Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Centerconservation · education · preservation

septeMBer 2014

Wyoming wolves are back under federal projection after a ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson rejected a Wyoming wolf-management plan that had declared wolves unprotected predators that could be shot on sight in most of the state. Her ruling sided with national environmental groups that had ar-gued Wyoming’s management plan afforded insufficient protection for wolves.

“We’re thrilled that protections for Wyoming’s fragile population of wolves have been restored,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered spe-cies director with the Center for Bi-ological Diversity. “With Wyoming allowing wolves to be shot on sight across more than 80 percent of the state, there is no way protections for wolves should have ever been re-moved.”

Berman ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was wrong to trust nonbinding promises from the state of Wyoming to maintain at least 100 wolves, including 10 breeding pairs, outside of Yellow-stone and the Wind River Indian Reservation.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead issued

a statement saying that he expects the state to seek a stay of the Jack-son’s decision. He said the state will seek an emergency rule from the Fish and Wildlife Service to allow continued state wolf management.

“We believe an emergency rule can remedy this, and I have instructed the Wyoming Game and Fish De-partment and the Attorney General to proceed accordingly,” Mead said. He added that until the judge’s or-der is stayed or modified, the killing of wolves in Wyoming will be under federal jurisdiction.

Mead this spring released a survey that he said proved Wyoming’s wolf population was stable and that end-ing federal protections was the right move. The survey, prepared by the Wyoming Game and Fish Depart-ment, stated there were at least 306 wolves in at least 43 packs — in-cluding more than 23 breeding pairs — in Wyoming at the end of 2013.

Wyoming took over wolf manage-ment in late 2012 after the federal government ruled that wolves no longer needed protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The federal government had re-introduced wolves in Yellowstone in the 1990s. For at least the past

decade, the federal agency has been through a tortured series of lawsuits involving both the state and conser-vation groups as Wyoming has tried repeatedly to take control of its wolf population.

Many ranchers and sportsmen in Wyoming say that wolves pose a threat to livestock and game animals, particularly western moose herds, if their numbers aren’t kept in check. The Wyoming Stock Growers As-sociation had entered the Washing-ton, D.C., lawsuit along with other groups to argue for keeping wolf management under state control.

Jim Magagna with the Wyoming Stock Growers Association said that Jackson’s ruling could have a huge effect on Wyoming ranchers if they’re unable to kill wolves that prey on their livestock.

“Beyond that, it doesn’t make any sense,” Magagna said, adding the state has agreed to maintain a mini-mum wolf population.

“And there’s no evidence to show that they’re failing to meet that com-mitment,” he said. “I guess what bothers me most is this shows a total lack of confidence in the state’s abili-ty to manage its wildlife, including a viable and delisted wolf population.

Judge Reinstates Protections for Wyoming WolvesCHEYENNE, WYo. · BY BEN NEARY AssoCiAtEd PREss

Huge news for Wyoming’s wolves: The hunt is canceled! We just received a court ruling restoring Endangered Species Act protections for the state’s embattled wolf population. This was the long-shot legal battle we weren’t predicted to win, but the law prevailed and Wyoming’s wolf slaughter stops today -- just days before trophy hunting was set to begin.

The court found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wrongly relied on state management to secure a future for wolves in Wyoming. In addition to the annual trophy hunt, Wyoming cruelly designated wolves as predatory animals -- which meant they could be shot on sight in more than 80 percent of the state. And in state-sanctioned hunts many beloved wolves wandered from Yellowstone National Park to be killed. The court just threw out this irrational approach and ended both predatory and trophy hunting. We’re overjoyed that these wolves once again have the federal protections they desperately need.

But the battle doesn’t end here. The wolf-haters will regroup, and the Center and our partners will be there to fight them again. We won this crucial battle because of your contributions to the Predator Defense Fund. You made this happen.

For the wolves,

Kierán SucklingExecutive DirectorCenter for Biological Diversity

Kekoa

So quickly we forget. Joe Public, the press, politicians, you and me, we appear to tire of being reminded that the problem remains, that the system is broken, that something needs to be done NOW. We become mon-keys sitting comfortably on our asses, our eyes tightly shut, our fingers in our ears and our mouths so filled with food that we cannot speak.

Newspaper editors tell me that there has been enough in print lately about the Wash-ington State wolves and that there is currently little interest in updates or fact checks.

Allow me then to remind you that wolves are being killed every day, killed and tortured by poachers, ranchers, hunters, trappers, sociopaths, and by your very own state and federal governments. Wolves are dying at the hands of state and federal agencies to “pro-tect” irresponsibly ranged livestock and you are paying dearly for this service. You pay with your tax dollars and maybe you even pay with a heavy heart. The wolves are paying with their lives.

