Area Rescuers Search For Pack Of Wolves

Animals Escape Pen At Sanctuary

DILLSBORO, Ind. — Four days after a pack of wolves got loose from their
pen at a wolf rescue, area volunteers still are trying to find the
animals before they wander into the wrong hands.

About a dozen wolves have been on the run from the Red Wolf Sanctuary in
Dillsboro since Monday, WLWT Eyewitness News 5′s Brian Hamrick reported
Friday.

The wolves chewed their way out of their fences, and Friday, volunteers
hoped the cry of an alpha female wolf would bring them back. And when
they return to within close range, a tranquilizer gun awaits them. Since
the breakout, the pen has been reinforced with heavy-guage wire. Now,
all the volunteers need is to get the fugitive wolves in their line of
sight.

“Everything has to be just right,” one of the hopeful rescuers said.

As Hamrick and a WLWT photographer were interviewing representatives at
Red Wolf, one of the animals got close enough to catch a tranquilizer
dart near his hip, Hamrick reported.

“You couldn’t have asked for anything better than that,” the volunteer
said. “He just came in, turned broadside and presented a good shot.”

Within minutes, the wolf was out cold, and rescuers carefully carried
him back to the pen. Red Wolf spokesman Paul Strasser said he’s more
worried about the wolves if they wander into the paths of humans than
the other way around, Hamrick reported.

“That’s my family,” he said. “And so somebody killing one just to see if
they can kill a wolf is my biggest fear. They’re not going to hurt
anyone.”

Source

Wolves escape from sanctuary in western Dearborn County

The Cincinnati Enquirer

DILLSBORO, Ind. – The owner of a nature center in western Dearborn County
is trying to corral six wolves that broke out of their 3-acre pen earlier
this week.

The white-colored animals range in age from 2 to 4 years and weigh up to
90 pounds, said Paul Strasser, owner of Red Wolf Sanctuary, 3 miles west
of Dillsboro on Indiana 62.

Strasser said he has spent two years replacing wire around the pen at his
non-profit center with vinyl-coated chain-link fence – a task he and
volunteers just completed. The new 8-foot fence was supposed to be
stronger than the older, rusting wire.

Five of the 15 wolves in the pen worked their way through the fence
Monday. Two were caught, but 10 were able got out Tuesday, Strasser said.

One of the wolves was struck by a vehicle and is awaiting surgery. Another
one – a weaker female – was attacked by other wolves and killed Tuesday
when it was returned to the pen, Strasser said. Six wolves remained at
large Thursday night.

A dispatcher at the Dearborn County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday night
the department had heard no complaints.

Strasser and volunteers have been working to repair the pen and track the
wolves. Some wolves returned on their own. Strasser said he used
tranquilizer darts on others.

Darts aren’t always effective, he said, because the drug takes 10 minutes
to take effect, and “a wolf can cover an awful lot of distance in 10
minutes.”

Strasser said the wolves were bottle fed and raised at the sanctuary from
13 weeks of age for educational purposes. Students tour the center to
learn about the animals and their environment.

Strasser said he realizes the wolves being on the loose could cause fear
among area residents, but said the animals likely would run if approached.

“The bottom line is, realistically, these animals don’t pose any threat,”
he said.

Strasser said he next plans to install an electric fence around the pen to
keep the wolves in.

Source

First wolves killed under Alaska’s predator control program

By MARY PEMBERTON
Associated Press Writer

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

Fourteen wolves have been killed so far in a state-sponsored predator control program that has prompted demonstrations nationwide and a call for a tourism boycott of Alaska.

The wolves were killed late last week in the Nelchina basin area about 100 miles northeast of Anchorage, where state wildlife officials say the moose population has plummeted because wolves and bears are killing too many moose calves, leaving locals with too few moose to eat.

The program actually is off to a slow start, Bruce Bartley, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said Friday. No fresh snow and blowing snow has made the wolves difficult to track in the Nelchina area. Temperatures in recent days plummeted to 40- and 50-degrees below zero, leaving hunter and pilot teams mostly grounded, he said.

