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Mary McGorry

The day after Christmas, a hawk swooped down and snatched Danny McGorry’s dragonfly robot.

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Ken McGorry

McGorry, a 10-year-old from Manhasset, N.Y., holds his new dragonfly robot, which replaced the one carried off by the hawk.

• Watch Robert Siegel Fly the Dragonfly Robot

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Video by Franklyn Cater, NPR

All Things Considered, March 10, 2008 · The Fly Tech Dragonfly is a foot-long, remote-controlled, flying toy. Its styrofoam body attaches to four wings that flap, flutter and squeal.

Danny McGorry, a 10-year-old fifth grader from Manhasset, N.Y., received the robot on Christmas. It was the present he had most wanted.

McGorry flew it in the yard and — as if on cue from Alfred Hitchcock — a hawk intercepted the dragonfly and took off with it. His mother snapped a photograph of the bird, perched in a neighbor’s tree, toy in talon.

NPR: Testing Raptor Interest in Dragonfly Robot

Voices For Wolves
Leave a Voicemail for Our Lobos

Take a few minutes to call in and voice your concerns for protecting our wild Mexican Gray Wolves! Our objective is to get as many voices as possible speaking out on protecting our lobos.

Call 505-333-0420 and leave a voicemail for our lobos!

Tell our elected officials that they must do everything in their power to save these animals from a possible second extirpation.

Under the Bush administration the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program has become the Mexican Wolf Eradication Program.  The US Fish and Wildlife Service removed 15 wolves last year without regard to their mandate to recover this critically endangered wolf under the Endangered Species Act.  Today, just 23 wolves roam freely in New Mexico.

Please be concise and short in your comments. Our objective is to create a CD of voices and present them to our congressional delegation, letting them hear, directly from you, the importance of protecting the Mexican Gray Wolf. Your message may also be used in DVD presentations that we create.

Please call (505) 333-0420 and leave a message today for our lobos!

Friday, March 14, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
KiMo Theater in Downtown Albuquerque
FREE ADMISSION

Just 23 wild Mexican Gray Wolves are left in New Mexico today. Ignoring science and bowing to pressure from special interests, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has abandoned its legal obligation to protect, conserve, and recover the Mexican Gray Wolf – the most endangered mammal in North America.

Despite the challenges that our lobos, our amigos, face there is something that every New Mexican can do to reverse this course and ensure that the Mexican Gray Wolf lives on forever.

On Friday, March 14th from 7-9pm at the KiMo Theater in downtown Albuquerque, a coalition of conservationists, sportsmen, and elected officials will host Dia de Los Lobos, a public rally for ensuring the preservation of our Mexican Gray Wolves. This event is free and open to the public.

Please come be a part of a historic evening and help send a powerful message to Washington, D.C. that our wild Mexican Gray Wolves need to be protected. With only 23 wild lobos left in New Mexico, the time to act is NOW!

Answer the howl to action and be the difference in saving our lobos in New Mexico. For more information, please contact Nathan Newcomer: nathan@nmwild.org / 505-843-8696

http://nmwild.org/events/dia-de-los-lobos

Navy’s Use of Sonar Is Severely Limited – washingtonpost.com
By Marc Kaufman, Washington Post Staff Writer

A federal judge yesterday severely limited the Navy’s ability to use mid-frequency sonar on a training range off the Southern California coast, ruling that the loud sounds would harm whales and other marine mammals if not tightly controlled.

The decision is a blow to the Navy, which has argued that it needs the flexibility to train its sonar operators without undue restrictions. In her decision, however, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper said the Navy could conduct productive training under the limitations, which she said were required under several environmental laws.

In particular, Cooper banned the use of the sonar within 12 nautical miles of the California coast, expanded from 1,100 yards to 2,200 yards the Navy’s proposed “shut down” zone in which sonar must be turned off whenever a marine mammal is spotted, required monitoring for the presence of animals for one hour before exercises involving sonar begin, and required that two National Marine Fisheries Service-trained lookouts be posted for monitoring during exercises. The judge also forbade sonar use in the Catalina Basin, an area with many marine mammals.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/03/AR2008010303887.html?wpisrc=newsletter

ABQjournal Go: Sanctuary Helps Wolves Keep Wild Spirit
By Journal Staff Report

The Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary is a haven for abused, abandoned and captivity-bred wolves and wolf dogs.

