topic: Wolves

topic: Wolves

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Wolves through the ages: A journey of coexistence, conflict, and conservation
- Wolves are ecologically vital as keystone species, playing a critical role in maintaining the health and balance of ecosystems. Culturally, wolves hold a unique place in the human imagination, revered and mythologized across various cultures for their intelligence, resilience, and spirit of freedom.
- From North America to Eurasia, they are deeply embedded in folklore and tradition, often symbolizing strength and guidance. In many Indigenous communities, wolves have a prominent role in traditional culture, often revered as ancestral figures, spiritual guides, and symbols of the untamed natural world.
- In her new book, “Echo Loba, Loba Echo: Of Wisdom, Wolves, and Women”, Sonja Swift dives into the multifaceted relationship between humans and wolves. From childhood recollections to ecological roles, and from colonial impacts to modern conservation efforts, her work is an exploration of how wolves mirror our own stories, fears, and hopes.
- Swift recently spoke with Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler about the deep-seated symbolism of the wolf and its significant yet often misunderstood place in our world. She also shared insights on how the conservation sector is evolving.

On Nepal’s day to honor dogs, wild canines face mounting threats
- As Nepal’s Hindus celebrate their dogs as protectors and companions during the Tihar (Deepavali) festival, endangered wild dogs face multiple threats such as habitat loss, conflict, predator competition, disease, and forest fires.
- Asiatic wild dogs, or dholes, have seen their populations fragment and decline across Asia, including in Nepal, where there are an estimated 250-750 of the animals.
- More research, conservation action plans, community engagement and transboundary cooperation are needed to ensure the survival of dholes, conservation campaigners say.

Return of the wolf to Nepal’s Himalayas may threaten snow leopards
- The return of wolves to Nepal’s Himalayan region is putting greater pressure on populations of naur, or blue sheep — and by extension on snow leopards, whose main prey is naur.
- New research shows that naur tend to exhibit greater vigilance in areas where both wolves and snow leopards are present, while lowering their guard somewhat when no wolves are around.
- Conservationists say the growing wolf presence threatens snow leopards through direct competition for food and through stressing out, and weakening, naur populations.
- Snow leopards already face pressure from common leopards and tigers, which are moving further uphill in response to both human threats and a changing climate.

Montana cannot be trusted with grizzly bear & wolf management (commentary)
- The U.S. State of Montana’s legislature has recently proposed a litany of extreme anti-wildlife bills despite widespread and diverse opposition.
- Grizzly bears are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, but Montana lawmakers and Gov. Greg Gianforte are pushing measures that would issue grizzly bear kill permits to ranchers using public lands, for example.
- The state has also opened up unlimited wolf hunting along Yellowstone National Park’s border, despite the fact that those wolves spend 96% of their time in the park.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

To restore large carnivore populations, make people wealthier, study finds
- Encouraging sustainable social and economic development is the best way to prevent the extinction of carnivores such as lynx, bears and lions, according to a new study.
- Researchers found that social and economic factors, such as people’s quality of life, were more closely associated with declines of these species than purely environmental features like habitat loss or climate change. As people become wealthier, they are more likely to tolerate large carnivores.
- A key example is western Europe, where populations of grey wolves have increased by 1,800% since the 1960s due to better quality of life for people and slower economic growth on the continent.
- Rapid economic development often comes at the expense of other species, so advanced economies may need to provide financial assistance to help prevent these species from going extinct.

Protecting canids from planet-wide threats offers ecological opportunities
- Five species within the Canidae family are considered endangered. These species, while found far apart in North and South America, Asia and Africa, often share similar threats, including habitat loss, persecution, disease and climate change.
- For some at-risk canid species, loss of prey, particularly due to snaring, is a significant concern that can also exacerbate human-wildlife conflict. Ecosystem-level conservation that protects prey species populations is required to protect canids and other carnivore species, experts say.
- Conservationists and researchers emphasize that canids play important roles in maintaining the habitats in which they live. That makes protecting these predators key to restoring and maintaining functional ecosystems.
- In the face of widespread global biodiversity loss, some canid reintroductions are taking place and proving successful. These rewilding efforts are offering evidence of the importance of canids to healthy ecosystems and to reducing various ecosystem-wide threats, even potentially helping curb climate change.

