Idaho just voted to spend tens of thousands of tax dollars to kill even more wolves.

 

Under this new plan, ranchers are being reimbursed for hiring private hunting companies, which will be paid for killing wolves.   Wolves should be protected -- not gunned down for profit. Join our pack and help us defend wolves with a donation today.

Idaho has already been slaughtering as many as 500 wolves a year, but apparently they don't think that's enough.1   After years of radically expanded hunting and trapping, wolf numbers are already on the decline. Now, for the second month in a row, the Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board has voted to spend vast sums of money to pay hunters for each and every wolf they kill.2   This is just a small part of the more than $1,000,000 that the state has set aside to finance the slaughter of gray wolves.3

1. Julie Luchetta, "Idaho Fish and Game approves plan to reduce wolf population from 1,300 to 500," Boise State Public Radio, May 12, 2023.   2. Rachel Cohen, "Idaho's wolf killings decline as board advances private contracts," Boise State Public Radio, May 10, 2024.   3. Keith Ridler, "Idaho wolf control board will have $1 million to kill wolves," Associated Press, January 19, 2022.

Wolves reintroduced to Isle Royale temporarily affect other carnivores

In a rare opportunity to study carnivores before and after wolves were reintroduced to their ranges, researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison found that the effects of wolves on Isle Royale have been only temporary. And even in the least-visited national park, humans had a more significant impact on carnivores’ lives.

The paper, published recently in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, uses DNA from foxes and martens’ scat and hair to understand where these animals were and what they ate before wolves were reintroduced, following the first year of their reintroduction, and as they formed packs across the island.

While many studies have been conducted to understand the effects of a carnivore reintroduction on their prey, less well studied is the effect of the reintroduction on other carnivores in the same food web, in this case foxes and martens.

“We had this really amazing opportunity in Isle Royale — where we had data before this large carnivore reintroduction and then following the reintroduction of wolves — where we could look at how these effects within carnivores are taking place, and how they shift,” says Mauriel Rodriguez Curras, who completed this work as a graduate student in the lab of UW–Madison forest and wildlife ecology professor Jonathan Pauli.

                  Isle Royale is a remote island in Lake Superior and its isolated geography and limited variety of animals — including moose, beavers and squirrels — make the island a relatively simple ecosystem in which to study the complexities of carnivore reintroductions.

                  Wolves first came to Isle Royale in the 1940s, likely by means of an ice bridge that formed naturally across 15 miles of Lake Superior from Minnesota or Canada to the island. Recently, climate change has kept ice bridges from forming as often, meaning new wolves can’t cross over to Isle Royale.

While the island once had 50 wolves across several packs, by 2018 there were just two wolves left: a father daughter duo that, due to inbreeding, were also half siblings. With the goal of restoring the natural apex predator to the island and rebalancing the ecosystem, 19 wolves were introduced by the park to Isle Royale in 2019.

For this study, a typical field day involved hiking between 15 and 20 miles of trail to check traps — open PVC tubes with little brushes inside them — for hair samples and looking for scat to swab and collect. Once back at UW–Madison, Rodriguez Curras and Pauli extracted DNA from both the samples and determined which individual fox or marten it was from. By measuring ratios of carbon and nitrogen present in the samples, they could also reconstruct the animals’ diets.

From their analysis, Rodriguez Curras and Pauli categorized the effects from wolves on other carnivores into three phases: absence, establishment and coalescence. The absence phase is data the lab had collected on foxes and martens the year before wolves were reintroduced to the island.

During establishment, which included the first year of the wolves’ reintroduction, no clear territories or packs had established, and the wolves were wandering the island mostly as individuals. Foxes altered where they hung out on the island in this phase, moving away from the dense forest and closer to campgrounds.

Since foxes compete with martens for food and have been known to kill them, martens normally stick to the densely forested areas of the island where it’s easier to hide. But, with foxes shifting to other areas of the island after wolf reintroduction, martens were able to expand their distribution on the island and increase their population.

Meanwhile, foxes found themselves facing greater risk. Foxes hunt small prey, but they often rely on scavenging. Theoretically, scavenging off wolf kills is beneficial to the foxes who couldn’t easily kill prey as large as a beaver or a moose calf. But to scavenge off those kills they would also have to be in areas the wolves are regularly, elevating the risk of being killed. So, rather than contend with wolves all the time, foxes supplemented their food by sticking close to campgrounds. They leveraged their cuteness and begging and raiding skills to target an easier meal: food from human visitors.

By 2020, the wolves had coalesced into packs with defined territories. The effects of wolves on the other carnivores disappeared, and foxes and martens occupied areas and ate food similar to the absence phase.

