Defenders of Wildlife Blog

WaPo’s omissions – A feature story in the Washington Post on Monday took a broad look at the status of wolves nationwide, but it missed a few key points. First, there’s no mention anywhere of the fact that wolves in Montana and Idaho were delisted last year by Congressional fiat. This was the first time in the history of the Endangered Species Act that protections have been stripped by politicians rather than scientists, setting a dangerous precedent for dealing with other controversial species in the future. Second, the article glosses over how wolves are being treated very differently than other wildlife. No other species, especially one that was recently protected under the ESA, is managed at such low population levels. We rarely hear any complaints about the thousands of bears and mountain lions in the Northern Rockies, but for some reason there is almost no tolerance for even a few hundred wolves. Why single out this species for persecution? States ought to be managing for healthy wolf populations, just like they manage for all other native species. Wolves are important predators that help maintain balanced ecosystems. They can’t perform this essential function though if their numbers are kept at a biological minimum on the landscape.

Dogs in wolf country – Wolves are rarely ever a threat to humans, unless they’ve become habituated through regular feeding. But a story this week from the Spokesman-Review reminds us that in wolf country we need to watch out for our pets as well. Jim Groth was out in northeastern Washington doing mushroom surveys for the Forest Service when his dog got into a rare scuffle with a wolf. Groth was able to rescue his dog and eventually scare two wolves away, but the encounter left a lasting impression on him.

Though very few of us will ever encounter a wolf in the wild, here are a few helpful hints, just in case. If you’re headed out into wolf country, keep your dog on a leash. Wolves see dogs as strange rival wolves and may try to attack if given the opportunity. If a wolf gets too close for comfort, do your best to act tough and scare them away by making loud noises or throwing rocks in their direction. Consider carrying bear spray (most places with wolves also have bears, and spray will work just fine on wolves too). But also remember that not a single person has been killed or even injured in Northern Rockies since wolves were reintroduced more than 15 years ago. So keep your pets close and you should be fine.

Ultimately, it’s up to all of us to make sure that wolves keep a healthy fear of humans, which prevents conflict and keeps wolves alive over the long run.

Mange kills wolves in Yellowstone– For years, Defenders has been saying that maintaining just a few hundred wolves in the Northern Rockies isn’t good enough. Here’s a good reason why. A report from Live Science says that mange is becoming a bigger problem in Yellowstone National Park and is at least part of the reason why the wolf population has dropped significantly in recent years. A robust wolf population spread over a large landscape can sustain disease epidemics without a problem. But disease spreads quickly and can have disastrous consequences when a species is confined to smaller areas. The goal should be to sustain a sufficiently large and well-distributed population across the Northern Rockies rather than concentrating populations in select areas of each state where they are more vulnerable to disease.

Suzanne tells all – Our top wolf expert Suzanne Stone isn’t one to pull punches, and in a recent interview on the Green Global Travel blog, she gave straightforward answers to some tough questions. Why do people demonize wolves? Why are wolves important? How can we resolve the ongoing conflicts between people and wildlife? Read the blog to find out.

“If you look into the eyes of a wild wolf, there is something there more powerful than many humans can accept.” – Suzanne Stone

The Rocky Mountain Front is a truly magnificent place where more than a million acres of wilderness meet hundreds of thousands of acres of cattle and sheep country.  Wet, lush and berry laden corridors lead from the mountains into ranch lands where sheep and cattle graze serenely. These riparian corridors are supreme habitat for bears and other wildlife, but having a “grizzly highway” running through grazing pastures can be a recipe for disaster.

This grizzly bear cub was relocated by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks after getting into livestock.

Despite Defenders’ efforts to minimize conflicts, 2012 is shaping up to be one of the busiest conflict years the bear managers have seen on the Rocky Mountain Front, and September is typically the month with the highest conflicts! Three adult male grizzlies were euthanized after depredating on cattle or sheep, and 13 grizzly bears were relocated.  Three of these relocations were adult females and 2 were cubs of the year.  Grizzly bears reproduce slowly, making female grizzlies especially important to recovery. While these particular Mama grizzlies were given another chance, they have a strike against them and the memory of receiving a “food reward” which could be detrimental if they get into trouble again.

