Category Archives: wildlife

wildlife

Living with Grizzlies

News: In Montana’s Blackfoot Valley, ranchers learn to live with grizzlies, BY APRIL REESE, LAND LETTER

TWO CREEK RANCH, OVANDO, Mont. — When grizzly bears showed up on this sprawling ranch in the Blackfoot Valley in the 1990s, ranch manager Wayne Slaght was not happy. The new arrivals took down two calves, and several more over the next few years.

But now, almost a decade later, Slaght is no longer all that worried about grizzlies. An electric fence keeps the bears off the range, and under a local program any carcasses are removed to prevent the bears from becoming habituated to eating cattle.

“Living with the dang bears is a little awkward, but we’re learning to deal with it,” Slaght said, standing next to the electric fence. …

But the biggest challenge may be still to come. Wolves have begun to colonize the area, and many ranchers are worried.

“That’s a whole different cat,” Slaght said. “Wolves are just killers.”

Wilson said he is unsure how the challenge will go about trying to help the community live with wolves. “There aren’t many examples of people coexisting with wolves,” Wilson said. “How to coexist with them? I don’t know.”

http://www.redlodgeclearinghouse.org/news/06_14_07_blackfoot.html

Montana’s ranchers learn to live with grizzlies (unfortunately, it took miles of fencing), but not with wolves. Well, they say that now, though they said the same of grizzlies. mjh

wildlife

The top five common birds in decline in NM

ABQjournal: New Mexico Species are Among 20 in Rapid Decline, Audubon Says, By Polly Summar, Journal Northern Bureau

In New Mexico, the top five common birds in decline during the past 40 years are:

1. the mountain chickadee, declined by 83 percent;
2. the horned lark, 81 percent;
3. the loggerhead shrike, 74 percent;
4. the Western meadowlark, 57 percent; and
5. the pinyon jay, 54 percent.

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/571447nm06-16-07.htm

National Audubon Society – Birds in Decline – Browse Species
List of Top 20 Common Birds in Decline

The following are the 20 common North American birds with the greatest population declines since 1967. [mjh: follow link below]

http://www.audubon.org/bird/stateofthebirds/CBID/browseSpecies.php

newmexico, wildlife

Wolf Mediation or Negotiation

Perhaps it is time to bring in professional mediators or negotiators to help resolve this situation. It is untenable for us to rage at each other while animals die — we need to get over this divide and there are people who help resolve worse situations. We need help and we’re not going to get it until we have the sense to say so. mjh

ABQjournal: Divide Widening Over Gray Wolf Program By Rene Romo, Journal Southern Bureau

LAS CRUCES— State Game Commission members on Wednesday got an earful of the sharp differences between supporters and opponents of the endangered Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program.
Many views expressed during a two-hour listening session were not new. But nine years into the controversial program, which spans national forests in southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona, feelings on both sides appear to be growing in intensity.
Christopher Todd Jones, the new deputy regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the divide in public opinion is daunting.
“There are clearly legitimate concerns people have regarding (livestock and pet) depredation and life safety concerns,” he said. “The answer is somewhere in the middle. I feel we are losing the ability to have constructive dialogue.” …

But two teenagers from Silver City who frequently hike in the Gila area said they don’t fear wolves. “The uniqueness of the Gila is it is still wild,” said 17-year-old Cody Goss of Silver City.

“This is something that cannot be replaced,” Goss said. “And the Mexican gray wolf is part of that wildness.”

newmexico, wildlife

Exterminating Wolves

ABQjournal: Catron Commission Fires Shot at Wolf Protection By Michael J. Robinson, Center for Biological Diversity

The Catron County commission recently approved an ordinance authorizing a county contractor to kill endangered Mexican gray wolves, contrary to the federal Endangered Species Act and the 1998 regulations that delineate what is legal in the reintroduction program that began that year. The ordinance is the latest chapter in a century-long effort by the livestock industry to create private rights on America’s public lands. …

