Washington Wildlife Commision to discuss wolf plan–June 16th, 2011

Panelist Bob Tuck of Selah, a former state wildlife commissioner stated, “ecosystems are not vending machines. I don’t need to put in my quarter — ka-chunk — and have a trophy elk pop out. That’s not what this is all about.”

Anthony Novack, a state wildlife biologist who has done extensive field research on wolves in Idaho. “Wolves are very selective. By the nature of how they prey, how they run down animals, they really do cull the weakest ones in the herd. The slow do not survive.

“Of the female elk (wolves) took in Montana, roughly 40 percent were geriatric; they weren’t going to be having calves again. So … wolves have a lesser impact on those elk herd numbers. Hunters have a bigger impact because they take healthy, prime-aged animals.”

ENDANGERED SPECIES — The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission has scheduled a conference call this morning at 8:30 to discuss the lack of harmony beaming from the state’s Wolf Working Group meeting last week.

Basically, the citizen group that’s been working for years to help craft the state’s wolf management plan is polarized on several issues, mainly on the number of wolf breeding pairs would be allowed before the state would begin “managing” their population.

A final plan is expected to be released for public comment in August.  So, how many wolves are enough?  That is the primary question.

Special thanks to the Spokesman Review Outdoors Blog by Rich for providing this information.  To review rest of the article, please visit http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/outdoors/2011/jun/16/washington-wildlife-commision-discuss-wolf-plan/

Was the Minnesota Zoo justified in its decision to shoot this escaped wolf?  Please read the following article written by Maricella Miranda of Twin Cities Pioneer Press and comment!

“Last year when a Mexican gray wolf ran loose in the north metro, officials waited days for the right moment to capture it.

The Wildlife Science Center assured police the wolf didn’t pose a public threat, said Peggy Callahan, the center’s executive director.

Police listened and helped tranquilize the wolf in New Brighton.

A Mexican wolf on the run Wednesday met a different fate at the Minnesota Zoo. The escaped wolf became a danger when it found its way onto a public path with children and other visitors. To assure public safety, zoo staff shot and killed the animal.

“We did our job, and we did it according to preapproved policies,” said Tony Fisher, the zoo’s animal collection manager.

On Friday – three days after the escape – the Apple Valley zoo continued answering emails asking why the 8-year-old male wolf was shot and killed instead of tranquilized.

Callahan also questions why the animal needed to be euthanized. If staff had moved all visitors into buildings, the wolf could have been cornered and tranquilized, she said.

“I think we handled it better than they did,” Callahan said.

Because the wolf was on a public path on the Northern Trail “near a large number of guests,” tranquilizers were not a safe option, according to the zoo, because they work slowly and are imprecise.

Tranquilizers can take up to 15 minutes to work, can make an animal aggressive when shot and might not fully release while an animal is moving, the zoo said.

Schmidt, wolf curator at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minn., agrees tranquilizers are not always the answer, especially when public safety is involved.

“Drugging is not an exact science,” she said.

Schmidt wouldn’t say if she supported the zoo’s actions, but she said the situation would have posed a greater threat to all wolves if the escaped animal had attacked a human.

“The negativity that is created by a wolf fight with a human is significant,” she said.

Schmidt manages a facility housing five wolves, and she makes sure the animals can’t dig, wiggle or jump out of their enclosures, she said. That becomes tricky when something – such as an animal carcass or another wolf pack – attracts them.

The wolf at the Minnesota Zoo likely was enticed to escape.

Zoo staff suspect the wolf was pursuing two wolves brought in from the flooded Dakota Zoo in Bismarck, N.D. Chasing them likely motivated the wolf, which was off-exhibit, to slip through a gap in a holding-area fence into a secondary enclosure.

Zoo staff planned to tranquilize the wolf there, but the animal jumped an 8-foot fence into the public area, Fisher said. Staff then resorted to shooting the wolf.

“We don’t want to create the impression that all wolves are bad, and all wolves need to be shot,” Fisher said. “We’re a conservation organization – and that’s not the message that we want to get out there. This wasn’t a wild wolf. This was a captive wolf.”

Unlike wolves raised in the wild, captive wolves are not as afraid of people, Fisher said. They are more likely to get closer to people, but could quickly become aggressive if cornered.

The escaped wolf looked scared more than anything, Callahan said.

She hasn’t spoken with the Minnesota Zoo about Wednesday’s escape and has never worked with this particular wolf, Callahan said. But her 25 years of experience with wolves and seeing published photographs of the animal during its escape led her to believe it was afraid, she said.

When a wolf ran from her Columbus-based nonprofit center Feb. 14, 2010, it was scared, Callahan said.

She said vandals, who were never caught, set three wolves free at her wildlife facility. Two were quickly recovered, but the third was loose for four days until wildlife center staff and police helped corner it near Long Lake Road and Interstate 694.

Police never felt that the public was in danger, said New Brighton Police Director Bob Jacobson.

Callahan said she worries that killing the endangered animal could further threaten its species. An estimated 50 Mexican gray wolves live in the wild today and about 300 in captivity.

“There are so few of them,” she said.

Maricella Miranda can be reached at 651-228-5421 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              651-228-5421      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

FYI

Although Mexican gray wolves are rare, there are other wolf subspecies in North America. If you were to encounter a wolf, the International Wolf Center suggests the following actions:

– Raise and wave your arms in the air to look bigger

– Face the wolf while backing away slowly

– Make noise

– Throw objects at the wolf

– Report the sighting to local authorities”