“I don’t think that is hugely successful,” Bartley said.

The state earlier this month issued permits to 28 teams to remove 140 wolves from an approximately 8,000-square-mile area. The Nelchina plan requires pilots to land the planes before the animals are shot.

Another wolf control program near the Interior town of McGrath, where three teams were issued one-month permits, allows the animals to be shot from planes in the air. So far, no wolves in the McGrath area have been killed, largely because of unfavorable weather conditions. The goal there is to remove about 40 wolves from a 1,700-square-mile area.

Conditions for tracking wolves should improve in February and March, particularly near McGrath, Fish and Game has said.

The Nelchina wolves were killed by six hunter and pilot teams. They will be allowed to sell the wolf hides if they want, after the hides are turned in and plastic tags affixed, Bartley said.

“It makes me cringe,” said Priscilla Feral, president of the 200,000-member Friends of Animals, when told Friday that the first wolves had been killed under the program. The Darien, Conn.-based group is organizing what it calls “howl-ins” in cities nationwide to try to stop the lethal wolf control program.

More than 50 protests so far have been held in cities across the nation, Feral said. Two more are scheduled this Sunday in Washington, D.C., and in Burke, Va. to coincide with Super Bowl football parties. One will be held Feb. 24 _ Mardi Gras _ in New Orleans.

Gov. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, has promised not to bend under the pressure of animal welfare groups and their call to boycott Alaska’s estimated $2 billion tourism industry. He maintains that the state has an obligation to manage its resources to benefit Alaskans.

Now that wolves are actually being killed under the program, the governor can expect the protests to intensify, Feral said.

“I’m disgusted, but it will galvanize people to work harder,” she said. “What does it take, an avalanche to move the immovable Frank Murkowski? But the heat will turn up.”

Friends of Animals was behind a nationwide protest and tourism boycott a decade ago that resulted in then-Gov. Walter J. Hickel ordering a moratorium on a similar program.

Alaska voters in 1996 and 2000 voted to ban aerial killing of wolves. Murkowski signed a bill last June overturning the most recent ban.

“It gives a black eye to hunting traditions and values, and creates an image of Alaska that is anything but welcoming to non-hunters,” said Defenders of Wildlife president Rodger Schlickeisen.

Source

Wolf killing ban in question

Juneau game board to decide whether to drop protections for white bear,
Douglas wolves

By ERIC FRY

JUNEAU EMPIRE

Protections for wolves on Douglas Island and for a white bear seen near
Juneau likely will be reconsidered when the state Board of Game takes up
Southeast issues in the fall.

The Juneau-Douglas Advisory Committee to the Department of Fish and Game
may ask the Game Board to rescind its earlier rulings. Even if it doesn’t,
citizens may make similar proposals, said Neil Barten, the state’s
wildlife biologist in Juneau.

The Game Board sets rules for hunting and trapping on state and private
land and some federal lands in Alaska.

The Game Board, meeting in Juneau in November 2002 with one member absent,
unanimously banned hunting and trapping of wolves on Douglas Island until
the wolf population has built up or the number of bagged deer drastically
declines. The panel also forbade the hunting of white-colored black bears
in the Juneau area.

Some residents had appealed to the board to let the wolf population on
Douglas recover after seven wolves on the back side of the island were
trapped early in 2002.

Some residents also sought protection for a rare white-coated black bear
photographed near Juneau in August 2002. Local resident Pat Costello’s
photographs of the white bear were publicized on his Web site and became
the subject of worldwide media coverage.

But it’s a different Game Board that will meet in Juneau from Nov. 2 to 5
this year to consider Southeast issues. The board, appointed by Republican
Gov. Frank Murkowski since Democrat Tony Knowles left office a year ago,
has supported aerial hunting of wolves in the Interior to preserve moose
populations for hunters.

The local advisory committee, which met Wednesday night, is still trying
to decide whether it is appropriate to sponsor proposals on the sensitive
subjects of rescinding the Douglas wolf and white bear regulations,
Chairwoman Kathy Hansen said.