The Fish and Wildlife Service, which for decades poisoned and trapped wolves on behalf of the livestock industry, and is now charged with enforcing the Endangered Species Act, similarly bends to the livestock industry. The agency authorizes trapping and shooting of endangered Mexican wolves today even as the population fails to meet initial thresholds for recovery. But Catron County’s ranchers want zero wolves. In 2005, at a now-defunct Governor’s Wolf Task Force meeting in Catron County, ranchers proffered a series of what they called “non-negotiable points,” including that all the wild wolves be rounded up and kept in a fenced enclosure. The ranchers also categorically rejected a New Mexico Department of Agriculture proposal that would have significantly increased their payments for wolf depredations while ending the current requirement that dead livestock be verified as wolf kills, or considered possible wolf kills, prior to payments. …

The refusal to compromise has been successful. …

The federal government has so far, since reintroduction began, shot 10 wild Mexican wolves, consigned 24 to life in captivity, killed 20 inadvertently incidental to capture, and released dozens of wolves it had captured— many of them traumatized and some of them injured— in areas far from their familiar home territories. Although the government originally projected 18 breeding pairs by the end of 2006, there are now only five breeding pairs left from last year.

Catron County’s threat to kill wolves on its own is an attempt to ratchet up the killing by either federal or private parties, or both. The goal is once again extermination, but it is also more ambitious than that. Livestock owners seek to ensure that they alone, and not the American public through their elected members of Congress, will determine what animals roam the public lands and how those lands are managed. So far, unfortunately, neither the Fish and Wildlife Service nor the Justice Department have indicated they will stand up for the wolves, the rule of law, and the American public.

newmexico, wildlife

Wolves and/or Cattle

ABQjournal: Payment Wanted For Wolf Damage

Grant County commissioners have approved a resolution requesting that the state and federal governments pay for livestock and pets killed by Mexican gray wolves, and compensate the county for lost hunting opportunities and emotional damage.

Meanwhile, The New Mexico Game Commission will conduct a two-hour “listening session” on the Mexican wolf reintroduction program today in Las Cruces.

The Grant County resolution, requested by the Grant County Area Cattle Growers and the Gila Fish and Gun Club, drew both support and opposition before the commission passed it last week.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began releasing the endangered wolves on the Arizona-New Mexico border in 1998 to re-establish the species in part of its historic range after the animals had been hunted to the brink of extinction in the early 1900s.

Supporters said that wolves preying on livestock are driving ranchers out of business and that ranchers weren’t being fairly compensated for wolf kills.

Opponents, however, complained that the cattle industry already is heavily subsidized. They also said ranchers weren’t doing their part by removing cattle carcasses to keep wolves from becoming accustomed to eating beef and by modifying practices during calving season to better protect their cows.

Last month, adjacent Catron County passed an ordinance that would allow a designated county officer to trap or remove Mexican gray wolves if federal authorities don’t act first. The ordinance conflicts with federal procedures, raising questions about its legality.

newmexico, wildlife

Federal Wolf Killer

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ABQjournal: Federal Agent Kills Endangered Wolf
Journal Staff Report

LAS CRUCES— A federal predator control agent riding in a small plane Friday fatally shot a Mexican gray wolf from the Saddle Pack on the edge of the Gila Wilderness.

The shooting, carried out pursuant to a Feb. 24 permanent removal order, marked the second time this year federal agents have killed an endangered Mexican gray wolf, and the seventh authorized kill since January 2006.

About 58 Mexican wolves are left in the recovery area of southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico, where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began reintroducing the species in 1998.

The wolf killed Friday— a two-year-old male designated M1007— was targeted because of a management protocol that calls for removal of wolves that have preyed on livestock in three cases in one year.

Albuquerque-based John Morgart, the wolf recovery program coordinator, said wildlife officials hope killing the wolf will discourage other members of the pack from preying on livestock.