Between poaching, tribal takes and govern-ment issued kill orders, nowhere else in the Lower 48 is there a more dangerous place for a wolf than in the Northeast corner of Washington State. And the director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), Phil Anderson, has been doing his darndest to make this so, first with the death sentence carried out in September 2012 on eight members of the Wedge pack, and now, not even two years later calling for an aerial assault on the Huckleberry pack. Both packs were located in northeastern Washington, Ste-vens County, with members killed to pacify irresponsible ranchers busily crying wolf.

The Wedge pack was accused of attack-ing and eating McIrvine cows, yet necropsy

reports from the dead wolves found that no, they had not been ingesting cows. At the time, WDFW’s carnivore specialist Dave Ware told a local news station that agree-ments with ranchers were subsequently being put into place (new best practices for non-le-thal aversion tactics) for the following year to, “avoid a repeat of the Wedge Pack situation.” While Anderson had said that killing the Wedge would “hit a re-set button” between ranchers and wolf management.

McIrvine, the rancher on who’s cows the Wedge had allegedly been snacking, was quoted as saying that he believed groups with “a radical environmental agenda” were conspiring to introduce gray wolves in order “to take our (grazing) lease from us”; a lease which allows him to range livestock in ter-rain unsuitable for responsible ranching and for pennies an animal. Welcome to crazy town! Gray wolves have been returning to the Northern Rocky States from Canada natural-ly, yes, of their very own accord, without the aid of any radical environmentalists.

Are you curious of the bill from Wildlife Services for the aerially gunning of the Wedge? $76,500.00 that could have bought a lot of McIrvine cows!

Said another of WDFW’s carnivore special-ists recently, “Wolves are recovering (in the Northern Rocky States) at a phenomenal rate, a rate unheard of in wildlife. This growth rate is unprecedented and to experience the return of an apex predator in our lifetime is excit-ing.” But are wolves retuning so that they can again be systematically and inhumanely eradi-cated, as they were almost seventy years ago?

Details from the recent aerial gunning

Don’t Silence the Howl!from Anonymous for Wolves on HowlingforJustice.com

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Group From CC in alphabetical order: Caroline Andryc, Erin Holmes, Becky Hunter, Sarah McAuley, Eliza Mott, Tim Phalen, Ruthie Rabinovitch, Erin Shae, Natalie Wade, Sierra Wilbar, Taylor Wright

Good times with Kekoa and Keyni!

of the Huckleberry pack’s breeding female were slow to come. WDFW’s initial goal was to gun from a helicopter, again using USDA approved Wildlife Services, up to four members of the pack thereby reducing their numbers and lowering the pack’s food requirements. This could also, they hoped, break the offending male’s cycle of sheep depredation.

Dashiell’s sheep, for which this wolf had been found to have acquired a taste, were being irresponsibly ranged on a rugged and sprawling timber company allotment for mere pennies per. Al-low unprotected sheep to run around in the woods in known wolf country… what else would one expect? Wolves find sheep to be delicious and easy prey.

But the rancher and again WDFW cried wolf, saying that there had been in place an active range rider with guard dogs on the scene and that neither had been an effective means of deterrence. It later surfaced that Dashiell’s range rider had quit over a month prior to the incidents and that the added protection of range riders had not occurred until August 20th (the Huckleberry wolf was shot on the 23rd). Frequent nocturnal human presence was also added but not until after the kill order was already in place.

It was simply a matter of far too little, far too late.

The Wildlife Services sharpshooter went up in the chopper over a three-day period, experiencing poor visibility conditions and unable to spot wolves for the first two days. On the third day the shooter finally spotted a lone, black wolf under the craft and shot her dead. BLAM! It was day three of a very expensive undertaking and a wolf needed to die.

Prior to shooting the lone, black, nearly 70 pound wolf (reports of 66lbs were the results of post-mortem weighing) WDFW made statements that they did not wish to shoot the breeding pair nor the collared male. To this end WDFW vowed to only shoot when multiple wolves were under the chopper to use for size comparison and to not shoot black wolves as the collared male is black. They would shoot smaller wolves: two-year olds and pups. And while the breeding female was not a monster in size, 70 pounds is not small especially if you have other wolves spotted for size comparison.

But in the end, the only instructions from WDFW to the sharp-shooter were that if the opportunity to sort existed, to try and not remove the collared male. “You know going into it you get what you get,” said the guy I talked to from WDFW.

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It took me weeks and numerous phone calls to several WDFW contacts to find out what had been the color of the breeding female. In an earlier interview, Ware (WDFW) had told me he thought she was gray, not white or black, but your standard gray. The others I spoke with knew her weight but not her color. I finally got a hold of the report from the wildlife veterinarian who conducted the necropsy on the dead wolf for WDFW.

The vet confirmed that the pups would have been about four months old at the time of her death, weigh-ing about forty pounds: far from almost full grown as I had been told earlier by WDFW, and far smaller than their almost 70 pound mother if one wished to use them for size comparison.

