Incredible good news!
Wolf sightings on rise in Oregon Cascades. By The Associated Press
Note, I updated the link to a longer version of the story. Ken
Wolf sightings rise in Oregon Cascades!
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Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Comments
My first thought when I read this title was: I wonder if some of these are dispersing from WS partially killed packs? Like the remaining BBs? Nice to know they are able to make it through Idaho alive.
I wish there was a better place for this link but I have followed this guy for years.
Notice the pic of him and the dog.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6972637/Lone-wolf-plays-with-dogs.html
Any way good for oregon. As Canada curtails its predator eradication natural migration corridors seem to be rebounding.
Gline, a lot of these wolves probably are coming from WS killed packs in Idaho. It is also possible some could be coming from Canada.
yes, I know over the years, obviously… so, they are not just randomly traveling in all cases. They have a reason to move on.
I am pretty certain that wolf experts expected them to move and spread out all along. It is good news because it will make them harder to place a target on, and give them habitat to disperse to.
OR wolf management from 2005 says only 4 breeding pairs allowed in Eastern OR? that is not much.
gline,
I think I said that at one time, but I was wrong. I think it was 4 breeding pairs in 4 parts of the state. You can probably find it in the Oregon wolf plan.
Yes, Ralph that is where I was reading from: Oregon’s Final Plan from 2005. 4 breeding pairs in the eastern part of the state. I do like the “special mammal status”. makes sense to me.
I’m sure that has been a post previously.
This is great news.
I have heard a credible report of tracks of multiple wolves in an area of the Oregon Cascades. I won’t say where the report said it was from though because, as is the case anywhere, there are a few people who might be less than happy to have them around.
Maybe the wolves are fleeing Dr. Wayne Wright, Attorney Randy Budge and the rest of the IDFG Commissioners (the Death Squad) and Idaho Governor Otter?
Remember back in 2000, when a Twin Peaks Pack wolf fled Custer County Idaho and ran all the way to Baker City Oregon — after Wildlife Services shot up his pack to appease a cowman?
This collared Twin Peaks wolf ended up being hit by a truck on I-84 near Baker City. But it so feared life in Idaho, that it crossed the Snake River and was 300 miles from the Broken Wing Ranch near Challis, where its Twin Peak Pack was under assault for killing one calf and supposedly scaring horses.
The IDFG Commissioners (Death Squad) have ordered the killing of half of Idaho’s 1000 wolves, one way or another. The Idaho Legislature’s position is to remove all wolves from Idaho by any means possible.
I have thought for a long time that a wolf hunt might serve to disperse wolves all over the place, although this is not necessarily evidence of that.
That would be pretty ironic, if so.
Jeff E.,
Thanks for posting that story. It is an amazing interface of domestic and wild… The photos are great. I find it interesting that the photographer emphasizes respect as a component of this exchange and that it takes patience, something that seems to be bred out of our culture… both patience and respect. As these photos show, there is an incredible reward for actually having patience and respect.
Ralph, I agree about the dispersal idea but I have not heard of any wandering south yet. Of course, the pitchforks and burning crosses on the Utah/Idaho border might deter them.
“That would be pretty ironic, if so.”
I think so too. Wolves need a Harriet Tubman….
Wolves made it to OR (B45, B300) from ID, and would have continued to do so, without the effects of control disrupting packs, though that may indeed enhance dispersal.
Wolf advocates should be able to refer to anti-wolf hostility without comparisons to “burning crosses” and “Harriet Tubman”. That’s lazy at best and racist at worst.
While you may ultimately be right cc, many studies show that deep seated conservatism and the like, typical of many anti-wolfers, is also connected to racism and disenfranchising others – ie, keeping the status quo. So it isn’t that inaccurate of a reference, as the elephant in the living room suggests – ie, every one knows it but not many acknowledge it.
CC, while statements about pitchforks and Harriet Tubman may be a bit overkill, it is not too far off. The attitudes are not that different when you really think about it.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2010 / 7:00 PM (ALSO REPEATS ON MONDAY. AS ALWAYS, CHECK YOUR LOCAL LISTINGS)
Nature
“Clash: Encounters of Bears and Wolves”
What happens when two great predators come face to face in Yellowstone? The bear is a loner, ranging far and wide in search of a rich variety of resources. The wolf hunts to survive and finds its strength in speed and teamwork. In every encounter, the opposition must be measured, strengths must be tested, and risks must be carefully weighed. Each time, one of them will have a tactical advantage–but which one, and when? What emerges as each remarkable scene unfolds, is the keen awareness that runs through all of Yellowstone.
http://www.pbs.org/
Salle,
thanks,
This wolf has been quite the celebrity for some time.
Fortunately he has yet to be 170 yards off and being subjectively judged to be acting strange. I mentioned before that an interesting read is the EIS from 1994 and the experiences Mech had/has with Arctic wolves
“lazy at best and racist at worst”
How?
I am tired of this type of thinking not being accepted.
CC, your concept of lazy and racism is interesting because it is the anti-wolf hostility itself which is the epitome of racism. Racism is based upon fear, irrational fear. The blatant and irrational fear shown by some towards having a state such as Oregon establish a number of breeding packs is based upon unfounded notions that hunting will go to shit, that cattle and sheep grazing will be decimated, and wandering packs of wolves will eat school children while waiting for the big yellow bus.
Further I resent being labeled by you as a “wolf advocate”. That itself is lazy and biased.
For the record, I am pro-environment. I am in favor of returning animals back into the ecosystems that they once occupied. Did wolves once roam the hills and mountains of Oregon? Damn straight they did and they should be allowed to re-colonize that state.