[mjh: are these officials really stupid enough to believe the wolves will see the connection?]

newmexico, wildlife

Anti-wolf Legislation in New Mexico

From the Wilderness Alliance:

Anti-wolf activists have convinced some New Mexico legislators to introduce and support a Memorial that calls on the Federal Government to address the so-called increasing threat by Mexican Grey Wolves on “children, pets and the livelihoods in Southwest New Mexico.” The memorial was introduced by Representative Don Tripp of Socorro (E-mail: trippsdon@netscape.net). HM28 ADDRESS THREAT BY GREY WOLVES (click that link to follow the legislation)

[mjh: Tripp also sponsored making the Bolo Tie the Official New Mexico Tie]

This attempt is just another example of many anti-wolf activists who want to permanently drive the Mexican Grey Wolf from existence. Now is your opportunity to make your voice heard and to send a powerful message to our local elected officials that this type of legislation is completely out-of-touch with the real values of New Mexicans.

There are two ways to make your voice heard:

1. Attend an upcoming hearing in Santa Fe at the Roundhouse and make your voice heard before the committee considering this legislation. The hearing will be held at 8:30 AM on Friday, March 9 in the House Natural Resources Room. If you need further information, please contact Nathan Newcomer (nathan@nmwild.org)

2. Call the following representatives and urge them to vote against this bill. Tell them why you think this type of legislation is completely out-of-touch with our Western values. Although these may not be your legislators, they are the ones with the power to strike this bill down.

Rep. Thomas A. Garcia
District: 68
County(s): Colfax, Guad, Mora, S.M. & Taos
Representative Since: 2006
Capitol Office Phone: 986-4242
E-mail: ocate@hotmail.com

Rep. Joni Marie Gutierrez
District: 33
County(s): Dona Ana
Representative Since: 2005
Capitol Office Phone: 986-4234
E-mail: jonig@zianet.com

Rep. Jim R. Trujillo
District: 45
County(s): Santa Fe
Representative Since: 2003
Capitol Office Phone: 986-4255
E-mail: jimtrujillo@msn.com

daytrips, newmexico, wildlife

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

sandhill crane

Tour Loop Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is located in the beautiful Land of Enchantment, New Mexico near the small town of San Antonio, NM. The Refuge is just east of Interstate 25 midway between Albuquerque and Las Cruces, just south of Socorro.

To reach the refuge from Socorro, drive nine miles south on I-25 to exit 139, go east one-fourth mile on US 380 to the flashing signal at the village of San Antonio, turn right onto Old Highway 1, and drive south nine miles to the Visitor Center.

From Las Cruces, drive north on I-25 to exit 124 (San Marcial), then north on Old Highway 1 to the Visitor Center. The entrance to the scenic tour loop for vehicles is just south of the Visitor Center.

mjh’s blog — Trip to Bosque

Bosque del Apache – a photoset on Flickr

wildlife

Wolves not decimating elk herds

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Summit Daily News for Breckenridge, Keystone, Copper and Frisco Colorado – News By JESSE HARLAN ALDERMAN, The Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho — Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter says he’ll support public hunts to kill all but 100 gray wolves in the state once the federal government removes the animal from Endangered Species Act protections.

The governor said he hopes to shoot a wolf himself.

The Idaho Office of Species Conservation estimates the state’s current wolf population at about 650, in roughly 60 packs. Otter told The Associated Press after a rally of hunters on the Capitol steps that he wants hunters to gradually kill about 550 of the animals, leaving about 100 wolves or 10 packs, the minimum the federal government would allow before wolves again would be considered endangered.

“That management includes you,” Otter told the approximately 300 hunters, many wearing camouflage clothing and blaze-orange caps. “I’m prepared to bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself.”

Idaho Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife bused in wolf opponents from as far as Twin Falls, 130 miles away, for Thursday’s rally with Otter and several state lawmakers. They urged the government to immediately remove wolves from endangered species protection.

Otter also signed a proclamation making Thursday “Idaho Sportsmen Day.”

