ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – Albuquerque’s zoo has received a Mexican gray wolf from Binder Zoo in Battle Creek as part of an international recovery effort that includes breeding the endangered animals in captivity to ensure the species’ genetic viability.The ABQ BioPark hopes to mate with a 4-year-old female wolf already at the Albuquerque zoo.
Source: Michigan Zoo Sends Mexican Gray Wolf to Albuquerque zoo « CBS Detroit
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy is shaking up the Department of Fish and Game.His acting commissioner, Doug Vincent-Lang, has made a pair of unconventional, high-level appointments. Rick Green — the right-wing talk show host known as Rick Rydell — is Vincent-Lang’s new special assistant.And Eddie Grasser, who earlier this year worked as a lobbyist for a hunters’ advocacy group, Safari Club International, will lead the department’s wildlife conservation division.The administration of Dunleavy, a Republican, has not released its proposed budget for the department, and it also hasn’t announced any major policy changes.
This year’s wolf hunting and trapping season on Prince of Wales Island will close just before midnight Tuesday, Dec. 18th.The U.S. Forest Service and Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the closure last week. Both agencies set the overall harvest limit for Game Unit 2 at 45 wolves.The quota of 45 is 20 percent of the fall 2017 wolf-population estimate, which was 225. All forms of human-caused mortality, including documented wounding loss and illegal harvest, count toward the quota.As of Wednesday, a total of 26 wolves had been taken. Managers anticipate that by Tuesday, additional kills by hunters and trappers still in the field will reach or surpass the quota.
Source: POW-area wolf season to close – KRBD
This study traces its origins to wildlife biologist Ron Wooten, who had been observing a population of canines on Galveston Island. He emailed vonHoldt’s lab asking for genetic testing of two road-killed animals. “I regularly receive this kind of inquiry, but something about Wooten’s email stood out,” said vonHoldt. “His enthusiasm and dedication struck me, along with some very intriguing photographs of the canines. They looked particularly interesting and I felt it was worth a second look.”“Somewhere along the way, the second sample had gotten lost and he ended up sending us the dirty scalpel he had used to take the sample,” said Heppenheimer. “We have a huge inventory of coyote and wolf samples in the lab, and it’s quite rare that I would remember any one sample arriving, but no one had ever sent us a scalpel before, so it was a pretty memorable experience trying to extract this DNA.”Once the researchers extracted and processed the DNA, they compared the samples to each of the legally recognized wild species of the genus Canis that occur in North America. They used samples from 29 coyotes from Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas; 10 gray wolves from Yellowstone National Park; 10 eastern wolves (C. lycaon) from Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario; and 11 red wolves from the red wolf captive breeding program.When they ran their genetic analyses, they found that the Galveston Island animals were more similar to captive red wolves than typical southeastern coyotes.
Source: Red wolf DNA found in mysterious Texas canines
ISLE ROYALE, MI – In the last couple months, the new wolves transplanted onto Michigan’s remote Isle Royale have had a lot of privacy to explore their new home. The 206-square-mile national park is closed to visitors for the season, and the researchers behind the effort to boost the island’s dwindling wolf population are giving the new arrivals a hands-off approach.But the GPS tracking collars the new wolves were fitted with are showing just how well they are covering their new territory – and one spot on the island they’d rather not go.Of the four wolves trapped on tribal lands in nearby Grand Portage, Minnesota, and released on Isle Royale, the movements of three females are currently being monitored. The fourth wolf, a male, died weeks after being released on the island. The cause of his death has not yet been disclosed.This week, the park service released new information about where on the island the new wolves have been venturing. Take a look at the GPS track map below, and we’ll explain what you’re seeing.
Source: Tracking collars on new Isle Royale wolves show there is 1 spot they won’t go | MLive.com
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – Wildlife managers have confirmed a record number of Mexican gray wolves have been reported dead this year, fueling concerns about the decades-long effort to return the endangered predator to the southwestern U.S.Five wolves were found dead in New Mexico in November, bringing the total for the year to 17. That marks the most wolves killed in any single year since the reintroduction effort began in 1998, and it’s one of the deadliest months in the program’s history.
Source: Record number of Mexican gray wolves found dead in 2018
nstead of seeking to dominate and control the Earth, we should respect and live in harmony with all of the creatures in it. We do not have the right, as humans, to determine which species can stay and which can go. For this reason, we should do everything in our power to help and protect those that cannot protect themselves.The survival of the red wolf is in jeopardy, mostly due to human encroachment and unregulated hunting. As of now, it is the most critically endangered mammal in the world and without intervention and protection, it will soon become extinct. The red wolf is the only species of wolf that is native and unique to the United States.
Source: OP-ED: On the edge of extinction: Why we should save the red wolf | Opinion | technicianonline.com