Yellowstone’s wolves defied extinction, but face new threats beyond park’s borders
- Since their reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park in the Mountain West of the United States in the 1990s, the North American gray wolf has recovered, once again taking up the mantle of a keystone species in its environment.
- But the wolf’s resurgence has raised the ire of ranchers and hunters, and new laws allowing expanded wolf hunts have sprung up across the region.
- Biologists contend that wolves play a critical role in maintaining healthy ecosystems, and data suggest that the threat to overall livestock numbers is exaggerated.
- Still, an entrenched fear, perhaps dating to humans’ earliest interactions with wolves, has helped to stir up a desire for vengeance against the species.

Are wolves related to dogs? Candid Animal Cam meets the largest member of the dog family
- Every Tuesday, Mongabay brings you a new episode of Candid Animal Cam, our show featuring animals caught on camera traps around the world and hosted by Romi Castagnino, our writer and conservation scientist.

At-risk Cerrado mammals need fully-protected parks to survive: Researchers
- A newly published camera trap study tracked 21 species of large mammal in Brazil’s Cerrado savanna biome from 2012-2017.
- The cameras were deployed in both fully protected state and federal parks and less protected mixed-use areas known as APAs where humans live, farm and ranch.
- The probability of finding large, threatened species in true reserves was 5 to 10 times higher than in the APAs for pumas, tapirs, giant anteaters, maned wolves, white-lipped and collared peccaries, and other Neotropical mammals.
- With half the Cerrado biome’s two million square kilometers of native vegetation already converted to cattle ranches, soy plantations and other croplands, conserving remaining habitat is urgent if large mammals are to survive there. The new study will help land managers better preserve biodiversity.

As predators return to Sweden’s wild, ecotourism looks to change mindsets
- Top carnivores such as bears, wolves and lynxes are thriving in the wild in Sweden, where many of them were once extinct or nearly wiped out.
- Policies such as hunting restrictions and compensation for herders affected by livestock predation have allowed these species to recover.
- However, the growing presence of these animals, in particular the wolf, has been controversial, especially among farmers and hunters.
- Ecotourism operators, who expect the predator populations to hold steady over the long term, want locals to see that they can coexist with, and even profit from, the wildlife in their midst.

Howling in the dark: Shining a light on a newly remembered wolf
- The African golden wolf was only recently designated as a species in its own right, after decades of being conflated with the golden jackal.
- The patchy taxonomic record means little is known about the species, including its behavior, range and population, leaving researchers without a baseline for determining its conservation status. But pioneering work in Morocco by Liz Campbell, a researcher at the University of Oxford, is starting to paint a picture of this enigmatic species, seen by local shepherds as a major threat to their livestock.
- Campbell’s surveys and interviews show that this fear appears to be overblown, with far more sheep dying from cold weather or disease than predator attack, and half of the witnessed attacks carried out by feral wild dogs.

2020 ballot initiative would restore wolves to Colorado
- This month, more than 200,000 signatures were delivered to the Colorado secretary of state calling for the restoration of gray wolves to be put on the 2020 ballot.
- If passed, Initiative 107 would direct the state to develop a plan for reintroducing wolves to western Colorado by 2023.
- Mongabay reached out to wildlife biologist Mike Phillips to hear his opinion of the initiative.

Camera traps find rich community of carnivores on Apostle Islands
- Some 160 camera traps deployed across the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior in Wisconsin, U.S., have revealed a diverse community of carnivores, including the American marten, black bear, bobcat, coyote, and gray wolf.
- The camera trap survey provided the first photographic evidence of the American marten in the islands in over 50 years. The marten is listed as endangered in Wisconsin.
- The study also found that islands that were larger or closer to the mainland, or both, held a greater number of carnivore species than islands that were small or more distant — patterns consistent with the concept of island biogeography.
- The movement of the carnivores, either through swimming or via ice bridges formed when parts of the lake freeze, could be under threat from climate change, the researchers warn.