The crowd — including one hunter with a stuffed baby fox around his neck and a sign declaring “Wolves are illegal immigrants too” — stood for more than an hour in the midmorning snow. They applauded wildly as Otter amplified their position that wolves are rapidly killing elk and other animals essential to Idaho’s multimillion-dollar hunting industry.

Idaho Mountain Express: Scientists: Wolves not decimating elk herds – January 12, 2007 By STEVE BENSON, Express Staff Writer

There is no evidence that wolves have decimated elk populations throughout Idaho, according to two scientists who have been studying the predator for several years.

“At this point there is very little evidence that the presence of wolves has caused a decline in elk numbers anywhere, especially in Central Idaho,” said Jim Peek, a retired professor of wildlife biology and a member of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation board of directors.

Idaho Doesn’t Deserve Delisting | Travel & Outdoors | New West Network By Bill Schneider

Given Idaho’s irrational attitude about Canis lupis, it’s hard to imagine the FWS, even though under the thumb of former Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne, could trust the state to properly manage wolves.

wildlife

After Long Struggle, Whooping Crane Population Hits Milestone

After Long Struggle, Whooping Crane Population Hits Milestone By Sylvia Moreno, Washington Post Staff Writer

The whooping crane, the tallest bird in North America, whose numbers dwindled to fewer than 20 in 1941, is not only back from the brink of extinction but also thriving — a comeback story, federal wildlife officials say, that illustrates how a coordinated conservation effort can save a species.

“The whooping crane continues to mirror the success of endangered species recovery when man sets his mind to it,” said Tom Stehn, the national whooping crane coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We have come a long way, but we do have a long, long way to go.”

This year, the nation’s only natural wild population of whooping cranes reached a milestone. Stehn’s mid-December census of the migratory crane flock at the wildlife refuge, where he is based, numbered 237. Combined with the number of birds in captivity in three special flocks raised for reintroduction to the wild and those in zoos, the crane population now numbers 518. This is the first time in more than a century that whooping cranes have numbered more than 500. …

The cranes numbered just over 20 in the first census, in 1938. By 1941, the migratory flock was down to 15, largely because of shooting, the conversion of grasslands to agriculture and the draining of wetlands.

“This species was virtually four nesting females away from extinction, and that’s why this is so significant,” Stehn said. “It was just such a close call, such an incredibly close call.” …

The whooping crane is likely to remain on the endangered species list until the migratory flock numbers more than 5,000 ….

wildlife

NM Trapping Update

The New Mexico State Game Commission has set trapping policy for another two years. Once again thanks to everyone who sent letters and comments protesting leg-hold and lethal traps on New Mexico’s public land. NM Game and Fish received over 1150 of them- almost all from New Mexico residents. At several points, some proposals for change were offered by the game department. None went as far as to prohibit traps from public land, but they did include actually funding real world surveys of furbearer populations in the state to learn how these exploited animals are really doing, shortening the trapping season by a month (which would have brought it more in line with other western states), reducing the allowable trap size, increasing the distance from roads from the current 25 yards up to 75 yards and possibly imposing bag limits on some species. In the end though, the State Game Commission, bowing to pressure from trappers, agreed only to the very modest change of shortening the season by a mere two weeks.

Regrettably, the trapping season has begun again this winter and will go on through the end of March. Fur prices are at an all time high owing to world-wide demand. Here at home there are still no bag limits and no limit to the number of traps that may be set. No warning signs need be posted anywhere. The by-catch will still include family dogs, birds, and other animals possibly even endangered ones. Be watchful where you hike, ride, camp, birdwatch and enjoy the beautiful public lands that belong to all of us.

If you should encounter a trap or hear of someone who has, please share the tale. If you believe the trap was illegally set, please call NMG&F at 505-476-8066 and report it. Please share your experience with us too. You may write to notraps@kitcarson.net. If you desire, we will protect your anonymity. Also please visit the website trapping pages at http://www.riogrande.sierraclub.org/campaigns/trapping/Traps.htm . Here you will find a description of the types of traps used in NM and how to open them. (Although I greatly hope you never have need of this information in the field.)