Local resident Gary Miller told the committee that wolves eat too many
deer.

“Douglas Island cannot support a wolf pack and deer,” he said. “There is
no need to protect wolves on Douglas Island. There’s a healthy population
on the mainland. … If the wolves stay protected, the deer will all be
killed off and the wolves will starve or move off.”

Douglas resident Leon Shaul said few people hunt deer on the mainland near
Juneau. But 600 to 800 people hunt on Douglas Island.

“Douglas is quite a resource we should protect for the community for that
use,” he told the committee.

Fish and Game doesn’t know how many wolves live on Douglas Island,
wildlife biologist Barten said in an interview. The population can walk
across Gastineau Channel at low tide.

Although a state survey of hunters hasn’t been completed, Barten said his
impression is that the latest hunting season went well.

“I think everybody who hunted Douglas, in general, had pretty good success
and saw a lot of deer,” Barten said.

The controversy over the Douglas Island wolf regulations “is a
value-driven issue,” Barten said. “Some people just don’t think you should
be killing them. Others think (the presence of wolves) will affect their
hunting and they don’t want it around.”

Proponents of the current rules include Voices for Douglas Island
Wildlife, a group that formed over the wolf issue and claims 150
supporters.

Under the rules imposed in 2002, “wolves would be managed so deer-hunting
would be guaranteed,” the group’s representative, Tom Lee, told the
committee. The current rules don’t deny any user group, he said.

Local resident Richard Gard, who favors the current rules, said he has
hunted, hiked and skied on Douglas Island for 42 years and hasn’t been
fortunate enough seen a wolf.

“I would gladly trade a deer for a glimpse of a wolf,” he said. “Predators
are an important part of a balanced ecosystem.”

The committee will take more testimony at its meeting scheduled for 6 p.m.
Monday in the second-floor conference room at the Fish and Game
headquarters on Eighth Street, off Egan Drive near the Douglas Bridge.

The panel didn’t discuss the white bear issue Wednesday. But Barten said
the current rule is hard to enforce because it isn’t clear what
constitutes a white bear.

“White is kind of a subjective thing,” he said.

The coats of black bears can vary from reddish to light colorings,
including yellowish. And a light coat will look different in different
lighting conditions, or even if the bear has rolled in mud, he said.

Source

2 wolves struck on highways

Proximity to developed areas surprises experts

By KELLY WELLS

Two wolves were hit by vehicles this week in parts of Wisconsin that are
too developed to be considered normal territory for the animals, experts
said Friday.

One wolf died Wednesday after being struck by a semitrailer truck on
I-94 near Johnson Creek in Jefferson County. The other wolf was hit by a
car in Greenville in Outagamie County on Thursday morning and later
euthanized by the state Department of Natural Resources, a department
spokesman said.

The wolf killed on I-94 was a 62-pound female that appeared to be about
2 years old, DNR mammalian ecologist Adrian Wydeven said. It died in
almost the same area another young female wolf was hit by a vehicle in
March 2001.

Wydeven remembers a phone call almost three years ago about a wolf that
had been found dead on the highway. Initially, “I thought, nah, that
can’t be a wolf,” he said.

The wolf killed in 2001 represented the southernmost sighting of the
species since it began rebounding in Wisconsin in the 1970s. A radio
collar on the animal revealed it had traveled from Michigan’s Upper
Peninsula.

That two wolves have been killed in nearly the same spot may indicate
the animals follow river formations as they travel, eventually wandering
along the Rock River, Wydeven said.

The second wolf killed this week was hit by a car Thursday morning on
state Highway 96 in Greenville, according to the Outagamie County
Sheriff’s Department. DNR conservation warden Mike Young tracked the
animal, which was crippled in the accident, and killed it.

“I think it was just the most humane thing to do at the time,” Wydeven
said.

The driver who hit the animal was certain it was a wolf, but authorities
at first were skeptical because the area is somewhat urban.

“I’ve gone on three wolf calls now. One was a collie, one turned out to
be a coyote and the other was a husky. I was expecting another dog,”
Young said. “There aren’t wolves here, as a rule.”