Pressure mounting for the home of wild coffee and Ethiopian wolves
- The region of Bale Park is vital to the survival of endemic flora and fauna, like the mountain nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni), a large antelope, and some of the planet’s last wild coffee
- Bale is also home to other ancient forms of livelihood, such as traditional beekeeping.
- Now there’s a mounting battle to preserve the park, a crucial part of southern Ethiopia’s ecosystem and a watershed source for 12 million people.

Restore wolves or slaughter deer to save Japanese forests?
- Without wolves, an important apex predator, Japan faces a booming deer population that has upset the ecological balance of the country’s forests.
- The sika deer, which researchers say occupy two-thirds of Japanese national forests, pose a particular threat.

A ‘perfect policy storm’ cuts puma numbers by almost half near Jackson, Wyoming
- A 14-year study following 134 tagged mountain lions north of Jackson, Wyoming, found a 48 percent reduction in their numbers.
- The researchers found that the combination of the reintroduction of wolves and increases in elk and mountain lion hunting led to the precipitous drop.
- Lead study author and Panthera biologist Mark Elbroch recommends suspending puma hunting for three years in the region to allow the population to recover.

2700 scientists issue call to action on border wall wildlife threat
- A recently published study finds that more than 1,500 species stand to be affected by the completion of a border wall along the U.S. – Mexico border.
- Overall, they found that a continuous border wall would disconnect more than 34 percent of native, nonflying U.S. species – 346 in total – from at least half of their range. Of these 346 species, 17 percent – including jaguars and ocelots – would have remnant U.S. populations covering less than 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 square miles), which the researchers write would elevate their risk of local extinction.
- The authors say that to reduce risk to wildlife, the U.S. Congress should ensure that the DHS follows the scientific and legal framework of environmental protection laws such as the ESA and NEPA. They also implore the DHS to strengthen research and monitoring along the border, consider and mitigate environmental harm imposed on particularly sensitive ecosystems and species by wall construction, and train Border Patrol agents to be more sensitive to the presence of researchers.
- As of press time, 2,723 scientists and 674 general supporters had signed the study in support.

After logging, activists hope to extend protections for Bialowieza Forest
- Bialoweiza Forest straddles Poland and Belarus and is Europe’s largest remaining lowland old growth forest, home to wildlife that has disappeared from much of the rest of Europe. In March 2016, the government approved a plan to triple industrial logging in Poland’s Bialoweiza forest. The government argued it was the only way to combat a spruce bark beetle outbreak, but environmentalists believed that was largely an excuse to give access to the state-run logging regime.
- According to watchdog organizations, loggers cut 190,000 cubic meters of wood in 2017. This amounts to around 160,000-180,000 trees and affects an area of about 1,900 hectares. It also represents the most trees cut in the forest in any one year since 1987 when Poland was under a communist government.
- In May 2018, Europe’s highest court ruled the logging illegal, noting that the government’s own documents showed that logging was a bigger threat than the beetles, which are a part of natural, cyclical process that is likely exacerbated by climate change. Poland, threatened with high fines, backed down—and the logging stopped.
- Activists and environmentalists are calling for expanding national park status – which currently applies to just a small portion of Poland’s portion of the forest – over its entirety. But they worry a government panel of experts will once again push to open Bialoweiza to logging.

Mountain lions often lose to wolves and bears, study finds
- When the hunting grounds of pumas overlap with those of other top predators, such as wolves, bears and jaguars, pumas are often the losers, a new study has found.
- The findings from the study, a review of existing scientific literature, are especially important given how pumas are still being intensively hunted over much of their range in a bid to reduce conflicts with people and livestock, researchers say.
- In some puma habitats where wolves and brown bears are recolonizing and recovering, wildlife managers need to be cautious about hunting limits for pumas, the authors write.

