-
Due to petitions of a number of environmental groups, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) appears likely to list the wolverine under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Once found across much of the West and northern-tier states from Minnesota to Maine, wolverine are now limited to a few isolated populations in the western United…
-
Move makes Montana’s wolverine season doubly dead- In a surprise move last Monday (Jan. 7), the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced that on Jan. 18 it would issue a proposed rule protecting wolverines under the Endangered Species Act. This probably means it will be proposed as a threatened species instead of its current…
-
(update) Judge says emergency closure by Montana wildlife commissioners with no public hearing might offend Montana’s Constitution and might deprive the public of the legal right to harvest wolves- In a shock to wolf conservationists and to people who think Yellowstone Park is a special place, an American icon, local Montana Nels Swandal reopened hunting and…
-
In their December 29th editorial in the Billings Gazette, Scott Talbott of the Wyoming Game and Fish and Harv Forsgren of the U.S. Forest Service wrote that hunting was another step towards grizzly bear recovery. To read their editorial, go to this link: Guest opinion: Hunting another step toward grizzly bear recovery. Specifically, the authors…
-
Surprising growth in wildlife populations as land and water naturalizes, though there are some mutations- Twenty six years ago, on April 26, 1986 reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the now-defunct Soviet Union melted down and an explosion blew open the reactor. It released a cloud of radioactive materials that contaminated…
-
Two cougar, a coyote and a bobcat caught in wolf traps- Whether this is a lot of “by-catch” or not depends on a person’s viewpoint, but some felines and one coyote have been caught in wolf traps so far in the Montana wolf trapping season. An additional cougar was caught in a “furbearer” trap (must…
-
Montana and Wyoming hunts ruin Park’s study of how many elk wolves eat, wolf movements, pack territories- While the official stance of Yellowstone Park is that the three state wolf hunt that has been going on along the Park’s boundaries has not jeopardized the Park’s wolf population (now down to 81 wolves), it certainly killed the…
-
The Wildlife News is trying something new. We read a number of interesting, wildlife related news stories each day that we don’t have time to comment on. Here is a list of those we found interesting. Some of them may come up as a separate post later. Misfires | News | Missoula Independent. An interesting story about…
Author
George Wuerthner is an ecologist and writer who has published 38 books on various topics related to environmental and natural history. He has visited over 400 designated wilderness areas and over 200 national park units.