Wydeven said the department knew of at least one wolf that had traveled
through Outagamie County, but that the area where the wolf was hit
Thursday was probably the most urbanized place in the county that a wolf
had been.

It is not unusual for the animals to travel great distances in the quest
to find a mate or start a pack, Wydeven said. For example, a wolf
outfitted with a radio collar made its way from Black River Falls to
eastern Indiana, where it was killed in June, he said.

“I suppose they’re just traveling and in the process they end up going
through some more developed areas,” he said. “It’s like a trajectory.
They just keep going and going.”

Wydeven said 335 wolves lived in Wisconsin last winter, and the
department expects the number to remain the same or increase this year.
The majority live in heavily wooded areas north of Wausau; a small
number live in the central part of the state, north of Tomah between
Wisconsin Rapids and Black River Falls.

Source

Full-blooded wolf slain in Grand Chute

By Steve Wideman
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers

GRAND CHUTE – A full-blooded wolf that authorities believe was passing
through the area was shot and killed Thursday morning near the Fox River
Mall after being hit by a car.

Adrian Wydeven, a wolf specialist with the state Department of Natural
Resources, identified the dead animal as a full-blooded wolf, not a
wolf/dog hybrid.

“The facial features were consistent with a wolf. The backs of the ears
were cinnamon colored, which is real distinctive in Great Lakes wolves,”
Wydeven said.

DNR warden Mike Young shot the female wolf, estimated to weigh 80 pounds,
north of Grande Market Drive and west of McCarthy Road about 9 a.m., after
tracking its winding path for three miles.

Wydeven said it’s unusual for wolves to be in this area.

“We have about 335 wolves in the state. The nearest wolf packs are at the
Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin and in northern
Marinette County,” Wydeven said.

Wydeven said wolves are in the process of being removed from the
threatened species list in Wisconsin, but are still considered threatened
by the federal government.

The wolf suffered a broken leg and other injuries when struck by a car
about 6:30 a.m. on Wisconsin 96 near Mayflower Drive.

Susanne Jorgenson of Greenville was driving on 96 when the wolf jumped in
front of her car.

“After I hit it I turned around. I could see quite clearly it was a wolf,”
Jorgenson said. “I got out of my car to try slowing other traffic so it
wouldn’t hit the wolf, without thinking about the danger of being by the
wolf. I just wish it hadn’t happened.”

Wydeven said wolves dispersing from their home territories travel an
average of 75 miles, but sometimes go further in search of a new home.

“My assumption is this wolf was passing through,” Wydeven said. “Just last
week a truck struck and killed a wolf on I-94 east of Madison. In June a
wolf shot in eastern Indiana about 12 miles from the Ohio border had ear
tags indicating it was from the Black River Falls area.”

Joann Engel, a naturalist with the Bubolz Nature Preserve in Grand Chute,
said no wolf prints have ever been found on the preserve, located about
one mile from Thursday’s accident scene.

“The nearest previous wolf sighting was several years ago when a wolf was
tracked moving along State 54 from Green Bay to Necedah where it
established a pack,” Engel said.

Wydeven said the wolf killed in Grand Chute will be sent to the National
Wildlife Health Center in Madison for testing before being made a specimen
and possibly donated to a Fox Cities nature preserve.

Source

Wolf delisting may be near

by Todd Adams

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) announced January 13 that the
process of delisting the western population of gray wolves can begin as
soon as Wyoming approves key changes to state law and its wolf management
plan.

At the same time, Idaho and Montana’s wolf management plans have been
approved by the FWS as “adequate to maintain the population of gray wolves
above established recovery goals.”

Steve Williams, FWS director, said wolf populations in all three states
have met recovery goals for delisting under the Endangered Species Act.

Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne said January 13 he is pleased that FWS
recognizes Idaho’s plan as biologically sound. Kempthorne joined the Bush
Administration in defending the federal government’s decision last year to
“downlist” gray wolf populations from endangered to threatened, after
environmental groups sued FWS to stop that action.