“The rewilding of these species is an important move that conservation biologists are making to try and reweave the fabric of ecosystem function,” said Pauli who’s been studying the island for 8 years. “But I think the point is that when we do this reweaving of communities, unexpected things happen. I don’t think these are bad things, but they’re not necessarily things that we’d immediately predict.”

Another unexpected consequence was how strongly human visitors to the island could affect these species interactions. Even though Isle Royale is considered one of the most pristine wilderness areas in the country and is one of the least-visited national park, Rodriguez Curras and Pauli found that humans, and the food they bring with them, have a significant effect on the relationship between the carnivores, where they live, what they eat and how they then interact.

Rodriguez Curras and Pauli credit their partnership with the National Park Service for providing the opportunity to conduct research that can guide ongoing and future carnivore reintroduction efforts in other areas. Their work revealing the way species interact with one another and with humans also provides Isle Royale National Park with the best available science to potentially improve visitors’ experiences while preserving the island’s wilderness.

New research illuminates the ecological importance of gray wolves in the American West

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE

 

IMAGE: 

A WOLF CHASES MAGPIES AND RAVENS FROM AN ELK CARCASS NEAR SODA BUTTE, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

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CREDIT: NPS/JIM PEACO

Corvallis, OR — A study published today in the journal BioScience sheds light on the importance of gray wolves in western United States. Led by William Ripple, a scientist at Oregon State University and the Conservation Biology Institute, the research delves into the implications of large predator absence on plant and animal communities, and ecosystem functions. It calls attention to “shifting baselines” wherein increasingly degraded conditions are viewed as reflecting the historical state of a system.

"By the 1930s, wolves were largely absent from the American West, including its national parks. Most published ecological research from this region occurred after the extirpation of wolves," explains Ripple. "This situation underscores the potential impact of shifting baselines on our understanding of plant community succession, animal community dynamics, and ecosystem functions."

Age structure data for deciduous trees reveal substantial ecological impacts of elk and other ungulates following the removal of gray wolves from Yellowstone, Olympic, and Wind Cave National Parks. This has led to declines in long-term tree recruitment, influencing plant communities and ecological processes.

The study highlights the necessity of characterizing historical context and reference conditions when exploring areas where large predators, like wolves, are either absent, functionally extinct, or persist in reduced densities. The authors note that such areas likely occur in many regions of the world as a result of the widespread loss of large predators. Where applicable, the authors recommend that researchers include a discussion of how the presence or absence of large predators may have influenced their results and conclusions in future ecological studies in national parks.

"In addition to the loss or displacement of large predators, there may be other potential anthropogenic legacies within national parks that should be considered, including fire suppression, invasion by exotic plants and animals, and overgrazing by livestock," adds Dr. Robert Beschta, co-author of the study and emeritus professor at Oregon State University.

To address the effects of predator loss and other potential legacy factors, the study suggests that researchers investigate park archives to exploit historical data and information. National park archives can provide valuable insights into the history of predators and their prey, enabling scientists to discern among competing explanations for shifting ecological baselines.

"Studying altered ecosystems without recognizing how or why the system has changed over time since the absence of a large predator could have serious implications for wildlife management, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem restoration," emphasizes Ripple.

The research underscores the importance of integrating historical context into ecological studies to provide a more comprehensive understanding of ecosystem dynamics. By acknowledging the historical presence of large predators and other anthropogenic legacies, as well as their potential ecosystem effects, researchers can contribute to more effective conservation and management strategies in national parks and beyond.

Recently, a coalition comprising nearly twelve conservation organizations initiated legal action against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Their aim is to reinstate safeguards for gray wolves in Montana and Idaho, contending that the states' forceful hunting strategies endanger these wolf populations.

The research has implications for the long-term conservation of wolves and other large predators, including current gray wolf management and litigation in the West. "We hope our study will be of use to both conservation organizations and government agencies in identifying ecosystem management goals," added Ripple.

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JOURNAL

BioScience

Canada lynx historic range in US likely wider than previously thought

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

 

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USING A MODEL VALIDATED BY HISTORIC RECORDS, RESEARCHERS FOUND THAT IN 1900, CANADA LYNX HAD MORE SUITABLE HABITAT IN THE U.S. THAN THE FEW NORTHERN CORNERS OF THE COUNTRY WHERE THEY ARE FOUND CURRENTLY. THE MODEL ALSO HELPED REVEAL MORE POTENTIAL FUTURE HABITAT FOR LYNX IN THE FUTURE: NAMELY IN PARTS OF UTAH, CENTRAL IDAHO AND THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK REGION. 

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CREDIT: WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

 – A broader past could mean a brighter future for Canada lynx in the U.S., according to recent research.

The study, published in the journal Biological Conservation, indicates that lynx might do well in the future in parts of Utah, central Idaho and the Yellowstone National Park region, even considering climate change and the lack of lynx in those areas now.

