow again. Wolves were sighted in remote areas of eastern
Germany after they entered from neighbouring Poland.
Wolves Aren’t Making It Easy for Idaho Hunters
BOISE NATIONAL FOREST, Idaho — Hunting and killing are not
the same thing. Even as Idaho has sold more than 14,000 wolf-hunting permits,
the first 10 days of the first legal wolf hunt here in decades have yielded
only three reported legal kills.
Such modest early results might seem surprising in a state
that has tried for years to persuade the federal government to let it reduce
the wolf population through hunting.
Idahoans, among the nation’s most passionate hunters, are
learning that the wolf’s small numbers — about 850 were counted in the state at
the end of last year — make it at once more vulnerable and more elusive.
“It’s clear it’s not going to be easy,” said Jon Rachael,
the wildlife manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
The consensus among hunters and game officials is that wolf
hunting will get better as the weather gets colder and snow falls, revealing
wolves against white. The season runs through December. Most people believe
their best chance of killing a wolf will come when they are pursuing something
else, like deer or elk. Far more hunters are expected to be in the woods at
that point.
“That’s the way hunting works,” J. D. Hagedorn, who
participated in the first day of hunting on Sept. 1, said as a black bear
ambled across the foothills of the Sawtooth Mountains that morning. “The thing
you’re hunting for is the thing you don’t see.”
Once shot on sight for preying on sheep and cattle, gray
wolves were largely eradicated from the Northern Rockies by the 1930s. They
were listed as an endangered species in 1974. In 1995, they were reintroduced
into the region by federal wildlife officials.
Decoding the Call of the Wild
A wolf’s howl is one of the most iconic sounds of nature,
yet biologists aren’t sure why the animals do it. They’re not even sure if
wolves howl voluntarily or if it’s some sort of reflex, perhaps caused by
stress. Now, scientists working with captive North American timber wolves in
Austria report that they’ve solved part of the mystery.
Almost 50 years ago, wildlife biologists suggested that a
wolf’s howls were a way of reestablishing contact with other pack members after
the animals became separated, which often happens during hunts. Yet, observers
of captive wolves have also noted that the pattern of howls differs depending
on the size of the pack and whether the dominant, breeding wolf is present,
suggesting that the canids’ calls are not necessarily automatic responses.
Friederike Range, a cognitive ethologist at the University
of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, was in a unique position to explore the
conundrum. Since 2008, she and her colleagues have hand-raised nine wolves at
the Wolf Science Center in Ernstbrunn, which she co-directs. “We started taking
our wolves for walks when they were 6 weeks old, and as soon as we took one
out, the others would start to howl,” she says. “So immediately we became
interested in why they howl.”
Although the center’s wolves don’t hunt, they do howl
differently in different situations, Range says. “So we also wanted to
understand these variations in their howling.” The scientists have divided the
wolves at the center into two packs. Range and her colleagues first determined
each wolf’s position within the dominance hierarchy in its pack and the
animals’ social relationships. The captive wolves do not have families as wild
wolves do, and so they form hierarchies. “They have obvious, preferred partners
that they play with, groom, and lie close to when sleeping,” Range says. The
scientists then took each wolf out for three 45-minute walks, spread over
several weeks. They removed the wolves in random order, so that the animals
could not predict which one in their pack was going to leave. The researchers
also set up a control situation by placing each of the wolves in an adjoining
holding area again on three occasions for 45 minutes each time. The rest of the
pack could not see the wolf in this area, but because he or she was nearby in a
familiar place, there was no need for the animals to communicate.
Wolves in California
California Wolf Recovery News- California is now experiencing the
beginning of the long-awaited homecoming of one of its native species, the gray
wolf. Wolves have been absent from the state for nearly 90 years, after being
eradicated in the early 20th century through an extermination campaign. After a
300+ mile trek across Oregon, with a few loping strides, wolf OR-7 crossed the
border into California in December 2011, in a region of our state that has
excellent wolf habitat. Since he is the first confirmed wild wolf in California
since 1924, it's an extraordinarily exciting moment in the natural history of
this species and this state. Wolves play a vital role in maintaining healthy
ecosystems, and while OR-7 by himself won't fulfill that role, he inspires the
hope that more wolves will eventually join him. Although wolves' return to any
location may stir controversy, in part due to the myths and misinformation
surrounding wolves, OR-7 brings with him the opportunity for Californians to
learn about and appreciate a once-native species, and that's something to
celebrate.
