Wolf Weekly Wrap-Up

Endangered Mexican Gray Wolf Population Surpasses 100 Animals: Last week, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service released the annual count of endangered Mexican gray wolves living in the U.S. For the first time since recovery efforts began in Arizona and New Mexico in 1998, the population has surpassed 100 individuals. But, while an increase from 83 wolves at the end of 2013 to this year’s 109 wolves is good news, numbers alone won’t save this imperiled wolf, especially with the serious limitations and flaws in the Service’s newly released Mexican gray wolf management rule. Eva Sargent, Director of Southwest Programs, said in response: “While lobos definitely need to increase their numbers, what they need even more is greater genetic diversity. This can only happen if more wolves are released, if they are allowed to access suitable habitat and if additional core populations are established.”


It’s Official: Oregon’s Wolf Population Improving: A few weeks ago we shared with you that Oregon’s wolves are making a strong comeback, and would soon met several “benchmarks” in the state’s wolf management plan that requires a status review to determine whether or not wolves will remain listed as endangered by the state, and what level of protection they require. Population surveys by wildlife biologiststhis week confirmed that Oregon’s wolf population has at least seven different breeding pairs of wolves, a strong indicator of the population’s overall health. Oregon was required to maintain at least four breeding pairs for three consecutive years in each recovery zone before changing the status of wolves in that area. Now that this criterion has been met, the state is initiating the listing review process. Delisting wolves in Oregon is a public process and we’ll keep you informed about your opportunities to give feedback on this matter. Defenders will continue to encourage Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to conduct a neutral and unbiased status review to assess the wolves’ overall population health in Oregon.
Gray Wolf, © Joan Poor
Tell Fish and Wildlife Service Not to Abandon Red Wolf Recovery! 
Today only 100 red wolves remain in the wild – and almost all of them live in a small patch of eastern North Carolina scrub forest. These critically endangered cousins of the gray wolf were nearly exterminated until a reintroduction program was launched in 1987 to save them. Defenders continues to advocate for the expansion of the Red Wolf Recovery Program in North Carolina, but while Defenders and our conservation partners recently won a court victory halting coyote hunting at night in the designated Red Wolf Recovery Area, this is only one of the factors necessary to ensuring the recovery and survival of red wolves. To make matters worse, recently, NC officials asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to terminate the Red Wolf Recovery Program. At Defenders we believe that it is vital that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continues to stand behind and fully fund the Red Wolf Recovery Program; we can’t allow these wolves to fade away once again from their native lands. You can help us by writing the Service and tell them not to abandon Red Wolf Recovery when the job isn’t done!

Goal: 30,000  Progress: 12,273
Sponsored by: Defenders of Wildlife

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to give up on red wolves and shut down the wolf's recovery program in the wild – and shockingly there are indications FWS may take the proposal seriously!
These critically endangered cousins of the gray wolf were nearly exterminated, until a reintroduction program was launched in 1987. Today, roughly 100 of these animals survive in a small patch of eastern North Carolina scrub forest.
Federal officials expect to make a decision by sometime in March!

New rules fail to ensure recovery for endangered wolves

Back in November, Defenders filed a lawsuit to spur the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to complete a recovery plan for the struggling Mexican gray wolf population. Over the past 39 years, the agency has failed to create a much-needed blueprint for recovery for this species. Making matters worse, FWS recently released a new rule governing how these wolves can be managed. A rule that will continue to make it impossible for the Mexican gray wolf to recover.
Mexican gray wolf, © AZGFD
Mexican gray wolves (or lobos) are smaller, desert-adapted subspecies of gray wolves. Lobos were completely extinct in the wild by the mid-1970s, reduced to only 7 individuals in captivity. The species was reintroduced to the wild in 1998 with a “prime objective” of reaching 100 individuals by 2006. But 100 wolves was always intended as a first step back from extinction, not a final recovery goal. For 15 years, aggressive wolf removals, not enough wolf releases, and political foot dragging caused the population to limp along, falling far short of even this unambitious target. Now, for the first time since their brush with extinction, there are 109 lobos in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico (and fewer than 10 in Mexico). This is good news, but wolves need more than just numbers to overcome problems from lack of genetic diversity and recover their rightful place in the Southwest landscape.

One of the primary reasons the Mexican gray wolf population is struggling stems from FWS’ foot-dragging in completing a legally valid recovery plan. Without this important road map, there have been too few wolves released into the wild and too many wolves killed or removed, which has led to inbreeding and genetic problems. Although the recently revised rule does expand the area where lobos can roam, it also:

• Caps the population of Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest at numbers too low for recovery
• Bans them from the best suitable habitat in the Grand Canyon region and southern Colorado
• Makes it easier for these endangered wolves to be legally killed.

Issuing a new rule on how to manage these wolves before a recovery plan is even in place is just plain backwards. An architect would never expect to build a working house without first making a blueprint, so it’s no wonder this new rule is one step forward and two steps back.

The ideal recovery plan would include recommendations from the agency’s hand-picked recovery team. Experts on that team have already stated that for Mexican gray wolves to survive, they need lower human-caused mortality, more wolves, and two more populations with more wolves in the Grand Canyon area, as well as southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. They’ve also said that wolf numbers need to increase to at least 750 for lobos to have a fighting chance. But under the new rule, these things would be impossible.

Because the new rule did not rely on the best science, and because recovery is specifically impossible under the rule, Defenders is challenging this new rule in court. What needs to happen, and what we hope our challenge will encourage, is for the FWS to first complete a legally and scientifically viable recovery plan, and then revise the new management rule in line with scientific recommendations, instead of against them.

The post One Step Forward, Two Steps Back appeared first on Defenders of Wildlife Blog.


