Utah: Citing possible prison time, DWR boss speaks out against wolf-removal bill

Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, doing the apparent bidding of Don Peay*  has sponsored SB36, a bill to kill any wolves that migrate to Utah.  The bill would be a violation of U.S. law. Defending it in court will just cost Utah taxpayers money. Except for northern Utah, wolves in the State are fully protected by the endangered species act.  The head of the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources told the truth. No doubt some legislators will threaten him . . . today’s politics!

Citing possible prison time, DWR boss speaks out against wolf-removal bill. By Patty Henetz. The Salt Lake Tribune

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*Peay is the founder of Sportsman for Fish and Wildlife. He pretty much sets Utah wildlife policy, according to some commentators.

Kathie Lynch: Yellowstone wolf notes Dec to Jan 2010

It looks like the Blacktails are now the largest pack on the Northern Range-

Kathie Lynch has written another report on the Yellowstone wolves (actually those on the Park’s northern range). My subhead above is just one of the many interesting facts I read in her report such as the Mollies alpha male is largest wolf in the Park.

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Yellowstone Wolf Notes. Dec. 09; Jan. 10. By Kathie Lynch
© Kathie Lynch

♦ Trips to Yellowstone in December 2009 and January 2010 provided better than expected wolf watching, considering the continuing decline in population size.

January 12, 2010, marked the fifteenth anniversary of the reintroduction of gray wolves to Yellowstone National Park. The year 2009 ended with less than 100 wolves in Yellowstone Park, down from 124 a year ago and close to half of the 171 counted just two years ago. The number has not been this low since just a few years after 31 wolves were reintroduced in 1995 and 1996.

The biggest current challenge some wolves are dealing with is sarcoptic mange, caused by a mite. It causes terrible itching and can kill through infection or hypothermia due to hair loss. However, wolves can recover from even severe cases, as the Mollies pack did last year.

The famous Druid Peak pack is currently the most severely affected. Every Druid wolf exhibits some degree of hair loss, especially on the tail, rear, back, legs and abdomen–anywhere they can bite and scratch at the itchy mite. It is a common sight to see them trying to sleep standing up to avoid exposing their bare spots to the cold, snowy ground.

The Druids have undergone big changes since the death of alpha female 569F last fall and the subsequent dispersal of alpha male 480M. These two wolves deserve immense credit (along with Druid 529F and Leopold/Druid/Blacktail 302M) for resurrecting the Druid Peak pack after it dwindled down to only legendary alpha 21M’s last two daughters (529F and 569F) in 2004.

The wolf tapeworm scare

Montana official says it boils down to anti-wolf propaganda-

This is about the 4th time I have written about Echinococcus granulosus, but here is more information.

It made the news in the Bozeman Chronicle today. “Tapeworm in wolves causes stir, but biologists say there’s little to fear.” By Daniel Person.

This week the Montana State official wolf news — “the Wolf ‘Weekly” — contained the following about tapeworms and wolves.

Echinococcus granulosus was recently documented in Montana and Idaho wolves in a peer reviewed journal article, although it is not known for sure where the E. granulosus originated.  It is considered baseline information for wolves in Montana and Idaho.  FWP has recently completed a fact sheet on Echinococcus, a tape worm.  Here is a short summary.

Two different species of the tape worm are known to exist in Montana wildlife and the environment.  The life cycle requires two different “hosts” – typically a definitive canine host where the worms live in the intestinal tract and from which eggs are shed in feces (wolf, coyote, fox, or domestic dog) and an intermediate host (rodents, domestic or wild ungulates, or occasionally a human) that ingests the eggs previously shed in the definitive host’s feces.  In the intermediate host, eggs can turn into cysts in the organs (liver, lung, or brain).  If the organ tissue of an infected intermediate host is eaten by a wild or domestic canine, adult tapeworms can develop in the intestinal track of the canine and be shed in feces.  Cysts are rarely documented in muscle tissue of the immediate host.

Bighorn east of Missoulia are dying like flies

Pneumonia in bighorn has now spread to Rock Creek-

It just keeps getting worse for the bighorn hit by the pneumonia outbreak near Missoula. Bighorn sheep in Rock Creek latest hit by fatal pneumonia outbreak. By Rob Chaney. Missoulian.