Wolf Weekly Wrap-Up

See the incredible story of  OR-7, aka “Journey,” on the big screen! We are excited to announce three upcoming opportunities to see the story of OR-7 on the silver screen. Defenders is hosting a screening of the award-winning documentary film OR7 – The Journey, in Spokane, WA on April 3rd and 4th. The film details the ongoing legacy of OR-7, a young, male gray wolf born in northeast Oregon who traveled more than 1,000 miles to southwest Oregon and California. The documentary describes not only the remarkable journey of OR-7, but the ongoing fight for gray wolves to fully recover and achieve sustainable populations in their historic territory. The film will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the filmmaker, and a panel discussion with some of the nation’s leading authorities on wolf recovery and successfully coexisting with wolves. As wolves have started to return to Washington, the post-film panel discussion and Q&A are designed to provide information, updates, and details about how members of the public can stay informed and get involved. You can find tickets for the event here.

And, if you’re not in Washington… One of the nation’s premier environmental film festivals, the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, is now on tour and coming to Flagstaff, Arizona on Saturday, April 11th. This year’s festival also showcases OR7 – The Journey. Join Defenders and our conservation partners at the screening to support wildlife and re-live OR-7’s incredible journey!

Experts weigh in on benefits of “ranching done right”:

Defenders recently organized a session at the Society of Range Management’s annual meeting which focused on spreading the word about strategies for effective coexistence with important predators like wolves. Temple Grandin attended the session and wrote an article summarizing four key takeaways on how and why wolves and livestock  can both inhabit the same landscape. The key is “ranching done right.” Grandin stresses the importance of removing dead carcasses, along with sick, weak and injured animals from grazing areas. She also notes that “the indiscriminate killing of wolves or coyotes is a bad idea,” as it can disrupt packs that are not known to prey on livestock. Encouraging cattle to learn to herd and flock together and human presence are effective proactive measures that reduce predator-livestock conflicts. Defenders works with ranchers on range riding projects that use these methods to help keep wolves, and livestock safe.

Study shows different fladry designs can improve success in nonlethal management: Defenders has been a long-time promoter of using various tools and methods for nonlethal wildlife management in areas inhabited by people and livestock. Fladry, the use of brightly colored strings of flags, is one method that has proven helpful in keeping wolves and other predators away from livestock. Researchers have found, however, that simple shifts in design of the flags and the ropes can make a big difference in how effective the fladry is. In order to keep the flags flying as a signal to wolves, and not getting wrapped around the rope (which reduces their visibility), investigators created six new designs and compared them with the most commonly used design. Two of the new designs showed better performance at no significant additional costs. This is great news for helping conflicts that could lead to wolves being killed and we look forward to incorporating this new research into our coexistence projects in Idaho and in Washington.