In as much as it is possible (which for the woolley mammoth, unfortunately it is not), allowing any animal, whether it be carnivore, herbivore or omnivore, to re-establish breeding populations in regions in which it was once extirpated should be allowed and facilitated.
jdubya,
The propaganda of anti-wolf hysteria does have similarities with propaganda of discrimination but it is not “the epitome of racism” because racism obviously refers to races of humans. Equating wolves to people and making careless metaphors about the enslavement and discrimination against people is wrong and ineffective.
You “resent” being “labeled” as a wolf advocate? Nice try. But “advocate” is defined as ” someone that argues for a cause, a supporter or defender”. Are you not arguing for more tolerance of wolves, supporting their recovery, and defending their place in the ecosystem? Either way, I’d rather offend you by defining your conservation view too narrowly than insult an entire race of people and everyone who worked for equal rights.
CC, I don’t think anybody is saying that wolves are or were enslaved. While it may seen strange to use the word discrimination, wolves are scapegoats, which unfortunately has happened with groups of people. So there are similarities.
gline,
It’s wrong because wolves are animals and not people. It’s wrong because when you invoke cross burnings and the underground railroad you are touching on a very painful and tortuos time in our history. It is simply an inappropriate exaggeration and overreaction to compare the persecution of a people with that of wolves. It is offensive and degrading to compare the treatment of animals with that of people, at least to do so as callously and thoughtlessly as you did.
Stick to wolves and peoples opposition to them. There’s enough facts to make the case for wolf recovery without resorting to anthropormothic metaphors. No matter how upset you get or how much you dislike your opposition it will be far more effective in getting more people aware of and involved with wildlife conservation.
Prowolf,
I agree, but I wasn’t refering to mentions of discrimination, ignorance and intolerance. What offends me is to see phrases like “cross burnings” and the mentioning of Harriet Tubman. You and Jon have made the point more thoughtfully in my opinion than others.
As I said a few times now, assigning human emotions to an animal on either side of the issue, does indeed make for odd happenings…
I guess the big difference between you and me, cc, is that you see humans up on some exalted stage of evolution whereas I see them as simply another beast with DNA.
I don’t value my self worth or that of any human greater or less than a wolf or bear or whatever. We all steps of evolution and your bullshit of making the treatment of injustices to other human races of greater consequence than the extirpation or extinction of other species rings quire hollow and superficial to me. My advice to you would be to consider humans as something less than the top of the evolutionary ladder.
Amazing happenings in the Owyhee’s this afternoon. I saw 4 wolves drag down an elk, light a fire and perfectly roast the animal. Me being a Republican, of course I put on my KKK hood, drove my monster truck filled with beer bottles into the wolves camp. I shot two wolves with my fully automatic machine gun whilst drinking a Budweiser. The other two wolves, I captured and brought them home with me so I could make them slaves working in my back yard. Of course, before I left the area I burned a cross right in front of the wolf den. Tonight I think I might get rip roaring drunk, get into my full sized Hummer and run over any animal foolish enough to get in my way. Hopefully I’ll miss a few deer on the road so I can stop and blast away at them with my new red neck rifle.
As you can see, I’m just one of those typical neo-con and this is what we do for fun each and every day. I certainly wish I had opposable thumbs like my liberal friends so I too could make fire. Oh, I need to get on the roof of my 6,500 square foot mansion to mount my new rocket launcher and certainly would like more info on that new fangled evolutionary ladder I read about.
jdubya
I don’t feel that cc sees himself as an exalted stage of evolution because he doesn’t believe that evolution is a fact. To him an is separate and above other animals and has dominion over them
Sorry about the missed letter and punctuation; the last sentence:
To him man is separate and above other animals and has dominion over them.
jdubya,
By your logic, anyone who hunts a deer and consumes the venison would be both a murderer and a cannibal. If you’ve ever eaten meat, killed a mosquito, worn leather or impacted the environment in any way I suggest you turn yourself into the authorities. Maybe Harry Reid will come visit you during your jail term and you can make more of your Harriet Tubman/wolf analogies.
BarbRupers,
Perhaps you didn’t see my original post but what I am objecting to is the mentioning of “cross burnings” and “Harriet Tubman” as metaphors for wolf recovery. See how I just gave you the benefit of the doubt without making assumptions about you? Try it sometime. I do believe in evolution and in the conservation of all wildlife species. I just also think the enslavement, murder and torture of a race of people is not equal to efforts restricting wolf numbers or range.
I think there is some psychological phenomenon behind intense hatred of wolves, but racism and similar terms used to describe negative human attitudes are not it.
Perhaps a new word needs to be created. I’ll call it X.
Could be wrong, but it would be an easy study of attitudes to do — to see what other attitudes X is related to.
Well, X would certainly be strongly associated with anthropocentrism.
cc
Point well made.
It is immoral to enslvave another man and also to extirpate a species.
And X would also have to take into account the linkage of the animal and it’s demonization. If you do a google search for “wolf” and “devil” you turn up 11,000,000 hits in 0.24 seconds of search time.
gee whiz jdub,
That’s quite a point, I put in God and Devil and got 567,000,000 in .37 sec. Does that mean more peopl think wolves are devine that think they are somehow linked to the devil??
Dislike of wolves is almost entirely cultural rather than the minor incursions they make on livestock of huntable population or big game.
Cultural animosity is a lot stronger than economic antagonism, although I don’t think this make sense. People will pursue their cultural enemies even as someone else is sucking away their fundamental economic security, e.g, credit card companies.
Ralph, you are agreeing with the theory I have about disliking wolves being fashionable.