The purpose of the sanctuary is to provide wolves and wolf dogs with a permanent and safe place.

The sanctuary is able to rescue a small number of animals including tough cases, or animals that cannot go anywhere else, and provide them with a lifetime of protection.

The sanctuary was founded by artist Jacque Evans in 1991 and is now run by “wolf whisperer” Leyton Cougar.

Cougar, 47, who has been with the sanctuary since 1996, took over running it in 2003.

http://www.abqjournal.com/go/274291go01-03-08.htm

Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary – Wolf Rescue, Wolf Dog, Sanctuary
http://www.wildspiritwolfsanctuary.org/index.htm

Wild Spirit offers guided tours six days a week, four times a day. Tours range in length from roughly 45 minutes to as long as 1 1/2 hours depending on the size and age of the group, the interest of guests and activity of the animals. [mjh: See their website for more plus directions.]

Call Governor Richardson Immediately
(505) 476-2200

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has issued an IMMEDIATE REMOVAL ORDER for the Aspen Wolf Pack of Mexican wolves in southwestern New Mexico. This pack includes two adult females and two pups. The Aspen Wolf Pack contains some of the most valuable genes in the wild population.

ABQjournal NM: Around New Mexico – Wolves Ordered Removed

LAS CRUCES— The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday issued an order to remove two adult wolves and several pups from the wild due to livestock kills on ranches south of Magdalena.

The wolves targeted for removal include two adult females from the Aspen pack, the alpha female designated 667 and a yearling female 1046, along with pups born in the spring.

The pups will be trapped but the adult females might be killed if they are not readily captured by federal agents, Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown said.

The Aspen pack adult females have been responsible for killing eight cattle since Jan. 9, Slown said.

The Aspen pack alpha male and two female pups were captured outside the wolf recovery area in New Mexico on Nov. 1. The alpha male and one pup are being held at a wildlife refuge north of Socorro, while the other pup was released and remains in the wild.

So far this year, federal agents have removed 11 wolves from southeast Arizona or southwest New Mexico and killed three others for livestock depredations.

The agency also continues to look for the three-member Durango pack, which disappeared from its range in the Gila National Forest earlier this month. Fish and Wildlife’s law enforcement officers are investigating the disappearance and a reward of up to $10,000 has been offered for information leading to an apprehension.

ABQjournal NM: Wildlife Service Seeks Input on Wolf Recovery By Rene Romo, Journal Southern Bureau

LAS CRUCES— The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday will hold the first of six scoping sessions in New Mexico to gather public comment about possible changes to the federal recovery effort for the endangered Mexican gray wolf.

”We have been reintroducing wolves into the wild for nine years now and we’ve learned a thing or two,” said Brian Millsap of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the lead agency for the program. ”We want to hear from everyone else on what they have learned and what their recommendations are for recovering the Mexican wolf.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service held the first of 12 open-house style meetings across Arizona and New Mexico on Monday night in Flagstaff.

The scoping sessions are designed to gather public comments, from supporters and critics of the reintroduction effort, in order to draft proposed changes to the rule governing management of the wolf population, which numbers about 59 in southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico.

Fish and Wildlife will then conduct an environmental impact statement and a socioeconomic assessment of the draft proposed rule.

Dave Parsons, former Fish and Wildlife Service director of the wolf recovery program, said, ”This is the public’s opportunity to have input into the content of the environmental assessment, before they actually start it.”

The schedule of the New Mexico sessions:
# Thursday, Grants, Best Western, 1501 E. Santa Fe Ave., 5-9 p.m.

# Friday, Albuquerque, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, 2401 12th St. NW, 5-9 p.m.

# Saturday, Socorro, Macey Conference Center, New Mexico Tech, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

# Monday, Alamogordo, Tays Special Events Center, New Mexico State University Branch, 2400 N. Scenic Drive, 5-9 p.m.

# Dec. 4, Las Cruces, Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, 4100 Dripping Springs Road, 5-9 p.m.

# Dec. 5, Glenwood, Glenwood Community Center, 5-9 p.m.
– – – – –
Submit written comments by 12/31/07. Include “Attn: Mexican Gray Wolf NEPA Scoping,” your full name and return address. Send comments to:

Brian Millsap, State Administrator
US Fish and Wildlife Service
New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office
2105 Osuna NE
Albuquerque, NM 87113
fax: 505-346-2542
email: r2fwe_al@fws.gov
www.mexicanwolfeis.org
www.mexicangraywolf.org

Ralph Maughan’s Wildlife News
http://wolves.wordpress.com/

Wolf Crossing
http://wolfcrossing.org/

Once known as the most endangered mammal in North America, the Mexican gray wolf is still teetering on the brink of extinction more than 30 years after gaining federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Even now, with less than 60 lobos left in the wild, wolves are routinely trapped or shot by federal officials for conflicts with cattle on the Gila and Apache National Forests in New Mexico and Arizona.