Using a model validated by historic records, researchers first found that in 1900, Canada lynx had more suitable habitat in the U.S. than the few northern corners of the country where they are found currently. The study showed the elusive big cat likely roamed over a larger area in the Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountains, Great Lakes region and parts of New England.

“History matters even for wildlife,” said lead author Dan Thornton, a Washington State University wildlife ecologist. “As part of the criteria for species recovery, we have to understand their historic distribution. Otherwise, how can we help recover a species, if we don't know what we’re recovering to?”

Having a more accurate picture of a species’ past can also help avoid an effect known as “shifting baseline syndrome,” Thornton added, which is a gradual change in what people accept as normal for the environment, or specifically in this case, a species’ habitat.

True to their name, Canada lynx are still abundant in Canada, but in the U.S. their numbers have dwindled. Currently, they are only found in limited, northern portions of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota and Maine. So far, recovery plans for lynx have been based on assumptions that they were never found much beyond these areas in the U.S., although a small population was successfully re-introduced to the Colorado Rockies in 1999.

This study, which has conservation implications for not only lynx but other threatened species, proposes one new way of estimating a species’ historic range, using modelling of suitable habitat validated by historical records.

Thornton and co-author Dennis Murray of Trent University in Canada created the model using factors to determine lynx’s suitable habitat like temperature, precipitation and land use in the last 40 years. They ran that model back in time to 1900 using historic climate and land use data to discover the possible past range, which they validated using records of lynx from museums as well as hunters and trappers who have prized the big cat for its fur.

The researchers then used the model to project suitable habitat into the future of 2050 and 2070. Even when accounting for climate change effects, they found areas that could be good for lynx that fall outside the species’ current range but likely within historically occupied areas: namely in central Idaho, northern Utah and the area in, and around, Yellowstone National Park. Whether or not these areas could support viable lynx populations now or in the future would require additional research, the authors noted.

Conserving lynx as a key predator is important for maintaining the integrity of forest ecosystems, the authors contend, and lynx are an iconic species in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.

The researchers also hope that this approach to estimating historic range could help inform conservation efforts for other species.

“Thinking about historic range is really important. It’s also quite difficult because we often have limited data on where species were in the past,” Thornton said. “But there are potential ways to go about addressing that, and we wanted to provide one possible approach in this paper.”

This research received support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

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JOURNAL

Biological Conservation

Bald eagles eat prairie dogs?

We all know that bald eagles like fish. Few of us, however, picture them soaring over grasslands seeking out prairie dog snacks. In a new paper from the Journal of Raptor Research, lead author Courtney Duchardt and coauthors make the case that prairie dogs are an important resource for at least four species of raptors overwintering in the Southern Great Plains, bald eagles included. Their paper, titled “Overwintering Raptor Abundance and Community Composition in Relation to Prairie Dog Colonies in the Southern Great Plains,” explains the first broad scale look into the relationship between prairie dogs and their aerial predators, and illuminates an important trophic interaction with implications for raptor conservation through the lens of climate change.

 

Grasslands across North America have shrunk significantly since the 1970’s, and for those remaining, habitat quality is a far cry from what it used to be. Since the ‘90’s, the total population of grassland birds across North America has decreased by 53%, illustrating the link between grassland health and bird abundance. Grassland raptors, with their large spatial requirements, likely suffer graver consequences from these reductions in habitat quality than other birds.

 

Duchardt, from the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management at Oklahoma State University, and her colleagues, provide strong evidence that the stability and predictability of prairie dog colonies provides an important prey source for overwintering raptors across the Southwest Great Plains. Between 1998 and 2002 the research team conducted winter road surveys in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Their results were illuminating — nine raptor species occurred in tandem with prairie dog colonies. Notably, bald eagles and rough-legged hawks were included in this pattern, even though they don’t often encounter prairie dogs on their breeding grounds. However, as Duchardt points out, “prairie dogs are perfectly sized raptor-snacks,” so it makes sense that both species would see them as caloric jackpots.

 

Climate change could alter cycles of prairie dog reproduction. Already, variation in climate norms has increased the occurrence of plague among colonial breeding rodents like prairie dogs. If raptors feed on prairie dogs as often as this new study suggests, these shifts in prairie dog availability could push raptors to range further for food. The further they range, the more often they encounter dangers like wind turbines, which have been shown to negatively affect golden eagles and ferruginous hawks. This is of special concern for juvenile raptor which have a hard enough time during their first year of life without added stressors.

 

An obvious next step is to prioritize protection of prairie dog colonies in areas where raptors are associating with them as a prey source. However, supporting prairie dogs for the sake of raptor health is politically tricky. “Prairie dogs are contentious and seen as pests in most parts of their range. However, their role as a keystone species helps to demonstrate that, even though there are conflicts, they are important,” says Duchardt. “To support raptors wintering in the Southern Plains, we need to consider prairie dog management.”