Clear historical records from 1750 to 1850 indicate that
wolves were once present in the Coastal Range from San Diego to Sacramento when
Europeans first began exploring and settling these areas (Schmidt 1987, 1991).
From 1850-1900, wolves were seen in Shasta County and in the central Sierra
Nevada (Schmidt 1987, 1991). These historical reports of wolves appear in
divergent areas of the state; reports surfaced in different areas over time as
Europeans shifted from coasts toward inland forests, mountains and plains.
The wolf was known among many California tribes statewide,
as demonstrated in language, artwork, ceremonial garb, and creation stories
(Geddes-Osborne and Margolin 2001). For example, more than 80 distinct tribal
languages were spoken in California when Europeans first arrived and most had
clearly differentiated words for wolf, coyote, fox and dog. Some tribes revered
the wolf as sacred, though representations of the wolf are diverse among
California tribes.
European settlement changed the landscape of California from
wilderness to a land marked by missions, towns, ranchos, agricultural
development, and roads. Simultaneously, market hunters decimated prey populations
that would have supported wolves, and the state legislature enacted bounty laws
to eradicate wolves and coyotes. By the middle of the 1920s, wolves in
California seem to have disappeared entirely. One was trapped in San Bernardino
County in 1922. Another, the last to be captured in the state, was trapped in
Lassen County in 1924. Although the U.S. Forest Service estimated that some 50
wolves existed in Lassen, Tahoe, Eldorado, Stanislaus, Angeles, and Rouge River
National Forests as recently as 1937, there was little evidence that any wolves
were actually present. Schmidt (1987, 1991) concluded that all of the wolves
trapped in recent years had been released from captivity.
The same widespread extermination of wolves that happened in
California also occurred across the rest of the United States during the early
20th century. By the 1960s, the only gray wolves left in the lower 48 states
were found in northern Minnesota and Isle Royale, Michigan. Just as the last
wolves were disappearing from the landscape, however, early conservationists
such as Aldo Leopold and Adolph Murie began sounding the call for conserving
them, noting their important ecological role. The environmental movement of the
1960s and 1970s helped further increase public support for wolves, and in 1973
they received protections under the federal Endangered Species Act. With the
reintroduction of wolves into the northern Rockies in the mid-1990s, wolves
began to make a comeback. As wolf recovery has progressed, scientists have
learned more and more about the wolf's important role in restoring natural
ecosystem dynamics (Berger et al. 2008; Beschta and Ripple 2010). You can learn
more on our Wolves as Engineers of Biodiversity page.
Red Wolves Back From Extinction In U.S. Wild
Red wolves are making a comeback. A recovery program has
taken the species from extinction in the wild to a restored population of more
than 100 in northeastern North Carolina. But while conservationists consider
the program a success, many challenges still lie ahead for the species that
once ranged across much of the southeastern United States.
"The red wolf is the first effort to restore a predator
in the wild after it was officially declared extinct in the wild," said
Bud Fazio, team leader of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Red Wolf
Recovery Program.
While little is known about historic red wolf numbers, these
canids once ranged across the southeast from Florida to possibly as far north
as New England and west to Texas. As the country started to be settled by
Europeans, hunting and habitat loss chipped away at the wolves. In North
Carolina, court records tally bounties paid to wolf hunters from 1768 to 1789.
By 1970 the red wolf population had dwindled to less than
100 animals roaming a small section of coastal Texas and Louisiana. "They
darn near disappeared before we knew anything about them," said Fazio.
A decade later, the Fish and Wildlife Service rounded up the
last remaining wild red wolves in the world. Researchers started a captive
breeding program with 14 of the survivors. Four pairs of wolves were returned
to the wild in the Alligator National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina in
1987.
Red Wolf Redux
Now, about 100 red wolves roam free in northeastern North
Carolina. FWS follows the progress of the reintroduced wolves with radio
collars.