Idaho Senators Mike Crapo and Larry Craig said January 13 they are pleased
that Idaho’s wolf management plan has been approved. Kempthorne, Crapo and
Craig all said it’s time for delisting to occur, and for the federal
bureaucracy to step aside and let Idaho manage its wolves.

Wyoming requirements

A January 13 FWS news release stated that Wyoming must do three things
before the agency is assured that state has management controls in place
to maintain wolf populations above recovery goals:

1. Wyoming must change its current designation for wolves as predatory
animals. Designating wolves as “trophy game” would allow Wyoming to
sustain wolf populations, as well as regulate and monitor the harvest of
wolves by hunters.

2. Wyoming state law must clearly commit to managing for a population of
at least 15 wolf packs.

3. Wyoming’s definition of a wolf pack must be consistent with Idaho’s and
Montana’s and be biologically based. The three states are now
collaborating on a definition.

Because the western population of gray wolves is considered a single,
distinct population, management plans must be in place in all three states
before the federal government approves delisting.

Source

Two wolves killed near Cora

by Cat Urbigkit

Federal wildlife officials shot and killed two wolves last Friday morning
near Cora after the animals had killed livestock over a period of several
weeks on a private ranch in the area.

All told, four head of yearling cattle were killed by the pack of four or
five wolves. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service noted that the pack of four
had been using the area, which is located between two state-managed elk
feedgrounds. Two radio-collared wolves remain in the area, although the
collar is reportedly not working on one of the animals.

FWS reported: “Agency control has been completed unless other depredations
are reported but the landowner still has a shoot-on-site permit for two
wolves.”

FWS also responded to the brucellosis situation in the county, stating in
the agency’s weekly wolf update report: “The cooperative study of wolf and
elk interactions near elk winter feedgrounds by FWS, Wyoming Game and
Fish, U.S. Forest Service and Grand Teton National Park has begun … The
elk are currently widely scattered and have not started to intensively use
the feedgrounds.

“Apparently a second case of brucellosis in cattle was confirmed in
Wyoming and the state may lose their brucellosis free status which may
affect Wyoming cattle markets. Some have tried to falsely stretch this
issue to implicate wolves, i.e. wolves pushed the elk off the feedgrounds
to mix with cattle and this caused cattle to become infected. If it were
only that simple.”

In other wolf news, federal law enforcement agents recently confirmed
poisoning as the cause of death of a gray wolf in Idaho, and are seeking
information from the public to help solve the crime.

The collared wolf, known as B-143, was found to have been killed by a
poison known as Compound 1080. The animal’s carcass was found six miles
northwest of Clayton, Idaho, last May. Compound 1080 (sodium
fluoroacetate) is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, water soluble, highly
toxic chemical. The misuse of this chemical is unlawful. This chemical can
be ingested by livestock, family pets, hikers, and children and can result
in death from respiratory failure, seizures and heart attack. Animals or
small children are most susceptible to poisoning due to ingestion, but the
substance’s toxins can also enter animal or human bloodstreams through
contact with abraded skin or wounds, or through the respiratory system if
dust particles are inhaled.

“We are very interested in finding whoever is responsible for the crime.
If anyone has information about the illegal killing of wolves, please
contact the Service’s law enforcement division. Callers may remain
anonymous,” said Scott Kabasa, a special agent in FWS’s Boise field
office.

The killing of an animal protected under the Endangered Species Act is
punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and one year in jail. FWS is
offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to an arrest or
conviction of the person or persons responsible for the poisoning of
wolves.

Source

Wounded wolf

This emaciated adult female timberwolf – the first wolf Dr. Deb Eskedahl
said she’s attended to in her 23 years as a veterinarian – was shot in the
front right leg and was possibly run over by a snowmobile several days
later. The wolf was found on Jan. 20 along a North Shore trail near Silver
Bay and brought to the Garrison Animal Hospital the next day. Eskedahl
said the wolf will probably be permanently crippled and live out its life
at an educational facility yet to be determined.

Source

Wolf facts