Almost 10 years after launching what has turned out to be a largely ineffectual wolf reintroduction program in southern New Mexico and Arizona, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is taking a second look at how it manages lobos. This process could change the Mexican wolf’s current listing status under the Endangered Species Act and current wolf removal policies.

The Mexican Gray Wolf needs us to become personally involved in saving the them by attending one or more of the following meetings if you’re in the area:

* Nov. 26 – Radisson Woodlands Hotel, Flagstaff, AZ.
Nov. 27 – Multipurpose Room, McNary School, McNary, AZ
Nov. 28 – Alpine Community Center, Alpine, AZ.
Nov. 29 – Best Western, Grants, NM.
Nov. 30 – Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Albuquerque, NM.
* Dec. 1 – Macey Conference Center, Socorro, NM.
Dec. 3 – Tays Special Events Center, Alamogordo, NM.
Dec. 4 – Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, Las Cruces, NM.
Dec. 5 – Glenwood Community Center, Glenwood, NM.
Dec. 6 – Eastern Arizona College, Thatcher, AZ.
Dec. 7 – University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
Dec. 8 – Glendale Civic Center, Glendale, AZ

For more information about the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery program and to learn more about the upcoming hearings, please contact Nathan Newcomer (nathan@nmwild.org) or Stephen Capra (steve@nmwild.org).

Presented by The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance (nmwild.org)

Jim and Jamie Dutcher, wildlife documentary filmmakers, will present a one-hour program on their six-year study of wolves in Idaho (including a 37-minute segment of their film: “Living with Wolves”) at The Lensic Theater on November 9th at 7:00 pm. Tickets are just $5!

This event aims to raise the awareness of Mexican Wolf Recovery in New Mexico. Currently, there are only about 25 wild Mexican Wolves in the wild in New Mexico.

Phone: 505-988-1234
Email: boxoffice@lensic.com
Website: http://www.ticketssantafe.org

Brought here for a program sponsored by the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, the Dutcher’s have graciously waived a considerable part of their speaking fee to offer their program at the Lensic in support of the Lobo.

“As we see wolves, once again, being shot and trapped and poisoned, we recognize that our incredible opportunity to live with wolves is unlikely to ever happen again,” the Dutcher’s explain. “For that reason, we feel that we have an obligation to share the lives of The Sawtooth Pack and their kin with the widest audience possible, to save wolves and the wild land they need for future generations.”

The knowledge and passion brought by the Dutcher’s will help raise awareness of the plight of our Mexican Gray Wolves in Southern New Mexico, and inspire people to support the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance’s conservation efforts throughout the state.

Silver City Sun-News – Silver City left off wolf public scoping itinerary By M. John Fayhee Sun-News reporter [via http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/]

SILVER CITY — The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the federal agency that oversees all endangered species issues, including the controversial Mexican gray wolf reintroduction in the Gila National Forest, will host a series of 12 public scoping meetings beginning next month that may very well determine the overall direction of the wolf reintroduction.

Those meetings will be held in numerous places, including Flagstaff, Phoenix, Tucson, Las Cruces, Grants, Alamogordo and Albuquerque, that are hundreds of miles away from the closest free-roaming wolf.

And they will be held in hamlets, such as Glenwood, N.M., and Alpine and Hon-Dah, Ariz., that, while close to the wolf-recovery area, are very small and remote.

But the only large town that can legitimately be described as part of the wolf recovery area — Silver City — which has neighborhoods with more people than Alpine and Glenwood combined and which has beaucoup residents that pass wolf signs every time they go for a backcountry hike — will not host one of the public-scoping meetings.