When asked, the vet said that the breeding female had been shot through the chest and had likely “bled out quickly.” She had been shot with buckshot which is bigger than bb sized pellets and scatters like shotgun powder.

Her postmortem condition was “Poor” because she had been frozen, taking two days to thaw with the first tissues to thaw beginning to rot early on (the vet had been out of area at the time of the killing and so freez-ing the breeding female’s body had become necessary).

Her stomach was empty -EMPTY- at the time of her

death; she hadn’t eaten in 24-48 hours, not sheep, not anything. Had she ever eaten sheep? Truly, we will never know. It is obvious, however, that the non-lethal aver-sion activity and maybe even the noise of the chopper’s

flights, was working days before she was shot; apparently this was so disrup-tive she stopped

eating all together. But again, a wolf needed to die …Wildlife Services were out in Washington again

recently, this time killing coyotes on Vashon Island, coyotes who had also discovered that sheep are deli-cious and easy prey. Sheep that had been shipped up from Oregon to the Island for the Vashon Sheepdog Classic. Sheep grazing in an unfenced field and ironi-cally enough, without the protection of guard dogs. The dead sheep were not removed and the coyotes came back for those the very next day. No surprise!

And now three coyote’s howls have been silenced forever.

Do not forget and do not remain silent. Do not become accustomed to images of dead wolves as some Conservation Nothing organizations would prefer of you. Do not sit idly by while heartless humans and greedy, weak government officials cry “off with their heads” to apex predators or to any wildlife.

Take action! Make noise! Never compromise! Do not let Them silence the howl!

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Don’t Silence the Howl!My fiancé (Matt Aleman) and I were a part of the wolf feeding last night, and we also had the pleasure of getting to do an alpha photo session before the feeding tour (I was the one super excited the whole time, haha). I want to write to you and let you know how much we enjoyed our experience yesterday and how unforgettable it was for me. I fell in love with Kekoa and Na’Vi...even though Na’Vi left me with a souvenir bruise from playing with my jacket sleeve! Your facility is such a wonderful place for these majestic animals, and Matt and I have not been able to stop talking about it. Thank you for what you do for these wild creatures. They have such a great home at your sanctuary, and yesterday was the highlight of our trip to colorado! Please give Kekoa a kiss for me :) And if there is a way we can keep in touch with the wolves by donations or adoptions from afar (we are from Texas), please let me know.

Regards,Kristi Gavranovic

email

stAndArd Full moon tour meet and greet Keyni -

our ambassador wolf before the tour. tour starts

immediately after and lasts approximately 1 hour.

one saturday night a month!

Full moon Feeding tour this tour combines our Feeding tour with our

Full moon tour. the Friday before and sunday

after our Full moon tours.

Adults: $25 (13 years+)

cHildren: $15 (8-12 years)

no kids under 8

Wear warm clothes & good boots. Bring a camera and a flashlight

check wolfeducation.org for dates and check-in times

OCT 3 · 4 · 5

Full MOOn TOuRS

14 Ways you know you work at the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife CenterYou know you work at the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center when…

1. You can tell time solely based on the when you hear the group howl

2. You start referring to the people in your life as an alpha, beta, or omega

3. You, at one point, have almost sliced your hand open trying to separate the frozen meat from paper

4. You start referring to wolves as “people” because they are as close as human friends

5. You even like the wolves more than actual people6. You know the visitor center will be crazy busy or

completely silent, but only one or the other7. You sometimes sneak Koda an extra treat when she gives

you that face or reaches a paw out8. You become the master of sneaking in and out of doors

when someone radios “ferrets are out”9. Your favorite job is picking up poop…

…And you get excited to find said poop if you haven’t found any in awhile

10. You curse the magpies for stealing meat treats and dinner bowls

11. You don’t know how often you’ve had to tell people how to pronounce “Kekoa”

12. You never protest a wolf kiss, even when they leave you with a busted lip

13. You have a different relationship with each animal and have the utmost respect for each

And the most important way to know that you’ve worked for the CWWC is when you feel so strongly in body and spir-it that you are surrounded by the most amazing creatures whether they have two legs or four!

I will miss every one of you - Casey

We will miss you too CaseyCasey was one of our awesome summer volunteers

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25th

5-7 PM

Join us as we pass out meat-filled pumpkins to all the wolves...

+Bon Fire & Refreshments

$25 ADULTS $15 children 12 & under

719.687.9742 · reservations required · wolfeducation.org

Approximately 5-6 months · 15lbs, max weight around 20 lbsAdoption fee: $125 money will be applied to another rescue

Tica is as sweet as they get. She is a rescue from Costa Rica and current on all inoculations and worming. She has also been recently spayed. She will require someone who has time to train her and who may have another dog who likes to play. She has a mild skin condition which is being treated so she has some hair loss, however it is already growing back in. She will require a fenced in yard and she needs to be an indoor dog on cold days.A home screening will be done to insure that this little girl will have the best home. A microchip will also be required.

