Welcome
to Wolf Watch! | Books
by Cat Urbigkit
Wyoming news reporter Cat Urbigkit lives in the heart
of wolf country, near Boulder, Wyoming, a few hundred miles
south of Yellowstone National Park. As a news reporter, rancher,
researcher and Wyoming resident, she has followed the wolf
issue for many years and written many articles on the topic,
as well as an upcoming book on the history of wolves in Wyoming.
The goal of this website is to present up-to-date, accurate
information about what is happening with wolves, focusing on wolves in the Rocky
Mountains, but referring to wolf happenings outside our region when there is
some local relevance. Rather than an agenda-driven advocacy site, this is the
place to be for the facts about wolves, with a strong focus on what’s happening
on the ground.
We invite those living in areas inhabited by wolves to contact
Cat with news tips, photographs, or other information. We also invite those who
want to support this endeavor to sign on as sponsors, and for our readers to
support those sponsors.
2019 Wolf
Watch Story Archive
2018
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2017
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2016
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2015
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2014
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2013
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2012
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2011
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2010
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2009 Wolf Watch Story Archive
2008 Wolf
Watch Story Archive
2007/2006
Watch Wolf Story Archive
7/21/2020: Wolf
news - 7/21/2020
(By Cat Urbigkit) This
wolf news roundup includes stories from Colorado, Oregon,
California and Washington. Topics include push for a Colorado
ballot initiative regarding wolf reintroduction, a look
at livestock depredations by wolves in Oregon, eight calves
injured by wolves in Washington. Mexican wolf recovery
has increased over the last decade. According to the Arizona
Game & Fish Department: "During the month of June,
there were 21 confirmed wolf depredation incidents on livestock
and two livestock injured by wolves. There were five nuisance
incidents investigated in June..... (Click
on the link above for the complete story.)
6/13/2020: More
wolves reported in Colorado
(By Colorado
Parks & Wildlife) Wolves are a federally endangered
species in Colorado and until that designation changes,
all wolf management is under direction of the federal government,
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Killing a wolf in Colorado
is a federal crime and can be punishable with up to a year
in prison and a $100,000 fine. As the weather improves
and more people are recreating in the outdoors, there have
been more sightings of potential wolves in the state. Wildlife
managers recently captured an image of a lone wolf feeding
on an elk carcass in northwest Colorado. A wolf with a
wildlife radio tracking collar was seen Larimer County.
CPW biologists and veterinarians have analyzed scat (feces)
samples and determined that several members of the pack
in northwest Colorado are positive for eggs of the tapeworm
parasite Echinococcus canadensis. This parasite can lead
to hydatid disease in wild and domestic ungulates. These
tapeworms have been found in wolves in Wyoming, Montana,
and Idaho. These parasites can be passed from infected
feces to wildlife, livestock and humans..... (Click
on the link above for the complete story.)
6/6/2020: Wyoming
News 6/6/2020
(By Cat Urbigkit) Click
on this link to read stories about wolf encounters, news
about a gray wolf in Utah, a wolf attack in British Columbia,
and update on Mexican wolves in the desert southwest..... (Click
on the link above for the complete story.)
4/17/2020: Wyoming
has at least 311 wolves
(By Cat
Urbigkit) At the end of 2019, Wyoming’s
wolf population exceeded recovery criteria for the
18th consecutive year, according to the Wyoming Game
and Fish Department’s annual wolf report. At
least 311 wolves in 43 packs inhabit the state, including
94 wolves in eight packs in Yellowstone National Park,
and 16 wolves and three packs on the Wind River Reservation.
According to the report, at least 175 wolves in 27
packs reside in northwestern Wyoming’s trophy
zone for wolves, and 26 wolves in five packs live in
the predator zone and are not actively monitored. Wolves
were confirmed to have killed 70 head of livestock
(42 cattle, 27 sheep and 1 donkey) and one dog in Wyoming
in 2019, and an additional 11 cattle and one donkey
were confirmed as injured by wolves. Nineteen packs
were involved in at least one livestock depredation.
Federal and state agencies spent about $1.9 million
on wolf monitoring and management in Wyoming in 2019,
or about $6,170 per wolf roaming the state at the end
of 2019. ..... (Click
on the link above for the complete story.)
4/17/2020: California's
Wyoming-Wolf Connection
(By Cat Urbigkit) The
California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDF&W)
reports that the Lassen pack is the only known wolf pack
in the state. Genetic testing indicates the breeding
male wolf originated in the Oregon wolf population. The
female wolf is not closely related to known Oregon wolves.
