July 22, 2013
Pro-wolf groups hassle agency; Webcast spotlights hunting by Rich Landers July 19, 2013 The Spokesman-Review
As if to emphasize the first few paragraphs of my Thursday Outdoors column, seven groups with a pro-wolf agenda, including the Spokane-based Lands Council, petitioned the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife “to stop the indiscriminate killing” of wolves — even though the agency isn't.
See their press release.
If wildlife managers don't give them satisfaction, they plan to appeal to Gov. Jay Inslee.
I'm sure the Stevens County Cattlemen will be at the governor's desk, too.
Any sportsmen's groups out there planning to rattle the guv's cage?
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July 24, 2013
Wolves behind the howls can be ID'd by computer programMarc Lallanilla - NBC News July 23, 2013
The howl of a wolf in the wilderness may make your spine tingle — it has a similar effect on wolf conservationists, who have struggled for years to accurately analyze the sounds that wolves make.
Researchers at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in England have now developed a computer program that can identify the signature howl of an individual wolf with pinpoint accuracy.
Just like a person's voice, the howl of a wolf has a specific pitch and volume. But identifying each wolf's howl has been difficult, especially in the wild, where wind and water can muffle and distort the sound. It gets even more challenging when a pack of wolves starts howling in unison.
"They enjoy it as a group activity," NTU graduate student Holly Root-Gutteridge, who led the research, told the BBC. "When you get a chorus howl going, they all join in."
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Coyotes, Coydogs and Coywolves? By Ryan Trapani - Catskill Forest Association 7/23/13
It is not uncommon to hear someone remark in our region that they thought they saw a wolf. Although what they saw probably was mostly a coyote. According to Roland Kays of the New York State Museum and researchers at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science & Forestry (SUNY ESF) eastern coyotes do have some wolf DNA.
According to Kays the eastern coyote is a newcomer in the northeast. Previously our region was inhabited with the coyote’s larger competitor: the wolf. Wolves had been extirpated by land clearing for agriculture and bounty hunting to reduce predation on farmers’ livestock. Shortly after, coyotes began migrating eastward reclaiming territory previously dominated by wolves.
Farm abandonment that has resulted in early successional forest habitat in the last 50 or so years has created conditions conducive to many small mammals such as mice, rabbits, weasels and deer. As many of these prey species became abundant, the opportunity of a predator to occupy this predator-vacant habitat became more feasible. The eastern coyote has adapted to these conditions with shining colors. But is it all coyote?
Some refer to the coyotes as a coy-dog. Researchers conducting DNA and radio collar studies throughout New York State and Mississippi have found that this is not true. In New York State, they did find that eastern coyotes do have some wolf DNA. As the coyote migrated eastward, those coyotes that followed a northern route around the Great Lakes had interbred with wolves in Ontario.
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July 25, 2013
Changes in store for Montana's 2013-14 wolf hunt July 25, 2013 Great Falls Tribune
Montana’s Fish & Wildlife Commission recently approved regulations for the upcoming wolf season.
For the 2013-14 seasons, hunters will have the opportunity to pursue wolves throughout Montana beginning Sept. 7 for archery hunting, Sept. 15 for the general rifle season and Dec. 15 for trapping. The archery only season will close Sept. 14, and the general season will end March 15. Wolf trapping season ends Feb. 28
Wolf hunting licenses cost $19 for residents and $50 for nonresidents. License sales should begin by Aug. 5. Montana trapping licenses are currently on sale for $20 for residents and $250 for nonresidents.
New prospective wolf trappers must attend a mandatory wolf-trapping certification class to use a Montana trapping license to trap wolves and can sign up at fwp.mt.gov. Trappers who successfully completed a wolf trapping certification class in Montana or Idaho in the past do not need to retake one this year.
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Pit Bull And Wolf-Dog Attack, Kill Lambs; Owner Fights Back With Shotgun July 25, 2013 North Escambia [Florida]
A pit bull and a hybrid wolf-dog are being blamed for the deaths of eight lambs Thursday in Cantonment.
The two dogs attacked and mauled about nine Katahdin Lambs located in a fenced pasture behind a residence on Cooley Road, just off Highway 29, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
The homeowner was able to retrieve a shotgun to defend the lambs, Sena Maddison, spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office, said. He shot and killed the pit bull terrier. The hybrid wolf-dog fled from the scene. It was located and captured a short time later by Escambia County Animal Control.
Eight of the lambs died as a result of the dog attack.
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July 26, 2013
Michigan's first wolf hunt will no longer include trapping By Keith Matheny July 26, 2013 Detroit Free Press
Michigan’s first-ever wolf hunt this fall and winter will no longer include trapping, after the state Natural Resources Commission rejected the use of steel-jaw leg traps on private and public land as part of the hunt.
The commission, for the second time in two months, approved a wolf hunt on July 11 for three zones of the Upper Peninsula. The second approval came in light of the passage of Public Act 21, a bill by Republican state Sen. Tom Casperson of Escanaba allowing the commission to designate animals as game species — a bill critics say was designed specifically to circumvent a petition drive to put the wolf hunt to a public vote.
The hunt approved in May allowed steel-jaw leg traps. But trapping was removed in the second approved hunt.
“The primary reason was just looking at starting conservatively with our approach in how we move forward with implementing public harvest of wolves as a management tool,” said Adam Bump, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ furbearing animal specialist.
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Wolf hunt foes raise most in Mich. ballot drives By DAVID EGGERT, Associated Press July 25, 2013
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Foes of a plan to allow wolf hunting in Michigan have raised the most among groups backing four statewide ballot drives.
Keep Michigan Wolves Protected, a ballot committee, reported by Thursday's deadline that it had taken in nearly $568,000 in 2013, much of it from national animal rights organizations.
The wolf group is by far the best-funded of four groups with ballot drives. It already has collected enough signatures for a November 2014 referendum on a law designating the wolf as a game species and authorizing hunts.
Activists are preparing to gather signatures for a second wolf-related ballot initiative after lawmakers moved to make the referendum's outcome meaningless by passing another law. Top donors included the Doris Day Animal League, which has given $200,000, along with the Humane Society of the United States — which kicked in $155,000 and an additional $180,000 worth of in-kind help with consultants, staff salaries and other aid.
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