Big mammals flourish as Cerrado park’s savanna comes back
- The study examined a state park in the Brazilian Cerrado, which contains land used in recent decades for eucalyptus plantations, cattle ranching and charcoal production.
- The researchers used camera traps, recording the dry season presence of 18 species of large mammals.
- In a subsequent analysis, they found that the number of large mammals found in the ‘secondary’ savanna was similar to numbers found in untouched regions of the Cerrado.

Romania announces ban on trophy hunting of bears, wolves and wildcats
- A loophole in the European law allows thousands of Romania’s wild animals to be hunted for sport every year.
- But following protests by environmental groups, the Ministry of Environment announced that it had cancelled an order that would have allowed trophy hunting of about 1,700 wild animals this year.
- Conflict animals can still be hunted, but only the ministry-approved Wildlife Emergency Service – SUAS, a newly created state agency, would be allowed to shoot the animals if necessary.

The jackal that turned into a wolf: new species discovered in Africa
- The African golden wolf is physically similar to the Eurasian golden jackal, but is genetically distinct.
- Golden wolves diverged from golden jackals more than a million years ago.
- The new wolf is the first canid species discovered in Africa in 150 years.

Catch a whiff? Device aims to reveal age, gender, and identity of endangered wolves from the scent of their poop

A Mexican gray wolf waits in a pen before being released to the wild. Photo credit: Arizona Game and Fish Department. Wolves use their noses to track their quarry by its scent. Now a scientist is turning the tables, building a handheld device that analyzes the odor of wolf scat to determine the age, gender, […]
Feds confirm first wolf in the Grand Canyon area shot dead

A photo of 914F just north of the Grand Canyon wearing an inactive collar. The wolf was shot dead on in Utah. Photo courtesy of the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Last fall, tourists to the north rim of the Grand Canyon reported seeing a gray wolf (Canis lupus). The only problem was there had […]
Judge protects Midwest wolves after 1,599 killed in three years

Future wolf hunting and trapping seasons in the Upper Midwest are on hold after a judge ruled the Obama Administration erred in removing the top predator from the Endangered Species Act (ESA) last month. The ruling came nearly three years after the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service dropped federal protections for the so-called Great Lakes’ wolf […]
Feds: gray wolf may have returned to the Grand Canyon after 70 years

Obama administration proposes to remove wolves from the ESA even as the animals spread to new states A photo of what is believed to be a gray wolf sporting an inactive radio collar in forests just north of the Grand Canyon. Photo courtesy of the Arizona Game and Fish Department. For an update on this […]
Stuff of fairy tales: stepping into Europe’s last old-growth forest

On bison, wolves, and woodpeckers: the wonder of Europe’s only lowland virgin forest. Bialowieza Forest at dawn. Old-growth forest is characterized by ancient trees, tall canopies, little undergrowth, and a huge amount of dead wood. Photo by: Lukasz Mazurek/Wild Poland There is almost nothing left of Europe’s famed forests, those that provided for human communities […]
After 89-year absence a wolf returns to Iowa…and is shot dead

DNA testing has confirmed that an animal shot in February in Iowa’s Buchanan County was in fact a wolf, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. This is the first confirmed gray wolf (Canis lupus) in the U.S. state since 1925. Experts believe the wolf likely traveled south from Wisconsin or Minnesota, the latter […]
Over 2,500 wolves killed in U.S.’s lower 48 since 2011

Hunters and trappers have killed 2,567 gray wolves in the U.S.’s lower 48 states since 2011, according to recent data. Gray wolves (Canis lupus) were protected by the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for nearly 40 years before being stripped of their protection status by a legislative rider in 2011. Last year total wolf populations were […]
Over 75 percent of large predators declining

The world’s top carnivores are in big trouble: this is the take-away message from a new review paper published today in Science. Looking at 31 large-bodied carnivore species (i.e those over 15 kilograms or 33 pounds), the researchers found that 77 percent are in decline and more than half have seen their historical ranges decline […]
Rewilding Chile’s savanna with guanacos could increase biodiversity and livestock