Speculation abounds as to what causes a high conflict year. Drought and natural food failures are important contributing factors. But in the end bears are opportunistic. If they happen upon a smorgasbord of food rewards, whether it is a corn field, a chicken coop or a garbage can, they will take advantage of it. As the saying goes, “a fed bear is a dead bear,” and this has been a particularly bad year for bears.

Can grizzlies coexist in a landscape dotted with so many attractants? The short answer is yes. But it’s up to all of us who care about wildlife to develop the tools and techniques to keep attractants away from grizzlies.

In an effort to allow both grizzlies and ranching to coexist in this majestic landscape, miles of electric fencing has been installed and is being used successfully on the Rocky Mountain Front to deter bears from accessing bee yards, sheep, and calving grounds. Defenders has spent well over $50,000 on electric fencing projects on the Rocky Mountain Front since 1998, including a major expansion of our incentive program this year. But we didn’t do it alone.  Multiple agencies, non-governmental organizations and land/livestock owners have come together to ensure the ranching lifestyle can coexist with a recovery grizzly bear population. Some other nonlethal methods that Defenders has assisted with to reduce livestock depredations are range riders, bear-resistant garbage containers, and livestock protection dogs.

Tolerance for grizzlies is critical to their continued recovery. In 1997, in an effort to boost tolerance for grizzly bears, Defenders established the Grizzly Compensation Trust.  Through this program Defenders pays full market value for livestock verified killed by a grizzly bear and 50% value for livestock that was considered “probably” killed by a grizzly bear.  In 2012 Defenders has paid over $60,000 in compensation to livestock owners–nearly all of them on the Rocky Mountain Front. Since the program’s inception in 1997 Defenders has paid over $350,000 in compensation payments.

As grizzlies reoccupy historic habitat miles out into the high plains, the message and tools of coexistence must follow to ensure the safety of this icon of the West.  Escalating conflicts point to the need to expand the use of nonlethal deterrents that keep bears alive and people safe.

Good things can happen when people just sit down and talk things out. This week, up to four wolves from Washington State’s Wedge wolf pack were slated to be killed by the state for allegedly preying on livestock. But after my meetings with state officials, I am happy to report that the state agreed to reassess the situation. Even before our meeting, they had already pulled traps and are withdrawing the sharpshooters today.

The state had decided to kill wolves based on assumptions that they were the cause of recent livestock injuries in the area. But I have been assessing wolf livestock kills for more than a decade and the physical evidence just didn’t add up. These injuries looked more like those commonly sustained by cattle grazing on national forest lands. I double checked my assessment with some outside experts and they agreed. So yesterday I took my case straight to the State Director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Wolf activists at the Governor’s office

Along with other groups, I met with Director Phil Anderson and his staff and went over our assessment of the evidence. In contrast to many state wildlife officials in the region, he was very respectful and genuinely interested in what we had to say. And he acknowledged that our concerns were valid. We met with the governor’s office as well and they agreed a reassessment was in order.

I walked out of these meetings hopeful that our concerns were heard, but the entire episode reminded me of how collaborative and productive wildlife management can be when everyone respectfully listens to everyone else and lets sound science rule the day. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Governor’s office both deserve appreciation for being willing to listen to the concerns of others and acknowledge the need for further assessment. And a big thank you to our members and supporters who weighed in with state officials, asking them to take a step back, review the science again and spare these wolves. We heard from the governor’s office that they received over 1200 calls from wolf supporters just on Friday alone.

Washington State is a critical player in the ongoing saga of wolf recovery in the Northern Rockies, but lots of work remains. Yesterday’s developments, and the people who made it happen, gave me hope that we are on the right track.

Kalon Baughan is a man on a mission. In partnership with Defenders and the research and education organization Wild Things Unlimited, he’s been working hard as a citizen scientist to document wildlife activity in Montana, and the work has really paid off. Using 10 motion-activated cameras, he has helped us document 500 photos of 53 separate wolverine events in just one year!

