A plea to restore populations of some of the world’s most dangerous animals has been made by scientists who claim the loss of large carnivores is damaging ecosystems.More than three-quarters of the 31 species of large land predators, such as lions and wolves, are in decline, according to a new study. Of these, 17 species are now restricted to less than half the territory they once occupied.Large carnivores have already been exterminated in many developed regions, including western Europe and eastern United States – and the same pattern of “carnivore cleansing” is being repeated throughout the world, said scientists.

Source: ‘Carnivore cleansing’ is damaging ecosystems, scientists warn | Environment | The Guardian

BRIDGER — In the dry sagebrush foothills west of here, sheltered in the rain shadow of the imposing Beartooth Mountains, lives an unusual bit of Pennsylvania history — 35 descendants of the McCleery buffalo wolves.“It’s just a fascinating story, the history of these animals,” said Diane Gallegos, executive director of Wolf Haven International, a Tenino, Washington-based wolf rescue group.Gallegos’ foundation became the new owners of the captive wolves this year, taking over a legacy that dates back to 1921. That’s when Edward McCleery — a Kane, Pennsylvania, physician — began buying wolf pups as animals were being exterminated across the West for killing livestock. His first purchase was of a captive 9-month-old wolf from a Sheridan, Wyoming, zoo.

Source: Descendants of historic Pennsylvania wolves live in Montana | Outdoors | helenair.com

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

In a July interview with the Revelator – a news site published by the Center For Biological Diversity – former government trapper and wolf recovery expert Carter Niemeyer said wolf recovery can continue with or without federal protection now that there is a sustainable wolf population.“I think a lot people mistake an ESA listing as a permanent state of affairs, but it was never meant to function that way,” he said in the interview. “Other regions that fall outside of ESA recovery areas, like Colorado, still need more time for wolf numbers to increase, and I think they will. Wolves are prolific and resilient and I believe they will ultimately succeed in most areas where basic habitat needs, open space and abundant prey are all available — and all of this can happen even without ESA protection.”

Source: House of Representatives votes to delist gray wolves, bill’s future uncertain in Senate | The Spokesman-Review

On the Impact of the Proposed Barrier between Mexico and the United States 22 June 2017 WHEREAS, The American Society of Mammalogists is a non-profit, professional, scientific, and educational society consisting of nearly 3,000 members from all 50 of the United States and 60 other countries worldwide.

Source: Impact of the Proposed Barrier between Mexico and the United States | American Society of Mammalogists