By Peter Fimrite
Conservationists are worrying more than ever about California’s lone gray wolf as hundreds of his canine brethren are being hunted and killed in the Northern Rocky Mountains.
At least 850 wolves have been shot and trapped in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming since May 2011 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the predators from the endangered species list in that region. More than 350 were killed in 2012.
“That’s astonishing,” said Amaroq Weiss of the California Wolf Center. “I don’t think that anybody who has been working on this ever imagined it would be like this.”
The killing spree, coming the same year that the wolf arrived in California, is a grim reminder of how vulnerable and mercurial wolf populations are, wildlife experts say. It prompted 25 wildlife conservation organizations in California, Oregon and Washington to join forces. The group, called the Pacific Wolf Coalition, wants to prevent the threatened removal of Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in the Pacific Northwest.
Wolf depictions
Weiss, whose organization is part of the coalition, said she believes the government is allowing the killings in part because of misleading depictions of wolves by hunting groups, ranchers and far-right conservative political organizations as livestock killing machines and thrill killers.
“What we are seeing is a kind of clashing of cultural values that may in part be regional, but it is also a clashing of viewpoints in terms of ethics in wildlife management and how we treat animals generally,” Weiss said. “Right now in the Northern Rockies, the folks who want to see wolves gone seem to be winning, but I don’t think nationally that’s the way people think. People nationally and internationally are pretty horrified by this.”
The California wolf became the first lobo in the state in almost 90 years after he left his pack in Oregon and wandered across the state line in December 2011 in search of food and a mate.
The 3-year-old male – named OR7 because he was the seventh wolf radio-collared in Oregon – has now traveled more than 2,500 miles through some of California’s most scenic wildlife refuges, wilderness areas and parks from Mount Lassen to Lake Almanor.
15 miles a day
The canine, who has averaged about 15 miles per day, recently moved from the snow-covered high country to lower ground in northern Tehama County, according to signals from his GPS collar.
Karen Kovacs, wildlife program manager for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said he is probably following deer, his primary source of food, into their winter habitat in oak- and chaparral-covered woodlands east of Red Bluff. She said he has not touched any livestock or come close to humans or their property.
The federal delisting of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies came after their population grew from the 66 that were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in the 1990s to about 1,700. Endangered species protections were also removed this year in the Western Great Lakes region.
Gray wolves are still protected in the Pacific Northwest and in California under federal law, but the rules are now under review. As a result, the California Fish and Game Commission recently began the process of listing them under the California Endangered Species Act. The move would require Fish and Wildlife officials to prepare a wolf recovery plan, specify a target population and come up with ways to manage conflicts, including livestock depredation.
The move, which would protect wolves even if they were delisted federally, is now under attack by ranching and hunting lobbyists, who insist that OR7’s kin will soon be loping across the Oregon border and sinking their teeth into local lambs, calves and children.
Video mocks efforts
A video ridiculing efforts to protect OR7 in California was recently circulated by the nonprofit group Americans for Prosperity, which is partly funded by the Koch Brothers Foundation, well-known supporters of oil interests and far-right crusades against climate-change legislation.
“Wolves were eradicated in much of the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s because of all the damage they did to livestock,” said the narrator, a folksy young man in a blue plaid, wool shirt and black ski cap. “They are predatory killing machines.”
The video claims endangered species protection in California would allow OR7 to “trespass on your property … destroy or take your property” and kill livestock without consequence. It is all because radical environmentalists and their scientist brethren want to reduce the number of cows, sheep and other livestock in the belief that farm animals contribute to global warming, scoffs the narrator.
The YouTube video is the latest invective in a continuing barrage of ill will, mostly among rural residents, directed at wolves and environmentalists.
Photographs of bloody wolf trophies began circulating around the Internet shortly after the wild cousins of the domestic dog were removed from the endangered species list. One photo showed an Idaho hunter proudly lifting the limp body of OR7’s brother by the bloody scruff of his radio-collared neck. That shooting was illegal only because the hunter’s wolf-hunting license had expired, but Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter didn’t seem to mind. He sent a sarcastic letter to Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber offering to provide 150 of Idaho’s wolves as compensation for the killing of OR9, who, like his brother, had crossed over the state line after being born in Oregon.
Pelts for sale
Wolf pelts can be found hanging at flea markets now all over the West, including South Dakota, where several skins were being sold this past summer.
Although the hunting and trapping season in Idaho is year-round, the wolf death toll in the Rockies is just now reaching its peak. Idaho leads all other states, with 123 wolves felled via gunshot and 20 others harvested using traps this season.
“It’s certainly easier to track wolves in the snow,” Weiss said. “Another factor may be that if anyone hunting or trapping actually intends to salvage the pelt, it’s much more lush in winter.”
Wolves can no doubt be dangerous, but attacks on humans are extremely rare. The anti-OR7 video claims the average wolf kills 22 large mammals a year, including cattle, sheep and horses. Wolf packs, including the Oregon pack, do sometimes kill cows and sheep, but it is well-known that they primarily feed on deer and elk, which also happen to be favorites among hunters, who don’t like to share their trophies with predators.