Wolf Weekly Wrap-Up

Wolves Face Delisting Threat in Several States: Anti-wildlife members of Congress continue efforts to undermine protections for gray wolves and their latest attempt is to insert a rider into the 2016 funding bill for the Department of the Interior that would remove federal protection for wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes states. This isn’t the only anti-wildlife rider included in this must-pass funding bill for DOI. In fact, this bill has over 20 policy riders that would undermine the Obama Administration’s efforts to address climate change, block efforts to protect clean air and water, weaken land conservation and undercut endangered species protections. Introduced last week, this bill is rapidly advancing through Congress and, to date, all of the anti-environmental policy provisions are still included.

Not only would the wolf delisting policy rider end federal protections for wolves in Wyoming and in the Midwest, the way the policy is written prohibits this ruling from ever being subject to “judicial review,” meaning that once passed, this rule could never be overturned by a future judge. Last year we fought tooth and nail to overturn a previous delisting of wolves in Wyoming… and we won. While wolves today have protections in both Wyoming and the Great Lakes states, if this policy rider is passed, unlimited wolf killing in over 80 percent of Wyoming would be reinstated. Help us by telling Congress these anti-wildlife provisions don’t belong in this bill and that decisions about wolf recovery should be based upon biological and scientific considerations alone, and not politics.

A Good Wolf Read: Interactions between apex predators and their prey are some of the most awe inspiring scenes in nature and also some most difficult to document. Wolves’ speed, wild habitat, and general preference for avoiding humans, makes studying their hunting habits particularly hard. “Wolves on the Hunt: the Behavior of Wolves Hunting Wild Prey” – written by three of the nation’s most preeminent wolf scientists – is the first book to focus solely on the hunting behavior of wolves and is the culmination of thousands of hours of original field observation, data collection and literature review. While wolves are able to take down just about any species, it comes at a physical cost. Hunting is the most time-consuming task in a wolf’s life and wolves are only successful if they persist through regular failure, travel extremely long distances and target elderly, diseased and injured members of prey populations. For all wildlife lovers, this is a must read.