Latest Gray Wolf Stories

Gray wolf hunting is set to start in the Northern Rockies just four months after the animal was de-listed from the endangered species list.Environmental and animal welfare groups have imposed a last minute injunction to stop the killing, about which a federal judge now has to make a speedy decision.In Idaho, where a quota allows for the killing of 220 wolves, hunters are preparing themselves for the hunt Tuesday. Montana's hunting season begins September 15, with a quota of 75 wolves.After a...

Swiss authorities are on the hunt for three wolves that have exceeded their kill count of sheep in western Switzerland's canton Valais.According to AFP, authorities issued a death warrant for the wolves, which entered the country from Italy and France.The order came after sheepherders reported that their flocks were under attack by the pack of wolves.On the night of August 1 and 2, about 15 sheep fell prey to the wolf trio. A total of 27 sheep were killed during the month of July in the Swiss...

Gray wolves may all have their color in common, but the Mexican gray wolf is the rarest and most genetically distinct subspecies, and conservationists are working to give the animals specific protection under federal law to avoid extinction.This week, petitions were filed by three separate conservation groups requesting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service list the Mexican gray wolf on the federal endangered species list separate from other gray wolves in North America. According to them,...

Wolves are moving into Switzerland from Italy and posing a danger to sheep herds, experts from the Federal Environment Office in Bern said. Wolves were driven out of Switzerland in the 19th century, but are returning. Although there are many more wolves in the French and Italian Alps, Swiss authorities believe the number there will rise in the coming years. Since mid-May 100 sheep were slaughtered by wolves. In one case, 15 sheep were killed in an attack in canton Valais. The flock was in...

Researchers are now questioning the idea that the domestic dog originated in East Asia.Scientists have long concluded that domestication of canines began in East Asia, due to the huge genetic diversity of dogs found there. But new research published in the journal PNAS shows the DNA of dogs in African villages is just as varied.Blood samples from dogs in Egypt, Uganda and Namibia were analyzed by an international group of researchers who found that today's dogs are descended from Eurasian...

Introducing wolves to a test site in Scotland would establish a model for controlling the over-population of red deer, scientists in Oregon said. The plan is modeled after research at Yellowstone National Park, where the absence of large predators had allowed deer and elk to overgraze lands and damage entire ecosystems, William Ripple, a professor of forest ecosystems at Oregon State University, said in a release Monday. Wolves were last found in Scotland more than 250 years ago, and as a...

Researchers are proposing in a new report that a major experiment be conducted to reintroduce wolves to a test site in the Scottish Highlands, to help control the populations and behavior of red deer that in the past 250 years have changed the whole nature of large ecosystems.The proposal is modeled after research done in the United States, at Yellowstone National Park and elsewhere, which has demonstrated that the absence of large predators such as wolves and cougars has allowed deer, elk...

Elk in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem are starving due to fear of wolves and are not being killed by them, Montana State University researchers said. Essentially, they are slowly starving, Scott Creel, an ecology professor at MCU, and lead author of the study, said. Despite grazing and browsing during the winter, elk suffer a net loss of weight. Creel said the elk are eating in forested areas where they are safer. This browsing on woody shrubs or low tree branches provides good quality...

Wolves have caused elk in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to change their behavior and foraging habits so much so that herds are having fewer calves, mainly due to changes in their nutrition, according to a study published this week by Montana State University researchers.During winter, nearly all elk in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem are losing weight, said Scott Creel, ecology professor at MSU, and lead author on the study which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of...

Just two months after the US Fish and Wildlife Service dropped its protection of wolves in the Great Lakes region, it announced it would add the animal back to its endangered list."The Service is withdrawing its 2009 decision to remove the Western Great Lakes population of gray wolves from the federal list of threatened and endangered species," the agency said.The announcement comes as part of a settlement with five environmental and animal protection groups that had sued the agency earlier...