Wolf News - January 2020

2 COLORADO WOLF REINTRODUCTION EFFORTS — ONE BILL, ONE BALLOT INITIATIVE — GO HEAD-TO-HEAD

January 31st: Unlike the recent ballot proposal, a new bill introduced by Sen. Kerry Donovan (D-Vail), includes provisions for delaying reintroduction until there's a source of revenue to pay for damages caused by the wolves. The bill also calls for canceling reintroduction altogether if there's a self-sustaining wolf population in the state.

IDAHO PROPOSE EXTENDING WOLF SEASONS

January 31st: Idaho: Since the federal government lifted Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in 2011, the Fish and Game Commission has expanded wolf seasons incrementally in response to increases in depredations on livestock and predation on other big game species. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is proposing several extensions of the 2020 wolf hunting and trapping seasons and two changes to open more areas to wolf trapping.

THERE'S A COYOTE IN CENTRAL PARK. DON'T PANIC

January 29th, New York: Richard Simon, director of the wildlife unit at the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, said officials had recently received several reports of a coyote in Central Park. “Coexisting with coyotes is pretty easy,” added Katie Stennes, a Park Slope resident who works as the programs and communication manager at Project Coyote, "Just don’t feed them, and pick up your trash."

YELLOWSTONE WOLVES MARK 25 YEARS BACK IN THE PARK

January 10th: Given its success, Yellowstone's wolf reintroduction has served as a blueprint for re-introductions elsewhere. But the story's not over, according to Doug Smith of the Yellowstone Wolf Project. " The wolves' first 15 years back in the park were a chaotic time ... The last ten have been astonishingly stable, almost weirdly so," Smith said. "And so we're actually waiting for the next thing to happen, because the elk population is stable, the wolf population's stable...and you just don't use the word stable in nature."

BLACK COYOTE CAPTURED ON NC MAN'S WILDLIFE CAMERA

January 9th, North Carolina: The Greensboro Science Center says black coyotes are rare, but it's unclear just how rare they are because not much research has been done on them. The Greensboro Science Center says that black pigment or melanism can occur in many mammals and some have a higher frequency of the trait than others.

REWARD INCREASED TO $7,500 FOR INFO ON KILLING OF ENDANGERED CALIFORNIA WOLF

January 9th: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a $2,500 reward this week, and the Center for Biological Diversity is boosting the amount by $5,000. The Service reward announcement publicly revealed for the first time this week that the wolf’s death in 2018 was an unlawful shooting. OR-59, a 1.5-year-old radio-collared male wolf from Oregon, moved into California in early December 2018.

WILDLIFE OFFICIALS FIND EVIDENCE OF WOLVES IN COLORADO

January 8th: Hunters provided a video shot in October of two wolves shown near the Wyoming and Utah borders. It was the first time in a few years that multiple wolves were seen traveling together in Colorado, officials said. The announcement came days after state election officials placed a measure to reintroduce wolves on this year's ballot.

HOW HUMANS CAN COEXIST WITH OTHER ANIMALS

January 7th: Some books to help us connect with animals. “To fully protect anything, we must know it, love it, act in mindful reciprocity — giving back to animals as they give to us.”

DOGS AND WOLVES ARE BOTH GOOD AT COOPERATING

January 6th: A team of researchers have found that dogs and wolves are equally good at cooperating with partners to obtain a reward. When tested in same-species pairs, dogs and wolves proved equally successful and efficient at solving a given problem. This finding suggests that basic cooperation abilities were present in a common ancestor of dogs and wolves, and have not been lost in the domestication process.

IT'S OFFICIAL: WOLVES ARE HEADED TO COLORADO'S 2020 BALLOT

January 6th: On Monday, the Colorado Secretary of State’s office announced that the Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund campaign had gathered an estimated 139,333 valid signatures — above the 124,632 signatures needed to earn a place the 2020 ballot. If it passes, the measure would require state wildlife managers to reintroduce wolves to Western Colorado by the end of 2023.