Sincerely,

Mary Katherine Ray

Wildlife Issues
Rio Grande Chapter Sierra Club

wildlife

Fed-Up Germany Kills Its Only Wild Bear

Fed-Up Germany Kills Its Only Wild Bear By Craig Whitlock, Washington Post Foreign Service

Until last month, Germans hadn’t seen a wild bear in their country for more than 170 years. On Monday, they showed they still knew how to hunt.

Bruno, a bear who had romped across southern Germany since migrating over the Alps from Italy six weeks ago, was shot by a Bavarian hunter at sunrise. Government officials had authorized the use of deadly force after they failed to take him alive with an assortment of tricks, including a pack of Finnish tracking dogs, tranquilizer darts and nonlethal traps imported from the United States. …

Bruno, who was 2 years old and weighed an estimated 220 pounds, was born in northern Italy into a family that was resettled there as part of a wildlife restoration program. Italy and Austria have encouraged the growth of their small bear populations and have programs to compensate farmers and others for bear-related losses. …

Plans are to stuff him and put him on display in a museum in Munich — next to the remains of the last bear killed in Bavaria, in 1835.

newmexico, wildlife

U.S. Kills Wolf, Hunts His Mate

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ABQjournal: U.S. Kills Wolf, Hunts His Mate By Tania Soussan, Journal Staff Writer

The Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program took another stumble this week with the shooting of a male wolf by the government and efforts to capture or kill his mate.

The pair, known as the Nantac Pack, have killed four cows this month, most recently on Sunday. They also were involved in two possible and two probable depredation incidents involving cows since being released in New Mexico on April 25.

The male was killed Sunday in New Mexico by a sharpshooter on the program team. Efforts to trap or kill the female were continuing Monday, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Elizabeth Slown.

Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity said, “We’re very troubled that they’re wiping out yet another pack.”

The wild population of the endangered wolves has been declining since 2003. The loss of the Nantac wolves would put the current count at 31-45 adults plus an unknown number of pups in Arizona and New Mexico.

Several other wolves have been removed from the wild or shot for killing cattle in the last several weeks. …

Meanwhile, the Center for Biological Diversity and 20 other conservation and animal protection groups called on new Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to issue an emergency moratorium on killing depredating wolves until the wild population reaches 100 and stabilizes.

wildlands, wildlife

Kill Proposal, Not Wildlife

ABQjournal: Kill Proposal, Not Wildlife By David Parsons And Stephen Capra, Conservation Advocates

Imagine lying in a pristine mountain meadow in your favorite wilderness area enjoying the peace and tranquility of wild nature when a helicopter swoops low, and a gunner hanging out of the open door blasts a coyote. Far fetched? Not if this proposed rule is adopted!

[The recently proposed U.S. Forest Service rule that would allow for the expanded trapping, poisoning and aerial gunning of bears, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, mountain lions, wolves and other animals in federally designated wilderness areas and research natural areas. The plan, open to public comment through Sept. 5, is morally perverse and biologically unsound.]

Decision authority for killing predators and the use of motorized equipment in wilderness areas would be delegated to ill-defined local collaborative groups. …

The authority for making such decisions is properly placed at the Regional Forester level to minimize such exceptions. Such decisions should not be delegated to some local group that could be stacked in favor of interests that are opposed to wilderness and nature protection. …

The proposed policy changes are philosophically and legally incompatible with the purposes of the Wilderness Act to preserve and protect lands in the National Wilderness Preservation System in their “natural condition.” …

We are astonished that the U.S. Forest Service considers this proposal to be appropriate and consistent with the purposes of the Wilderness Act.

This proposal is not supported by science; rather, it appears to be politically driven and designed to appease and benefit select interests. This is not in the best interest of our National Forests or the American people who love and respect wild lands and wild nature.