Wolf Weekly Wrap Up

Two New Litters of Wolf Pups Confirmed in Oregon

Oregon wolves have been gripped by pup fever.

Wildlife officials just released photos confirming that Oregon's famous wolf "OR-7" -- who founded the Rogue pack in the Oregon portion of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest near the Oregon-California border -- has fathered his third litter of pups since the pack's establishment in 2014.

And it just so happens that the Rogue pack's neighbors in nearby Lake County -- a pair known as the Silver Lake wolves -- have also produced pups. The female of this pair is known to have dispersed westward from the Mount Emily pack, and the male wolf, OR-3, was born into the Imnaha pack and is OR-7's brother. This means Oregon's wolf population has reached the triple digits.

"It's incredibly exciting that Oregon's wolves are starting to find their way back to places this remarkable species once called home," said the Center's Amaroq Weiss. "This tells us how important it is to keep wildlands available for continued safe passage, and to keep legal protections in place for wolves." See photos and read more in The Oregonian.

Alaska is at it again.

The state wants to kill wolves, bears and other iconic predators on our national wildlife refuges through excessive and extreme practices like baiting, snaring and aerial gunning. They even want to target mother wolves with their young sleeping in their dens!

The good news is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has finalized a rule to prevent such cruel killings. The bad news is Alaska will continue to pull out all the stops to undermine FWS and block these crucial regulations. And the worse news is that other states may follow suit if Alaska prevails.

Your urgent donation will help us stop Alaska’s despicable plan and protect imperiled wildlife nationwide.

You would think preventing this sort of abuse on federal wildlife refuges would be easy. But sadly, you would be wrong. In fact, legislative proposals to nullify this new rule that conserves bears and wolves have already passed the full U.S. House of Representatives twice!

wolves and bears in Alaska need your help >>

And other anti-federal government states are watching closely. If Alaska’s gruesome plans are allowed to go forward, it could set a precedent for state-led invasions of federal lands in the lower 48!

These are desperate times for the wildlife you and I love. Together, we can stop these appalling attacks and help protect imperiled animals wherever they are threatened. We can do it, but only with the help of people who care...people like you. Please donate today.

Right now, an hour south of Albuquerque, a family of Mexican gray wolves is being held captive in pens, far from most of the wild forests and mountains where these wolves' ancestors lived free for hundreds of years. Anti-wolf zealots in New Mexico are blocking the release of this breeding pair and their pups as part of their stubborn opposition to wolves in the Southwest that threatens to cripple the chances for wolf recovery in the region.

With only 97 lobos left in the wild, it's critically important that wolf families clinging to life -- like those in the Luna, Bluestem and Dark Canyon packs that roam the stunning wildlands of the Gila and Apache national forests -- get an infusion of genetic diversity from the captive-bred wolves. Instead their future is being held hostage at the behest of the cattle industry.

The Center for Biological Diversity is leading the fight to free these wolves whose species is hovering on the brink of extinction and remove the obstacles to Mexican gray wolf recovery. You can help strengthen that fight right now with a donation to our Wolf Defense Fund.

Even worse, wolf-hating New Mexico Republican Congressman Steve Pearce is trying to dismantle the entire Southwest wolf program. He recently snuck in a "rider" -- an amendment to a larger budget bill -- intended to ban the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from working on wolf recovery at all in New Mexico and Arizona. This is a virtual death sentence for the Southwest's critically endangered Mexican gray wolf population.

Help us shut down Pearce's wolf-killer bill with a contribution to the Wolf Defense Fund today.

Anti-wolf hysteria is spreading beyond the Southwest -- another new amendment would overturn the Center's victory banning wolf hunting in Wyoming. Our team in D.C. is taking on these bad bills and working nonstop to keep them from becoming law. Last year we helped to get similar anti-wolf riders stripped from the major year-end budget bills, and we hope to repeat that success in 2016 -- but going up against moneyed special interests and the politicians they bankroll is complicated and costly, which is why we need your donation today.

With your help we're going to protect the Southwest's wolves from Congressman Pearce and his ilk. We're already in court to get a proper long-term recovery plan in place for the lobo, so that attacks like his don't happen again. We will secure a home in the wild for these magnificent animals, and we'll take on any politician who tries to meddle with wolf recovery in America.

Help us fight for freedom for the Southwest's wolves with a donation to the Center's wolf work today.