 

Raptors are bioindicators, meaning they serve as proxies for habitat health, and they play a key part in naturally supporting ecosystem functioning as top predators on the landscape. Even with the reality of human-prairie dog conflict, there are pathways forward. “Ranching can be compatible with diverse wildlife communities because many of the wildlife co-evolved with bison, and sustainable ranching can replicate that,” says Duchardt. Using innovative management tools and educating the public on the importance of prairie dogs and raptors in these regions, Duchardt is optimistic that a middle ground can be found — one that allows bald eagles to munch on prairie dogs for years to come.

Yellowstone - wolf pack v bison standoff

 

Final results:

Wolves and elk are (mostly) welcome back

 

In Poland and Germany’s Oder Delta region, survey shows

Survey shows positive attitudes towards rewilding in the Oder Delta region, but finds locals’ feelings are mixed.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

GERMAN CENTRE FOR INTEGRATIVE BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH (IDIV) HALLE-JENA-LEIPZIG

 

IMAGE: 

THE ODER DELTA AREA COMPRISES DIVERSE NATURAL HABITATS AND IS PARTICULARLY SUITABLE FOR THE NATURAL COMEBACK OF WILDLIFE.

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CREDIT: SANDEEP SHARMA

An online survey conducted in Germany and Poland shows that large parts of the participants support the return of large carnivores and herbivores, such as wolves and elk, to the Oder Delta region, according to a study published in People and Nature. Presented with different rewilding scenarios, the majority of survey participants showed a preference for land management that leads to the comeback of nature to the most natural state possible. Locals, on the other hand, showed some reservations.

In recent years, the concept of rewilding has captured the attention of conservationists, who see it as a promising and cost-effective tool to combat biodiversity loss and restore ecosystems. The Oder Delta area, which spans the northern border between Germany and Poland, is particularly suitable for the natural comeback of wildlife. It comprises diverse natural habitats, like riparian forests, standing- and flowing waters, open and semi-open inland dunes, and heathlands, and is surrounded by diverse landscapes of forests, rivers, and wetlands.

To measure public sentiment towards rewilding in the Oder Delta, a team of researchers led by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) carried out an online, choice experiment survey. Given the geographic position of the area across both Germany and Poland, the survey offered a unique opportunity to investigate differences in attitudes between the two countries. Approximately 1,000 respondents from each country were presented with different scenarios describing the ecological status of the Oder Delta in 2050 as a result of various management interventions. The scenarios included, for example, the conditions of rivers and forests and the presence of large animals such as elk, lynx, or wolves. Beyond the “status quo” option, an intensification of land use in the region, respondents were presented with two alternative scenarios with varying biodiversity benefits.

Importantly, only the status quo option came at no additional cost. The two alternative options were associated with tax payments to fund the necessary interventions, meaning that respondents were faced with a trade-off: an increase in nature benefits went hand in hand with an increase in taxes. “This allowed us to calculate the respondents’ willingness to pay for different management interventions in the Oder Delta region”, says lead author Rowan Dunn-Capper from iDiv and MLU. “This helps us understand broader preferences for rewilding”.

Strong preferences for rewilding

The study revealed a significant appetite for rewilding initiatives at the national scale, particularly for the presence of large animals, such as wolves, lynx, elk, and bison in the Oder Delta. Willingness to pay for scenarios in which large animal species were present was almost three times larger than for restoring the most natural landscape elements. “To find such preference was surprising given the often-negative portrayal of large animal species, notably the wolf, in the popular media”, says Dunn-Capper. “It suggests the public may be more welcoming of wildlife return than first thought”. This preference was also true for forests and agriculture: respondents in Germany as well as in Poland had a strong preference for the most natural rewilding levels with minimum human intervention on the ecosystem. Additionally, the fact that results for Germany and Poland were broadly comparable indicates that preferences for rewilding hold across political and cultural contexts.

Locals are less enthusiastic about rewilding

Survey participants living near the Oder Delta (within 100km) did not show the same appetite for rewilding initiatives. Local respondents showed a preference for large herbivores, such as elk and bison, but were less enthusiastic about the presence of large carnivores, like wolves. Similarly, local respondents showed contrasting preferences for certain rewilding interventions in rivers and agricultural landscapes compared to the national sample. For example, a significant share of local respondents were not willing to pay for scenarios in which flooding regimes were fully restored in the Oder Delta. “This underscores the intricacies of conservation planning and highlights the importance of local input to foster biodiversity democracy, this is the management of natural resources as a democratic process”, says senior author Professor Henrique Pereira, head of Biodiversity Conservation at MLU and iDiv. “Generally, our findings support rewilding as a novel ecosystem restoration approach that has public acceptance to become mainstream across Europe.”