USFWS investigates wolf deaths

Fox said killing an endangered species is a violation of the Federal
Endangered Species Act that can invoke criminal penalties of up to $25,000
and/or six months in jail. The press release mentions rewards up to
$10,000 that are offered to anyone who can help apprehend the individuals
responsible.

Center for Biological Diversity Wildlife Biologist Michael Robinson said
he believes the awards have increased to $20,000 to $25,000 thanks to
money being offered by the Defenders of Wildlife and the CBD.

Southwest Environmental Center representative Jean Ossorio said
conservationists heard rumors that the wolves died of gunshot wounds. Wolf
m509 is also suspected to have died after a hit-and-run attack, she said.

“The reason is that none of these wolves were known to be in poor health
and none were extremely old. Healthy animals in the prime of life don’t
just die for no good reason,” she said in an e-mail to the Courier. “The
government officials themselves are treating these deaths as a law
enforcement matter. But I do believe that it is their policy to release
their cause of death only after necropsy results have been returned to
them.”

Fox said the USFWS National Forensics Lab in Ashland, Ore., must perform
necropsies on the animals.

“They are world renowned and known as the Scotland Yard of wildlife
forensics,” she said. “The lab expedites high profile cases for USFWS
agents. Necropsies may only take several weeks to complete, given the
lab’s existing case load.”

She said the USFWS will not speculate on the animals’ cause of death until
after official necropsy reports are received from the lab.

“The most galling thing about the recent wolf deaths is the fact that
three out of the nine wild packs have been effectively destroyed in a
two-week period,” Ossorio said. “With one alpha animal gone from the
Francisco, Gapiwi and Saddle packs, one-third of the packs no longer
exist, and up to eight pups are in jeopardy. This is a loss the program
can ill afford.”

Robinson said wolf m509 would probably be alive today if the USFWS heeded
urgent recommendations from the independent scientists who wrote the
three-year review in 2001.

“They advised allowing wolves to roam outside the boundaries of the
recovery area, just like all other wildlife (including wolves in the
northern Rockies) are allowed to do, unless they are creating problems,”
he wrote in an e-mail to the Courier. “The Francisco Pack was removed for
being outside these boundaries, and just like every other translocated
pack, they split apart.”

After the split, wolf m509 was wandering alone near Hwy. 180, leaving him
vulnerable, Robinson said.

He said the USFWS is “partially culpable” for this wolf’s death.

Wolf found near Safford

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Field Coordinator John Oakleaf said wolf
m732 was captured about 22 miles away from Safford on Aug. 26. He said the
wolf’s re-release is being evaluated.

“That’s still a decision that goes through time,” Oakleaf said. The wolf
was from the Minas Mountain Pack and was linked to one confirmed and one
probable cattle depredation. A depredation is a cattle death that was
caused by a wolf.

He said the collared wolf stayed around the initial release area in early
June, and then moved to the White Mountain Apache Reservat-ion. After
spending about a month and a half on the reservation, the wolf traveled
south to the Black Hills Rockhound Area. The depredations were on a ranch
near the wolf’s capture area.

Oakleaf was not able to legally release the rancher’s name.

Bureau of Land Manage-ment employees said the Twin-C Allotment is the only
ranch in the area and that it is owned by rancher Rocky Manuz.

At the Adaptive Manage-ment Work Group meeting on Oct. 3, Manuz said the
24-hour time period is too short to allow him to report a dead cow. He
also said Defenders of Wildlife representatives took more than one month
to contact him about the depredation.

The Defenders of Wildlife is the organization that reimburses ranchers for
confirmed wolf depredations.

Radio announcements

At the AMWG meeting on Oct. 3, wolf conservationists, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service employees and ranchers discussed radio announcements that
preceded the death of wolf m509. According to the USFWS press release,
m509 was found dead along Hwy. 180, a short distance west of Silver City,
N.M.

Preceding the wolf’s death, Silver City radio station KNFT reported that
it received a call that a wolf was wandering about 15 miles northwest of
the town, near Highway 180. Chuck Hayes of the New Mexico Game and Fish
Department said press officer Marty Frentzel confirmed that a wolf was in
the general area, as they would with any other call from the public.

In a phone interview with the Courier, Frentzel said he confirmed reports
and did not give out specific information. The department did not order a
media announcement of any kind.

Frentzel said he knew the agency received calls about the wolf three days
before, and did not think the wolf had stayed in the same area for that
amount of time.

“We don’t want people panicked about the existence of a wolf,” Frentzel
said. He did not think he was giving out any specific information because
Hwy. 180 covers a large area.

KNFT news director and station manager Larry Behrans said he called
Frentzel after receiving calls from a person who had seen the wolf twice
and a woman who said she was missing some chickens.

After speaking with Frentzel and Fox, he announced over the radio that a
wolf had been spotted in the area. Shortly after making the announcements,
Behrans heard that a dead wolf had been found in the area. Behrans said he
heard that the wolf had been shot, and several other wolves that had been
shot recently.

Hayes said the agency responds to questions from the public and the media
with the intent of providing as much information as possible without
jeopardizing resources. There is a state law that prohibits the New Mexico
Game and Fish Department from giving away the specific location of any
endangered species. The law means state agencies cannot announce a species
is on a specific parcel of land, unless the owner of the land gives the
state agency authorization to do so.

Ossorio said the USFWS told people at a meeting in Glenwood, Colo., that
specific locations of the wolves would be left out of bi-weekly USFWS
field notes to protect the wolves.

“I suspect the instincts of the FWS were correct when they took the
specifics out of the field notes,” she said.

“But if they are going to broadcast the information anyway, then why
bother to leave it out of the notes?”

In response to differences between locations on USFWS field notes and
phone calls, a more consistent policy among government agencies is being
developed, Hayes said. He said the locations that used to be given in
field notes indicated what geographic landmarks the wolf was near.

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