A spokesperson for USFWS said accusations that Silver City was left off the public-scoping itinerary had nothing to do with the town’s perceived liberal, pro-wolf-recovery bias. …

“We have been criticized for holding our regular wolf-related meetings in Albuquerque, and we have been told Albuquerque draws people who tend to be receptive to reintroductions,” Slown continued. “Conversely we’ve been criticized for holding meetings in southwest New Mexico because access is difficult and we draw people who do not favor endangered species reintroductions. How we have dealt with that is to balance our regular wolf-management meetings in the affected area with ones in the larger cities.”

“A lot of us are wondering why Silver City was not included,” said Kevin Bixby, executive director of the Las Cruces-based Southwest Environmental Center.

“They probably did a calculation, and they wanted to balance the towns where they perceived they would get a pro-wolf crowd with towns they figured would get an anti-wolf crowd. They’re probably just trying to be even-handed. The preliminary list did not even include Albuquerque. We had to petition Fish and Wildlife to include Albuquerque.”

Ironically, Ty Bays, a long-time local rancher who serves as the Southwest Regional Vice-President for the New Mexico Cattlegrowers’ Association, feels that Silver City may have been left off the public-scoping meeting itinerary because of its anti-wolf perception among USFWS personnel.

“I think they left Silver City off because the Grant County Commissioners sent a resolution to Fish and Wildlife saying that the federal government needs to pay ranchers for livestock losses due to wolves,” Bays said. “I think the decision is political, but it doesn’t really matter. We’ll make the drive to Glenwood for the meeting there.” …

According to Slown, the 12 scoping meetings are equally divided between Arizona and New Mexico.

“First, locations were selected that occur within the current wolf recovery area,” she said. “This gives us Glenwood in New Mexico. Reserve was a possibility, but it is in proximity to Alpine, which will be having a meeting on Nov. 28, so we put the meeting in Glenwood for Dec. 5. With Glenwood covered, Las Cruces was our choice as the southern location outside the reintroduction area.”

But there is more than just providing members of the public from a far-ranging geographic area the opportunity to comment on the wolf reintroduction. Slown indicated that part of the dialogue may very be expanding the wolf reintroduction into other areas.

“One of the questions we want to ask is, “should we be putting wolves in other areas of their historic range?‘ so that we do not have all our eggs in one basket, so to speak,” Slown said. “That is why you see locations not generally associated with the wolf reintroduction program.”

Bays feels that decision has already been made.

The Albuquerque BioPark will host a lecture,
“Preserving Jaguars in their Northernmost Homeland,”
on Tuesday, September 25, from 5:30-7:00pm in the
Aquarium/Botanic Garden Education Building. This presentation,
given by Dr. Peter Warshall of the Northern Jaguar Project, will
focus on the ecology of the Northern Jaguar Reserve in Sonora,
Mexico.  This preserve is home to the population of jaguars
which have been recorded entering southern New Mexico and
Arizona.

There is no charge for this event.  Light refreshments
will be served. 

Nestled in one of North America’s most ecologically
unique areas, the Northern Jaguar Reserve is home to ocelots,
neotropical river otters, military macaws, bald eagles, and the
northernmost breeding population of jaguars on the planet. 
Once completed, this 70-square-mile sanctuary will incorporate
the area with the highest numbers of jaguar sightings in
northeastern Sonora.  Come learn about the migratory bird
life, endangered fish species, and unique plant complexes of
this ecological treasure – and how you can get directly
involved.

For more information, call BioPark Education at
764-6245.  For general BioPark inquiries, please call 311
(NM Relay or 711). [mjh: from nmwild.org]

188 More Species Listed as Near Extinction – washingtonpost.com

188 More Species Listed as Near Extinction

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 13, 2007; Page A10

Habitat loss, climate change and infectious diseases are pushing a growing number of species toward extinction, according to a report yesterday by the World Conservation Union.

The organization’s 2007 “Red List,” the most sweeping annual scientific assessment of the world’s animals and plants, now lists 16,306 species as threatened with extinction, up from 16,118 last year. The addition of nearly 200 imperiled species to the list reflects the reality that the more scientists learn about the status of the world’s millions of species, the more they find that appear to be in trouble, experts said….

Great apes are under increasing pressure from both hunting and disease,
the report said, their numbers decimated by the bush-meat trade and by
the Ebola virus. The Western gorilla population has declined more than
60 percent over the past 25 years and is now considered critically
endangered; during the past 15 years, roughly one-third of gorillas
that died in protected areas fell prey to the lethal virus.

Between 2003 and 2005, 55 percent of the Western gorillas in the Congo Republic’s Odzala National Park died of the virus.