‘They justify bigness:’ rewilding the ancestor of the llama in Chile Local extinctions have occurred across a variety of habitats on every continent, affecting a gamut of species from large predators such as the wolves of North America, to tiny amphibians like the Kihansi spray toad of Tanzania. The long trek toward reversing such extinctions […]
Wolves boost food for Yellowstone’s threatened grizzlies

Wolves and grizzlies aren’t best buddies. Burly bears can barge in on a feasting pack, making off with the wolves’ fresh kill. Wolves have been known to dig into bear dens and snag a cub. But after gray wolves returned to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, grizzly bears ate more berries in the summer for […]
Obama Administration to propose stripping protection from all gray wolves

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is proposing to end protection for all gray wolves (Canis lupus) in the lower 48 states, save for a small population of Mexican wolves in New Mexico, reports the Los Angeles Times. The proposal comes two years after wolves were removed from the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in […]
Chasing down ‘quest species’: new book travels the world in search of rarity in nature

A poster-child for rare species: the Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus) captured on camera trap in its last stand: Ujung Kulon National Park Java, Indonesia. Photo by: © Mike Griffiths / WWF-Canon. In his new book, The Kingdom of Rarities, Eric Dinerstein chases after rare animals around the world, from the maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) in […]
Over 1,500 wolves killed in the contiguous U.S. since hunting legalized

Wolf in Yellowstone National Park. Photo courtesy of Yellowstone National Park. Hunters and trappers have killed approximately 1,530 wolves over the last 18 months in the contiguous U.S., which excludes Alaska. After being protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for 38 years, gray wolves (Canis lupus) were stripped of their protected states in 2011 […]
Wolves, mole rats, and nyala: the struggle to conserve Ethiopia’s highlands

Gaysay Grasslands in Bale Mountains National Park. Photo courtesy of the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS). There is a place in the world where wolves live almost entirely off mountain rodents, lions dwell in forests, and freshwater rolls downstream to 12 million people, but the place—Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains National Park—remains imperiled by a lack of legal […]
Controversial wolf hunt moves to the Midwest, 196 wolves killed to date

Many top predators worldwide remain hated and feared. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service. The hugely controversial wolf hunt in the U.S. has spread from the western U.S. (Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming) to the Midwest (Minnesota and Wisconsin) this year. Although the wolf hunt is less than a month old in the region—and only […]
Turkey’s rich biodiversity at risk

Turkey’s stunning landscapes and wildlife are under threat due to government ambivalence. Here, the sun sets outside Igdir, Turkey. Photo by: Cagan Sekercioglu. Turkey: the splendor of the Hagia Sophia, the ruins of Ephesus, and the bizarre caves of the Cappadocia. For foreign travelers, Turkey is a nation of cultural, religious, and historic wonders: a […]
Over 450 wolves shot dead in Idaho, Montana to date

Wolf in Yellowstone National Park. Photo courtesy of Yellowstone National Park. Less than a year after being pulled off the Endangered Species Act (ESA), gray wolves (Canis lupus) in the western U.S. are facing an onslaught of hunting. The hunting season for wolves has just closed in Montana with 160 individuals killed, around 75 percent […]
When giant coyotes roamed the Earth

Coyote feeding on elk carcass in Yellowstone National Park. Photo by: Jim Peaco/U.S. National Park Service. Not long ago, geologically speaking, coyotes (Canis latrans) were bigger and more robust than today’s animals. In the late Pleistocene, over 10,000 years ago, coyotes rivaled grey wolves (Canis lupus) in size. But, according to a new paper in […]
Penurunan predator puncak dan megafauna ‘pengaruh manusia yang paling mudah menyebar pada alam ‘

Singa betina mempertahankan wildebeest yang terbunuh di Tanzania. Foto oleh: Rhett A. Butler. Populasi serigala di seluruh dunia telah turun sekitar 99 persen dari jumlah populasi yang pernah ada dalam sejarah. Populasi singa jatuh dari 450.000 menjadi 20.000 dalam 50 tahun. Tiga subspesies harimau punah di abad ke-20. Penangkapan ikan yang berlebihan dan pemotongan sirip […]
Conserving and Valuing Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity: Economic, Institutional and Social Challenges
Conserving and Valuing Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity: Economic, Institutional and Social Challenges provides a much needed survey reflecting upon recent institutional experience yielding analysis that concludes that there exists financially rigorous rationale to justify conservation of biodiversity for economic reasons, above and beyond the usual rationale of conservation only for biodiversity, spiritual or ethical reasons. […]
The heroic wolf: are wolves the key to saving the Canada lynx?