Wolf found in Netherlands is no joke, scientists say
The first wolf found in the Netherlands in over 140 years
walked there freely from eastern Europe, scientists said Wednesday, dismissing
allegations its body had been dumped as joke.
The female wolf has mystified the Netherlands since its body
was found by the roadside near the tiny village of Luttelgeest in the north of
the country in July.
Some had even suggested that eastern European agricultural workers employed in the Netherlands had brought the wolf from their
home country in order to confound the Dutch.
But now a bevvy of Dutch scientific and wildlife groups have
come together to establish the truth.
in a statement after a press conference that "the wolf
died from a heavy blow to the head, apparently from being hit by a car."
The wolf was in good health, around one and a half years old and had just eaten some
young beaver, the DWHC said in a joint statement with the Naturalis
Biodiversity Centre, the Alterra research institute and WolvenInNederland
(Wolves in the Netherlands).
The wolf apparently originally came from "eastern
Europe, near the Russian border," Naturalis and Alterra said.
It seemingly entered the Netherlands "by natural
means" and lived here for some time before being run over, WolvenInNederland
and Alterra said.
However, more research needs to be done to be more precise,
the groups said.
"In any case the body showed no signs of having been
transported to the Netherlands. There were no signs it had been frozen.
Protected no longer, more than 550 gray wolves killed this
season by hunters and trappers
Long an endangered predator, the northern Rocky Mountain
gray wolf is once again the prey.
More than 550 gray wolves have been killed by hunters and
trappers in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming this season, the second period in which
hunting has been allowed in order to manage the population. For over 30 years
the animals were considered endangered.
Add in the number of wolves killed by federal Wildlife
Service agents because they are a threat to livestock, as well as those killed
by poachers, diseases, collisions with vehicles and other means, and it’s not clear
that these levels are sustainable, according to conservationists.
Sitting at the top of the food chain in many wild areas,
wolves often conjure up frightful images in people’s minds, primarily due to
fairy tales going back to “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Peter and the Wolf” and
even horror-film depictions of werewolves.
But in reality, experts say, while wolves are known to
sometimes attack livestock such as sheep and cattle, attacks on humans are
extremely rare.
Still, wolves were hunted to the point where they were
listed as endangered under federal law in 1974. After years of recovery efforts
– and countless lawsuits – gray wolves were completely taken off the endangered
species list in 2012 when Wyoming became the last of the Rocky Mountain states to
manage its gray wolf population. Hunting started last season in Idaho and
Montana, and in Wyoming in October 2012.
Wild Wolf in Kentucky, First in 150 Years, Killed by Hunter
According to a recent announcement by state wildlife
officials, a 73-pound, federally endangered female gray wolf was shot dead by a
hunter in Munfordville, Kentucky earlier this year. Were it Alaska or Idaho
this wouldn’t be news, but Kentucky has not seen wild roaming wolves since the
mid 1800s. The gray wolf was shot in March —but state officials were skeptical
that it was even a wolf, believing that it was more likely someone’s German
shepherd. But following months of DNA analysis, scientists confirmed it
was indeed Kentucky’s first wolf in over a century and also its last. DNA
from the wolf was analyzed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Wildlife
Research Center in Colorado. According to the analysis, the Kentucky gray wolf
had genetic traits akin to wolves in the Great Lakes Region. The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory in Oregon carried out independent
analysis and confirmed the USDA’s findings. How the wolf came to be in Kentucky
is a mystery. Wildlife officials
identified the man who killed the wolf as Hart County resident James Troyer,
who shot the animal believing it to be a coyote. Its unlikely that charges will
be brought against Troyer as, until now, there would have been no reason to
believe that a wolf existed in Kentucky. However, state and federal law
prohibits the possession of gray wolves, live or in parts, so officials took
the pelt from Troyer. Gray wolves are on the federal endangered species list,
but following a controversial proclamation that wolves are “recovered” by the
US Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency has proposed to remove wolves from the
list.
http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2013/08/19/wild-wolf-in-kentucky-first-in-150-years-killed-by-hunter/