It is suspected she dispersed from another part of the
broader northern Rocky Mountain wolf population, and
she has been found to have half-siblings in the Wyoming
wolf population. Gray wolves in California are protected
under the Federal Endangered Species Act and California
Endangered Species Act..... (Click on
the link above for the complete story.)
4/17/2020: Oregon
has at least 158 wolves
(By Cat Urbigkit) State
wildlife biologists counted 158 wolves in Oregon this
past winter, a 15 percent increase over last year’s
count of 137, according to the Oregon Wolf Conservation
and Management 2019 Annual Report. This annual count
is based on verified wolf evidence (like visual observations,
tracks, and remote camera photographs) and is considered
the minimum known wolf count, not an estimate of how
many wolves are in Oregon. The actual number of wolves
in Oregon is likely higher, as not all individuals present
in the state are located during the winter count. Although
the state’s annual wolf report doesn’t tally
up all the cost of monitoring, management, and compensation,
from the figures provided in the report, state agencies
spent at least $875,000 on wolves in Oregon in 2019,
or about $5,538 per known wolf. Wolves are protected
as a special status game mammal in Oregon and were delisted
statewide in 2015 under the Oregon Endangered Species
Act (ESA). Wolves occurring west of Oregon Highways 395/78/95
continue to be federally listed as endangered under the
federal ESA..... (Click on
the link above for the complete story.)
3/17/2020: Wolf
News Roundup 3/17/2020
(By Cat Urbigkit) Colorado
Parks & Wildlife reports that a group of wolves has
again been verified in Moffat County. Idaho Fish and
Game has concluded wolf control actions done during February
that removed 17 wolves in the Lolo elk zone north of
Highway 12. Similar control actions have taken place
in eight of the last nine years to reduce predation and
improve elk survival in this herd that is well below
elk management objectives. The control actions are taken
where wolves are causing conflicts with people or domestic
animals, or are a significant, measured factor in deer
and elk population declines. While wildlife managers
assert that wolves are biologically recovered, wolf advocates
voice their opposition to reduced protection and delisting
because the animals will be subjected to hunting and
trapping..... (Click on
the link above for the complete story.)
2/23/2020: Wolf
News Roundup 2/23/2020
(By
Cat Urbigkit) The Idaho Department
of Fish & Game Commission has approved
nine proposed modifications to wolf hunting
and trapping seasons that extend wolf hunting
opportunities, open more areas to wolf trapping
and extend trapping seasons. The wolf advocacy
groups pushing the ballot initiative to transplant
wolves into Colorado have vastly higher contributions
to their campaign than the groups opposed to
the effort. In Minnesota, where wolves are
federally protected, state officials have paid
out an average of $135,000 annually for confirmed
wolf depredations on livestock in the last
decade...... (Click
on the link above for the complete story.)
2/17/2020: Wolf
News Roundup 2/17/2020
(By Cat
Urbigkit) Proposed legislation that would have
provided a compensation program for wolf depredation
on livestock in Wyoming’s predator zone for wolves
has died. The bill failed to get the needed votes for
introduction in this budget session of the Wyoming
Legislature. Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) biologists
have received notification back from a genetics lab
confirming that four scat samples collected near a
scavenged elk carcass in Moffat County in early January
came from wolves. This is the first official documentation
of a pack of wolves in the state since the 1940s..... (Click
on the link above for the complete story.)
2/7/2020: Wolf
News Roundup 2/7/2020
(By Cat
Urbigkit) A Representative in Washington has
introduced a bill requiring closer monitoring of wolves
in the state in order to to maximize nonlethal methods
of dealing with problem wolves. His proposal, House
Bill 2906, directs the state Department of Fish and
Wildlife (WDFW) to prioritize the use of radio collars
as a tool to monitor wolves that have been in conflict
with livestock and humans. Range riders working under
a $352,000 contract from the Washington Department
of Fish & Wildlife to deter wolves from cattle
in northeastern Washington are now facing theft charges.
The state has filed theft charges against two of the
range riders, alleging that while their time sheets
showed they were on the job, their phone records indicate
they were more than 100 miles away. OR-54, a female
dispersing wolf approximately 3-4 years old, was found
dead in Shasta County, California on February 5, 2020.
OR-54 traveled widely in northeastern California, as
well as into Oregon and Nevada. She was originally
radio collared in Oregon and has been tracked since
October 2017...... (Click
on the link above for the complete story.)