While we cannot tell for sure, we are darn certain we have documented up to nine different wolverines based on the unique color patterns of fur on their face, throat, and chest. Best of all, three of those wolverines were young wolverines, called kits! We’ve had our first documentation of a wolverine traveling with two kits; earlier this summer we had images of a different adult traveling with one kit.

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On the prowl

Cyclops mugging for the camera

Cyclops plus two

What are you lookin at?

One wolverine that I endearingly call Cyclops is a fascinating individual (see pictures). Cyclops appears to have heavily damaged or lost his/her eye (boy, what I’d give to know how!)…yet s/he seems to be doing well and has two kits in tow.  While wolverines have a reputation for being hostile loners, they can actually be quite the social characters. Father wolverines don’t abandon their families – they visit the dens of their kits, and for up to two years juvenile wolverines may remain in their parents’ territories sometimes traveling with their mother, sometimes with their father, and sometimes alone.  Thus we cannot know whether Cyclops is a male or female for certain without visual or genetic evidence.  Either way, we’ll keep an eye out (sorry!) for further evidence of Cyclops’ adventures.

Beyond the cool pictures, we’re gaining valuable insights into wolverine activities with this work. Interestingly, the wolverine activity we’ve captured on camera occurs at low-elevation, non-alpine habitat where wolverines are not typically known to spend a lot of time in Montana, especially during summer. Additionally, this high density of wolverines in one small region is quite uncommon. Our guess is that this may be related to the fact that wolverines are no longer trapped in this part of Montana, which is likely to have subsequently reduced human-related mortality in the area.

Wolverines elsewhere in the state aren’t so lucky. Up to five wolverines may be trapped statewide in Montana within designated trapping districts, according to current regulations.  While five may seem like a small number, it may still be too many when you consider there are only an estimated 250-300 individual wolverines in the entire lower-48!  Additionally, with wolf trapping now recently legalized in Montana and Idaho (despite efforts from Defenders, our members and other wolf supporters), concern has risen for increased potential of incidental trapping of wolverines, lynx, and other wildlife.

That’s why the efforts of Kalon and Wild Things Unlimited to document wildlife in Montana are so important. We need to learn as much as we can about wolverines and other rare carnivores to add to the understanding of how and where they are vulnerable, and what we can do to protect them. We’re thrilled to be able to support citizen science that ultimately helps conserve imperiled species. Keep up the great work, Kalon and Wild Things!

Read more about what Defenders is doing to protect wolverines

Learn more about wolverine characteristics and behavior

Fencing will help Yellowstone-area landowners coexist with free-roaming bison.

This week it got a little easier for landowners outside Yellowstone National Park to coexist with bison.

On Monday, Defenders of Wildlife, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club launched an incentive program to assist with bison fencing efforts in the area. This program is designed to support recent steps by Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks and other state and federal agencies to allow more bison to roam outside Yellowstone National Park. Through the program, landowners in the Gardiner and Hebgen basins concerned about potential bison impacts can get reimbursed for 50 percent of the cost of purchasing and installing fencing, up to $1,000 per landowner, to keep bison off private property.

Bison often travel beyond park boundaries in search of food, particularly during harsh winters. Until recently, bison were simply hazed back inside the park, shot on sight, or shipped to slaughter (1,600 bison were slaughtered in 2008 alone). But in the last couple of years, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and state and federal agencies have agreed to let bison roam beyond the park boundaries. Additional changes may soon create year-round bison habitat outside the park. Montana’s wildlife agency just held two public meetings in the north and west gateway communities to Yellowstone National Park to gather public input on its proposal to expand habitat available by bison outside the park by around 350,000 acres! Public support for this proposal appeared to outweigh opposition at these meetings.

The slaughter of bison outside Yellowstone National Park has long been a dark spot on America’s wildlife conservation heritage. The recent changes allowing bison places to roam outside the park are critical steps toward managing bison like other wildlife. However, these efforts could fail if they are not accepted by local communities. The resources Defenders and our colleagues are providing for fencing could go a long way toward increasing tolerance for bison where it is most needed by helping concerned landowners protect their property from potential damage.