If interested, please call Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center at 719-687-9742.

Tica the Terrier from Costa RicaFOR ADOPTION-RESCUE

slV Animal Welfare society

719.587.woof (9663) www.slvaws.org

non-Profit sheltermonetary donations needed

tcrAs the no-kill shelter

in divide, co719.686.7707

tcrascolorado.com

Adopt

working together to find loving forever

homes

VIEqUES HUMANE SOCIETy - Vieques, Puerto Rico, a small island located off the mainland’s east coast, for many years offered no veterinary or animal rescue services. During the early 1980’s, a handful of concerned immigrants from the states and a few local residents took a serious interest in improving the welfare of the animals. They began by feeding the island’s multitudinous strays and soliciting the help of veterinarians from Puerto Rico to sterilize them. By 1987, the Vieques Humane Society and Animal Rescue, Inc. was officially established as a non-profit organization. Today they still offer the only veterinary services on the island and have developed strong community based programs. www.viequeshumanesociety.org

CWWC will pay you $200 towards the shipping to a qualified home from the Vieques Humane Society

Hutson and Reggie need a home together. They are 2-yr-old brother & sister husky/shepherd mixes, spayed, neutered, microchipped, all vaccinations current.Hutson weighs 50lbs and is very friendly! She loves to go for walks, chew on bones, have her belly rubbed. She’s been in obedience training and is doing well. She knows sit, down, stay, wait, and how to walk with a loose leash. She is very motivated by food, and can’t stop wagging her tail when showing off her tricks for treats! She would do best in a house without other dogs, except for her brother.At 70lbs, Reggie’s a big guy, but very gentle and sweet! He likes to stay close to his people, take walks, and play with his sister, Hutson. He’s had some obedience training and is doing well at sit, down, stay, wait, and loose-leash walking. He likes the work—and getting treats for his efforts—and would do well in a home where he can continue working on obedience skills. He is crate trained, house trained, stays off of furniture, and knows to only chew on his toys. He would do best in a house without other dogs, except for his sister.

SLVAWS

TCRAS TCRAS

My name is Buddy and I hope you are looking for a new best buddy because I really want to be your new best furrever friend! I am a feisty fellow with lots of love to share. I think I am a big guy and will show that with deep tenacity when I am in my kennel. Here is a little secret about me though: I put on a big show but once I am out of my kennel I am a big love! Because of my big dog attitude, I would probably do best in a home with no young children. I do hope you come by soon to meet my dynamic self, I know we will become fast friends.

I am a gentle loving girl who is looking for a special some-one to curl up with and watch a good movie or read a good book. I love my play time but I enjoy the softer side of life and am hoping there is a special someone out there to share my love with. If that sounds like you, just ask for me, Cora.

Information presented on this newsletter is considered public information (unless otherwise noted) and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credit is requested. Some of the documents in this newsletter may contain live feed references (or pointers) to information created and maintained by other organizations. Please note that CWWC does not control and cannot guarantee the relevance, timeliness, or accuracy of these outside materials.

working together to make

a difference

Newsletter Designed By Melissa Macis -

Freelance Graphic Designersmallspaceorganizer@gmail.com

“We can judge the heart

of a man by his treatment of animals.”

~ Immanual KantNatural Resources Defense Council

www.nrdc.org

Mexican Grey Wolveswww.mexicanwolves.org

www.defendersofwildlife.org

For current wolf articles and to be a voice

through knowledge

WilD EaRth GuaRDiaNswww.wildearthguardians.org

www.projectcoyote.org

www.aza.org

“An animal’s eyes have the

power to speak a great language.”

~ Martin Buberwww.bornfreeusa.org

THE WORLD OF WOLVES iPad app featuring the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center is NoW AVAiLABLE on itunes. Also on itunes, download the free CWWC app for your iPhone or iPad.

Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center

Gift Certificates Make the Perfect

Gift for Every Animal Lover...

Dedicated to educating the public about wolves, wolf dogs, foxes, and coyotes. Although these elusive animals are not often seen in the wild, through our guided tours you will have the opportunity to view them in the most natural setting possible. You will have the chance to view some of some of the endangered species that live at the Center.

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FROM: ____________________________________________________________________________

FOR THE AMOUNT OF: _________________________________________________________________

AUTHORIZED BY: ______________________ EXPIRES: _____________________________________

Excludes holidays and special events · Please mention you have a gift certificate when making reservationsYear round tours by reservation only: Tues - Sun 10am · 12pm · 2pm + 4pm in the Spring and Summer

Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center GIFT CERTIFICATE719.687.9742 · w

ww

.wolfeducation.org

P.O. Box 713 · Divide, CO 80814