1/29/2020: Wolf
News Roundup 1/29/2020
(By Cat
Urbigkit) Reports of an elk killed by wolves
in northern Colorado’s Irish Canyon in early
January have been confirmed as a wolf kill. It is one
of several confirmed reports that wolves are already
in Colorado – as that state’s residents
prepare to vote on a wolf reintroduction program this
fall. A video recording of two wolves filmed by elk
hunters back in October has also surfaced..... (Click
on the link above for the complete story.)
1/11/2020: Wolves
roaming Colorado
(By Cat
Urbigkit) Reports of an elk killed by wolves
in northern Colorado’s Irish Canyon in early
January have been confirmed as a wolf kill. It is one
of several confirmed reports that wolves are already
in Colorado – as that state’s residents
prepare to vote on a wolf reintroduction program this
fall. A video recording of two wolves filmed by elk
hunters back in October has also surfaced..... (Click
on the link above for the complete story.)
12/27/19: Wolf
News Roundup 12/27/2019
(By Cat Urbigkit) Of
the total quota of 35 wolves available for legal harvest
in Wyoming’s wolf trophy zone this hunting season,
26 wolves have been killed by hunters as of Dec. 27. The
Wyoming Game & Fish Department reports on its website
that an additional 22 wolves have been killed so far this
year in the remainder of Wyoming (where wolves are classified
as predators), but that number is set to increase after the
recent killing of five more wolves in response to repeated
livestock depredations in Sublette County. With the Sept.
1 opening of the wolf hunting season in many of western Wyoming’s
trophy wolf hunt areas, quotas have been reached in six hunt
areas, so those areas are now closed. All wolf hunting areas
in the trophy zone close at the end of the year. British
Columbia officials plan to kill at least 80 percent of wolves
in the central area of the province. The wolf cull is planned
to protect the Tweedsmuir-Entiako caribou herd, which has
declined by more than 10% annually for the last three years.
Predation by wolves has been determined to be a key cause
of caribou mortality. The Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife
reports that three radio-collared wolves have left the state,
with one dispersing into eastern Montana, one going to British
Columbia, and another dispersing into Idaho.... (Click
on the link above for the complete story.)
12/20/19: Wolf
News Roundup 12/20/2019
(By Cat Urbigkit) In
Wyoming, of the total quota of 35 wolves available for legal
harvest in the state’s wolf trophy zone this hunting
season, 26 wolves have been killed by hunters as of Dec.
19. An additional 22 wolves have been killed so far this
year in the remainder of Wyoming, where wolves are classified
as predators. With the Sept. 1 opening of the wolf hunting
season in many of western Wyoming’s trophy wolf hunt
areas, quotas have been reached in six hunt areas, so those
areas are now closed. All wolf hunting areas in the trophy
zone close at the end of the year. On Tuesday, November 19,
2019, two wolves from the Junction Butte Pack were fatally
hit around sunset on the road between Tower Junction and
the Northeast Entrance. A necropsy confirmed the black male
and female pups died from a vehicle strike. ..... (Click
on the link above for the complete story.)
12/08/19: Wolf
News Roundup 12/08/2019
(By Cat Urbigkit) With
the Sept. 1 opening of the wolf hunting season in many of
western Wyoming’s trophy wolf hunt areas, quotas have
been reached in six hunt areas, so those areas are now closed.
Of the total quota of 35 wolves available for legal harvest
in the state’s wolf trophy zone, 26 wolves have been
killed by hunters as of Dec. 6. An additional 22 wolves have
been killed so far this year in the remainder of Wyoming,
where wolves are classified as predators. Earlier this fall,
Washington Governor Jay Inslee sent a letter to Washington
Department of Fish & Wildlife Director (WDFW) Kelly Susewind
requesting that the wildlife department "significantly
reduce" the number of wolves killed in control actions
in response to livestock depredations. Washington has been
embroiled in controversy over wolves, with many wolf advocates
from the western side of the state (where there are few wolves)
decrying lethal control of wolves in the eastern region (where
the majority of the wolf population resides). Things got
so heated that WDFW cancelled a series of public meetings
to discuss revisions to the state wolf management plan because
of fears of violence. Reporting by the Inlander reveal that
the "multiple violent social media threats" came
from wolf supporters, not anti-wolf extremists...... (Click
on the link above for the complete story.)
2019
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2018
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2017
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2016
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2015
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2014
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2013
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2012
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2011
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2010
Wolf Watch Story Archive
2009 Wolf Watch Story Archive
2008 Wolf
Watch Story Archive
2007/2006 Watch
Wolf Story Archive
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