Killing-Contest Sponsors Back Down. Fabulous breaking news! Today the ironically named Salmon, Idaho wolf killing
contest sponsors “Idaho for Wildlife” announced they will not be holding the
barbaric event this winter. You helped ensure this result by taking action and
supporting our work.
While wolves will remain in hunters’ crosshairs in Idaho, they will not be the subject of an organized multi-day contest. After two years spending the holiday season fighting against this craven killing spree on our public lands, we are enormously relieved.
This year we will get to celebrate the arrival of winter and the anniversary of the Endangered Species Act knowing the wolves, coyotes and other carnivores on our public lands in Idaho will not be facing hundreds of blood-thirsty people with guns trying to kill as many animals as possible to win prizes.
Our work is not yet done. Our legal challenge to
the Bureau of Land Management’s and Forest Service’s failure to adequately
regulate killing contests on our public lands will move forward so that we can
prevent these events from happening in the future. You can tell Secretaries
Jewell and Vilsack to stop these contests here.
Our efforts to ensure wolves and other carnivores are afforded the respect they deserve as key parts of healthy thriving ecosystems across the West will continue, but today, we’re going to take a moment to revel in the joy this victory brings.
At the grassroots, in the courtroom, in state legislatures, and in Congress, Guardians is on the frontline advocating for compassionate and humane wildlife management policy. Thank you for being a part of this important work.
TIGERS AND WOLVES in Russia have an uncomplicated relationship: they simply don’t get along.
This was not always understood, as the first study to examine both populations in the southern Russian Far East found equilibrium, with the predators seeming to occupy the same forests without killing each other off.
In retrospect, however, it became clear that this single snapshot of their relationship did not reveal the full story. At the time of that analysis, Amur tigers were rebounding from a historical population low. As tigers reoccupied forests long abandoned they then displaced the wolves, either by killing them or driving them out.
Researchers have recently been able to observe this dynamic firsthand in two different parts of tiger range.
First, in the Pri-Amur region, where Amur tigers have been absent for half a century. Here, tigers are now being released to recolonize former habitat, and one of these tigers killed and ate two wolves during her first winter in the wild. If tigers are successful at regaining a foothold in the Pri-Amur, wolves might disappear from the region.
Second, in the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve to the south, where a resident female tiger died amidst an outbreak of canine distemper virus in 2010 and was replaced by a pair of wolves soon thereafter. Things did not end well for these canids, however. One succumbed to canine distemper itself, and another was last seen running across a road a few years later.
Being chased by a tiger.
While wolves will remain in hunters’ crosshairs in Idaho, they will not be the subject of an organized multi-day contest. After two years spending the holiday season fighting against this craven killing spree on our public lands, we are enormously relieved.
This year we will get to celebrate the arrival of winter and the anniversary of the Endangered Species Act knowing the wolves, coyotes and other carnivores on our public lands in Idaho will not be facing hundreds of blood-thirsty people with guns trying to kill as many animals as possible to win prizes.
Our work is not yet done. Our legal challenge to
the Bureau of Land Management’s and Forest Service’s failure to adequately
regulate killing contests on our public lands will move forward so that we can
prevent these events from happening in the future. You can tell Secretaries
Jewell and Vilsack to stop these contests here.
Our efforts to ensure wolves and other carnivores are afforded the respect they deserve as key parts of healthy thriving ecosystems across the West will continue, but today, we’re going to take a moment to revel in the joy this victory brings.
At the grassroots, in the courtroom, in state legislatures, and in Congress, Guardians is on the frontline advocating for compassionate and humane wildlife management policy. Thank you for being a part of this important work.
Without
firing a shot, two U.S. Senators may be about to trigger the death of hundreds
of wolves.
Sens.
Ron Johnson (R-WI) and John Barrasso (R-WY) have introduced a bill that would
forcibly delist gray wolves in Wyoming, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Without the protections of the Endangered Species Act, hundreds of wolves,
including mothers and pups, will die.
We’re
fighting tooth and nail to stop these horrific attacks, and we need your help.
Because
the situation is so serious, our Board of Directors and National Council have
offered to match your gift dollar-for-dollar, up to a total of $75,000, until
Monday, November 23rd!
By
introducing this bill just before final negotiations take place over the 2016
federal budget, Senators Barrasso and Johnson are hoping to encourage the
inclusion of delisting language into a must-pass budget bill.
If
that happens, how long do you think it will take for more wolves to be
killed?
To
add insult to injury, the bill would also prevent federal courts from ever
restoring Endangered Species Act protections for these wolves, no matter how bad
the situation gets!
With
federal protections gone, most of Wyoming will immediately be re-designated a
"predator zone," literally a free-fire zone where anyone could kill any wolf at any time
and for any reason.
With
your help, Defenders will mobilize our grassroots community to oppose this
blatant abuse of Congressional power, reach out to the media to spread the word
and continue to fight on Capitol Hill against this deadly bill.
Thanks
to you, we’ve been leading the charge for wolf recovery since wolves were first
reintroduced into the Lower 48, more than 20 years ago. With your
support, we’ve gone to court and won repeatedly to make sure wolves get the
legal protections they deserve. We’re pioneering new, non-lethal
strategies for wolves to coexist with people and livestock. With you at our
side, we’ll weather this current crisis and look forward to a day when wolf
recovery is truly complete! The wildlife you love is
counting on you to help. Are you in?
The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) continues to rely upon a flawed and
inadequate program to conserve struggling red wolves of North Carolina, and the
results have been heartbreaking.
We’re
filing suit in federal court to compel FWS to follow the conservation mandate
under the Endangered Species Act and reverse these endangered wolves’ rapid
slide toward extinction in the wild.
Your
help provides the resources we need to carry on these high stakes court cases.
And as you’ve probably noticed, our lawyers are exceptionally busy lately.
It’s
increasingly clear that FWS has all but abandoned the roughly 50-75 red wolves
that are clinging to survival in the coastal forests of eastern North
Carolina.
Recently,
a mother red wolf was shot and killed – with FWS permission! No effort was made
to move the animal onto protected land, or to try other non-lethal
methods.
Over 60 red wolves have been lost
to gunshots, vehicle strikes and other factors since 2012, reducing the
population by more than 50 percent.
Over
the past decade, FWS has fallen woefully short in its legally-mandated efforts
to foster the recovery of these beautiful and secretive animals. Red wolves once
roamed from Pennsylvania to Florida. Today, as few as 50-75 animals survive in
the wild in a small part of eastern North Carolina.
Unfriendly Neighbors.
- as seen by -
Jonathan C. Slaght
This was not always understood, as the first study to examine both populations in the southern Russian Far East found equilibrium, with the predators seeming to occupy the same forests without killing each other off.
In retrospect, however, it became clear that this single snapshot of their relationship did not reveal the full story. At the time of that analysis, Amur tigers were rebounding from a historical population low. As tigers reoccupied forests long abandoned they then displaced the wolves, either by killing them or driving them out.
Researchers have recently been able to observe this dynamic firsthand in two different parts of tiger range.
First, in the Pri-Amur region, where Amur tigers have been absent for half a century. Here, tigers are now being released to recolonize former habitat, and one of these tigers killed and ate two wolves during her first winter in the wild. If tigers are successful at regaining a foothold in the Pri-Amur, wolves might disappear from the region.
Second, in the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve to the south, where a resident female tiger died amidst an outbreak of canine distemper virus in 2010 and was replaced by a pair of wolves soon thereafter. Things did not end well for these canids, however. One succumbed to canine distemper itself, and another was last seen running across a road a few years later.
Being chased by a tiger.
