Wolf News Roundup
by Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online!
September 27, 2017
Wyoming
Federal funding for wolf control in the predator zone of Wyoming ends September 30, and after that date, responsibility falls on local predator control boards. When wolves were delisted in April, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service had a financial contract with USDA Wildlife Services that funded all wolf work in Wyoming, regardless of where the damage was located. This contract ends Sept. 30. Within the trophy zone, where wolves are managed by the Wyoming Game & Fish Department, that state agency will be responsible for both wolf damage control and compensating livestock producers for confirmed damage. In addition, WG&F sets the wolf hunting season in the trophy zone, which opens Oct. 1. But in the remainder of the state (outside the trophy zone), wolves are treated as predators and can be legally taken at any time. Local predator boards may fund wolf control as their budgets may allow, but there is no compensation for livestock losses to wolves in the predator zone.
Washington
The Center for Biological Diversity and Cascadia Wildlands have teamed up to sue the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife over the state’s protocol for lethal removal of wolves involved in repeated livestock depredations.
Alaska
The wolf population on Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island has grown to more than 240 animals, so state officials have authorized a wolf hunt quota of 46 animals, according to media reports.
Minnesota wolves
The Minnesota wolf population is booming, with 500 packs and more than 2,800 wolves in the northern portion of the state – more than twice the numbers required in federal recovery plans.
Wolves near Rome
Italy’s wolf population has expanded to nearly 2,000 animals, with wolf pups now found in a reserve just a few miles from Rome’s international airport.
Woman killed in Greece
The Times (London) reports that a British woman killed in northern Greece may have been attacked by rabid wolves, not feral dogs.
Check out the links below for more details on these stories.
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