Endangered Gray Wolf Crosses Into California

Discussion in 'Environment & Conservation' started by Agent_286, Jan 16, 2012.

  1. Agent_286

    Agent_286 New Member

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    Endangered Gray Wolf Crosses Into California

    By Elizabeth Weise | USA TODAY | 2h 27m ago

    Excerpts:

    “Eighty-eight years after the last gray wolf in California was killed, a young male has crossed into the state from Oregon, igniting much teeth-gnashing among ranchers, optimism among conservationists, and new headaches for state officials.

    The wolf, dubbed OR7 by biologists, was tracked by his GPS collar as he crossed into California on Dec. 28. He was born into an Oregon pack originally from Idaho, where federal wildlife biologists reintroduced the species in the mid-1990s.

    Gray wolves once ranged across the continental United States except for the Southeast, where red wolves ruled. But government-sponsored wolf eradication programs, which offered bounties up to $50 per wolf in an effort to protect livestock, led almost to extinction of the species outside of Alaska by the middle of the 20th century. Only a group in Minnesota remained.

    As part of the mandate to bring back the species, two small populations were established in Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in the winter of 1995-1996, Frazer says.

    The gray wolf population in the Northern Rockies has come back so strongly that it's been removed from the Endangered Species list in Montana and Idaho and de-listing has been proposed in Wyoming. There are an estimated 1,800 gray wolves in the Rockies now. The population in the western Great Lakes, in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin, where wolves also have been de-listed, is up to an estimated 3,000 wolves, Frazer says.

    The disappearance of wolves triggered environmental disruptions because they had been an important top predator in healthy ecosystems. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, their reintroduction has helped heal some of those changes. Elk moved away from lowlands and streams to avoid wolves, allowing willow, aspen and cottonwood to grow back. This provided food for beavers and habitat for songbirds and shadier streams for trout and other fish. Coyotes declined because wolves keep them away from their territories, leading to an increase in small rodents which was a boon to other carnivores.

    As for OR7, he's just looking for love, says Michelle Dennehy, Wildlife Communications coordinator with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Salem., Ore. OR7 is heading south in hopes of finding a mate. With no other wolves in California it won't do him much good, she says.

    There are only two known wolf attacks in the past 100 years in the U.S. or Canada.

    Will OR7 go on to harm California livestock? The odds are yes, Oregon's Dennehy says. "OR7 comes from a pack involved in 20 confirmed livestock attacks," she says. He was "probably involved in some of those, but we don't have proof. He was only collared in 2011."

    Fish and Game officials met with the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors, she says. They spent an hour detailing where things stood and an hour listening to public concerns. People have very strong feelings about wolves, both pro and con, she says. "There's a lot of legend and lore" about them, she says.

    "We need these dialogues, because if we can talk about it we can blunt some of this emotion and we can come to some kind of solution," he said. "Not everyone's going to like it, but at least we'll have a solution. Instead of 'shoot anything that moves.' "

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation...10/endangered-gray-wolf-california/52587048/1
    .......

    We are learning more about the ecological necessity of a predatory wolf pack in keeping our ecosystems on an even healthy state since the near extinction of them during the early 20th century. Only a small group of wolves were left in Minnesota, leaving the environment disrupted by the absence of these gray wolves who had added a valuable addition to the ecological balance of the forests, streams, and other wildlife. As they were killed by government mandate, the Fish and Wildlife Service soon found that the areas changed.

    Other animals took over the wild forests. Elk grazed on willow, aspen, and cottonwood changing the areas for a host of smaller animals, but when the wolves were there, the elk moved away allowing the trees to grow back to nurture smaller animals and birds, and providing shade for streams and fish. This showed that the reintroduction of wolves has added to the recovery of smaller animals in those areas by keeping away coyotes.

    Quickly the gray wolf was placed on endangered species and they have rebounded back and are forming packs again as they did before the government misplaced order for their killing to protect farmers’ cattle. As their packs grow, the problem will resume with farmers that lose cattle to the gray wolves as they forage for food. Some alternative action must be planned to ensure the safety of the gray wolf, as well as the farmers’ cattle

    But until this problem is solved, I want to wish OR7 good luck in finding a mate and starting a family with himself as the future pack leader.
     
  2. Gator Monroe

    Gator Monroe Banned

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    He went within miles of my Mountain Home (Ultra Rural Eastern Shasta County) on way to Lassen County
     
  3. Agent_286

    Agent_286 New Member

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    .....

    Well, do you have coyotes, foxes, bears, mountain lions where you live?
     
  4. Gator Monroe

    Gator Monroe Banned

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    Yes , Mud Puppies in the Creek on my property too, and Deer & Eagle & Squirrles & Knewts & Salamanders & Timber Rattlers & Bobcat &...
     
  5. Margot

    Margot Account closed, not banned

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    There is a new way of thinking these days.......... That predators are essential to a balanced eco system

    Without predators you have an explosion of grazers who strip the landscape and contribute to desertification.
     
  6. Taxcutter

    Taxcutter New Member

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    If he eats my livestock, its shoot, shovel, and shut up.

    And throw that GPS collar in the bed of a passing truck.
     
  7. Gator Monroe

    Gator Monroe Banned

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    He will not go to Indianna lol
     
  8. Agent_286

    Agent_286 New Member

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    .....

    I think wolves have received a bum rap....and they are exquisite creatures. And look what they do to create a stable environment for us..and of course we all remember Sarah Palin and Todd on their light plane escapades where they flew low chasing wolves to exhaustion until they fell on the ground, then Palin and her husband happily shot them.

    A look at deserts makes you remember that eons ago it was a lush, fertile land with flowing rivers and humans living a lush primitive life. We need to declare trees as our friends because forests cover the Earth and protect the environment from becoming deserts.
     
  9. Taxcutter

    Taxcutter New Member

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    He better not go to Indiana. He'd become a fur coat.
     
  10. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    Mexico using dolphins to save endangered vaquita porpoise...
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