Conservatives just introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to strip federal protection from and kill thousands of wolves in Wyoming, Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin.


This bill overrides court orders won by the Center and allies that stopped the wolf massacre in these very states. If the bill succeeds, it will end 40 years of wolf recovery -- preventing wolves from ever returning to California, Utah, Colorado and the Northeast.

This is truly the end game of our 20-year battle to restore wolves. If we don't stop this wolf-killing bill now, it's all over.

You can help with a contribution to the Wolf Defense Fund
. The Center for Biological Diversity will use your contribution to defeat this plan for legalized wolf slaughter. This is a full bore fight to keep wolves alive.

We can't match the deep pockets of the anti-wildlife forces. With funding from the meat industry and the Koch brothers, the enemies of wildlife will spend whatever it takes to kill wolves -- in Idaho, Governor Butch Otter is spending $4,600 per wolf to gun them down.

But we'll win despite being outspent 100 to 1. Our lawyers, scientists and activists can stop this terrible bill and win protection for wolves everywhere. We have stopped wolf killing -- both in the courtroom and by preventing many anti-wildlife bills from getting through Congress. With your contribution today we'll win this urgent battle.
If we don't stop this bill, thousands of wolves in Wyoming, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan will be slaughtered. The wolf recovery program will be terminated with wolves still missing from 95 percent of their historic range in the lower 48. The stakes could not be higher.

Please give generously to the Wolf Defense Fund. Your support will arm us in the fight for their future.

P.S. Brett Hartl, the endangered species policy director at the Center, recently outlined for the Summit County Citizen's Voice exactly how devastating this kind of political meddling is to wolves and other species. It's included below. You can support Brett in his work with a donation to the Wolf Defense Fund.


Proposed Legislation Undermines Endangered Species Act

FRISCO, CO — Politicians are once again meddling with wolf conservation in a process that never ends well for the animals. Last week, Republican lawmakers from Wisconsin, Wyoming and Minnesota introduced House legislation that would remove federal protection from gray wolves in Wyoming and the western Great Lakes states.

Already under political pressure, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ended protections for gray wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan in 2011 and in Wyoming in 2012. Federal judges overturned both decisions for failing to follow the best science and for prematurely turning management over to state fish and game agencies hostile to wolves.

The proposed legislation would reverse these court orders, wiping out Endangered Species Act protection for the approximately 4,000 wolves that live in the four states.

"This is an ugly political ploy that will end with a lot of dead wolves and do serious damage to one of the most important endangered species success stories in America's history," said Brett Hartl, endangered species policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity.


"The courts have repeatedly found that it"s too soon to remove federal protections for gray wolves but these politicians want to do it anyway. This bill will subject some of the last remaining wolves in the lower 48 to state-sanctioned hunting and trapping seasons designed to drastically reduce populations," Hartl said.


Since gaining protection under the Endangered Species Act in 1976, gray wolves have made important progress toward recovery in the lower 48, with populations growing from fewer than 1,000 wolves to more than 5,000 today.

Conservation advocates say Republicans have started zeroing in on individual endangered species since taking control of the House.

"This kind of meddling -- where politicians ignore both science and law -- is not only dangerous for wolves but for other wildlife that rely on the Endangered Species Act for their survival," Hartl said. "Now no species is safe from cynical, politically expedient attacks. From the sage grouse to manatees and even the tiny American burying beetle, all species are on notice that they can be kicked off the ark at a moment's notice for no reason other than being politically unpopular."

In 2011 a policy rider on a key appropriations bill stripped Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in Montana and Idaho. Very similar to the legislation introduced today, the rider negated a federal court decision overturning the Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to delist gray wolves in those two states. The rider precluded the possibility of judicial review, making the delisting of wolves in Montana and Idaho virtually permanent.

In the three years that followed, more than 1,956 wolves have been killed in the two states. The wolf rider has encouraged similar congressional attacks on other species.

"Representatives Ribble, Lummis and Kline are not scientists and should not attempt a political end run around what should be a science-based decision on the status of a listed species under the Endangered Species Act," said Defenders of Wildlife president Jamie Rappaport Clark.


A politically based delisting of wolves will undermine the integrity of the Endangered Species Act, Clark warned, calling on the Obama administration to oppose all Congressional efforts to delist wolves and other species.

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If you love wolves like I think you do, you need to know the truth.

Wolves are in mortal danger and under constant attack in states like Idaho. Twenty years of painstaking progress in reintroducing wolves to the Lower 48 and promoting wolf recovery could come to a tragic end, unless you and I protect them.

Wolves need you, and so do we! Your support for Defenders of Wildlife is the best investment you can make to protect wolves and other vulnerable wildlife!

I’ve never seen such a relentless attack on wolves and wolf conservation as we’re seeing today.

Just last week, members of Congress introduced bills to strip wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes region of Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection.

I fear they are just getting started – it could be only a matter of time before legislation is introduced to delist nearly all gray wolves in the Lower 48 and bar protections for other critically imperiled species.

But with your help, we will weather this storm of hatred, ignorance and bloodshed.

Your generous support will give us the critical resources to carry on in this fight.

Thanks to you and other supporters, Defenders led the successful campaign to reintroduce wolves to the Northern Rockies. With your support we’ve gone to court repeatedly, and won, to make sure wolves get the legal defense they deserve. We’re pioneering new, non-lethal strategies for managing wolves and livestock to co-exist in order to protect wolves from being needlessly killed.

And with you at our side, we’ll turn away this latest barrage of hatred and anti-wolf persecution. The future of wolf recovery hangs in the balance.

We can’t do it without you.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your compassion and generosity.