In 2000 the Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) was listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA). While remaining stable in Canada and Alaska, the Canada lynx population had essentially collapsed in much of the continental US, excluding Alaska. Aside from habitat loss, one of the main factors imperiling the medium-sized wild cat was […]
Decline in top predators and megafauna ‘humankind’s most pervasive influence on nature’

Lioness defends wildebeest kill in Tanzania. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Worldwide wolf populations have dropped around 99 percent from historic populations. Lion populations have fallen from 450,000 to 20,000 in 50 years. Three subspecies of tiger went extinct in the 20th Century. Overfishing and finning has cut some shark populations down by 90 percent […]
Google Earth used to identify marine animal behavior

Grazing halos are clearly seen surrounding coral patch reefs in the Red Sea. Image downloaded from Google Earth Pro 7 June 2011. Image date 19 Dec. 2010. Image copyright 2011 GeoEye. From the all-seeing eye of Google Earth, one can spy the tip of Mount Everest, traffic on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, and the ruins […]
US wolves lose to politics

A ‘rider’ attached to the most recent budget passed this week in the US congress has stripped gray wolves from the protection of the Endangered Species Act, a first in the law’s nearly 40-year-history. The rider, which was signed into law under the budget on Friday by US President Barack Obama, hands gray wolves (Canis […]
Egyptian jackal is actually ancient wolf

The Egyptian jackal, which may have been the inspiration for the Egyptian god Anubis, is actually not a jackal at all but a member of the wolf family. New genetic research in the open-access journal PLoS ONE finds that the Egyptian jackal is Africa’s only member of the gray wolf family. The new wolf, dubbed […]
What do wolves and sharks have in common?

Sharks dwell in the ocean, wolves on land; sharks are a type of fish, wolves are a mammal; sharks go back some 400 million years, wolves only some 2 million years. So, these animals should have little in common, right? However, a new study in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment points to surprising similarities […]
Why top predators matter: an in-depth look at new research

Three recent studies reveal just how important top predators are to their ecosystems. Few species have faced such vitriolic hatred from humans as the world’s top predators. Considered by many as pests—often as dangerous—they have been gunned down, poisoned, speared, ‘finned’, and decimated across their habitats. Even where large areas of habitat are protected, the […]
Saving the world’s rarest wolf

Saving the Ethiopian wolf in face of habitat loss, diseased dogs, and climate change, an interview with Claudio Sillero-Zubiri, founder of the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme. Living on the roof of Africa, the Ethiopian wolf is one of the world’s rarest carnivores, if not the rarest! Trapped on a few mountain islands rising over 4,000 […]
Wolves keep forests nutrient-rich

As hunting wolves is legal again in two American states, Montana and Idaho, researchers have discovered an important role these large predators play in creating nutrient hotspots in forest environments. Researchers from Michigan Technological University found that when wolves take down their prey—in this case moose—they do more than simply keep a check on herbivore […]
Idaho to allow 25 percent of its wolf population to be killed in one season

As wolves face the gun, flawed science taints decision to remove species from ESA

On Monday the gray wolf was removed from the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in Idaho and Montana, two states that have protected the wolf for decades. According to the federal government the decision to remove those wolf populations was based on sound conservation science—a fact greatly disputed in conservation circles. For unlike the bald eagle, […]
When in season, wolves choose salmon over deer

When in season, wolves choose salmon over deer When in season, wolves choose salmon over deer Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com September 2, 2008 The popular image of hunting wolves is a pack bearing down on a deer, working in concert to make the kill. However, new research has discovered that when available, wolves largely forgo hoofed […]

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