“Our goal is to increase tolerance for bison in these important habitat areas,” said Jonathan Proctor, Rockies and Plains associate for Defenders of Wildlife. “Offering this incentive will allow us to engage constructively with landowners who may have concerns with free-roaming bison on their properties.”

To learn more about the program, check out our promotional poster and read our full press release.

See recent coverage in the Billings Gazette and Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

The following blog from Defenders President Jamie Rappaport Clark appeared this morning on Huffington Post.

Like most good fairytales, the story of the gray wolf is truly captivating. Only this fairytale may turn out to have a tragic ending.

When President Clinton appointed me as director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1997, there were about 200 wolves in the Northern Rockies. It was an extraordinary time to be involved in wildlife conservation. An iconic native species that had been carelessly eradicated in the early 1900s was being given a chance to come back. The decision to restore wolves to the West was not without controversy, but most of us at the Fish and Wildlife Service were proud to lead such a historic endeavor. We had the support of our President and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, and poll after poll showed that the vast majority of the American people were excited to see wolves returned to the wild.

When I left my post at the beginning of 2001, the population was approaching 500 wolves, and for the next ten years recovery continued apace. At the end of 2011, there were more than 1,700 wolves in the region, including a handful of breeding pairs in Oregon and Washington and a lone male wolf on a journey through parts of northern California. By almost any measure, the return of gray wolves to the Northern Rockies has been an incredible success… until now.

Over the past year, we’ve seen an about-face in the treatment and management of wolves in the Northern Rockies. They’ve gone from being federally protected under the Endangered Species Act to being public enemy number one across much of the region. And it’s about to get even worse.

In May 2011, wolves in Idaho and Montana were booted off the endangered species list by Congress — the first time ever that a species was delisted by lawmakers instead of scientists. Since then, both states have conducted aggressive wolf hunts that have killed more than 500 wolves.

If that wasn’t bad enough, both states are ramping up their wolf-killing efforts this coming fall. Idaho has doubled their already excessive bag limit, allowing hunters to kill up to 10 wolves each through a combination of shooting and trapping. Montana has eliminated quotas across most of the state, tripled their bag limit, and will allow widespread trapping.

Photo courtesy of National Park Service.

Both these states claimed they could manage wolves properly if given the chance. Both said they would manage them like other wildlife in the state. But while these states are willing to accommodate thousands of bears and mountain lions, they don’t seem willing to share the land with a healthy number of wolves.

And now, in a matter of days, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will announce that it is stripping federal protections for wolves in Wyoming as well. Wyoming’s goal is to reduce the population to just 100 wolves outside of Yellowstone National Park, allowing the rest to be killed anytime by almost any means, including shooting them from airplanes, trapping and even gassing pups in their dens. That means nearly half of the current population could be eliminated through a combination of hunting and shoot-on-sight predator control within just a few months of delisting.

No other native species is managed to a biological minimum. Reducing the population to such low levels defeats the purpose of restoring wolves in the first place–allowing them to fulfill their important ecological role in maintaining nature’s balance. The goal should be to help the wolf population continue to recover, not put it right back on life support.

Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are seemingly in a race to the bottom after decades spent trying to put wolves back in their rightful place in an ecologically healthy landscape. Across the region, we’re seeing wolves being persecuted once again as unwanted vermin rather than being treated as other valuable wildlife. This harmful attitude is what led to the eradication of wolves nearly a century ago and it is still a persistent threat to wolves today.

Sadly, unless the delisting decision is halted and the states involved begin to treat wolves as they do other wildlife within their borders, the hopeful tale of wolf recovery will have a tragic final chapter. This is the Obama administration’s last chance to write a better ending for what has otherwise been a remarkable national conservation success story.

Sign Defenders’ petition today to help save Wyoming’s wolves! Tell the Obama administration to maintain federal protection for Wyoming’s wolves until the state comes up with better management plan.