GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A young wolf from Oregon has become a media celebrity while looking for love, tracing a zigzag path that has carried him hundreds of miles nearly to California, while his alpha male sire and a sibling that stayed home near the Idaho border are under a death warrant for killing cattle.
Backcountry lodge owner Liz Parrish thinks she locked eyes with the wolf called OR-7 on the edge of the meadow in front of her Crystalwood Lodge, on the western shore of Upper Klamath Lake, and hopes someday she will hear his howls coming out of the tall timber.
“I was stunned — it was such a huge animal,” said Parrish, who has seen her share of wolves while racing dog sleds in Alaska and Minnesota. “He just stopped and stared.

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Our successes in the Wood River Valley and the use of non-lethal deterrents elsewhere have helped reduce wolf depredation and thus the need for compensation payments to ranchers who lose livestock to wolves. This is why we were pleased to announce the sunsetting of Defenders of Wildlife’s long-running compensation program last year.

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LA GRANDE, Ore. (AP) — Wolves are not bloodless killers, but they can appear to be.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Russ Morgan explained why and much more during a recent presentation about wolves at a meeting of the Union/Wallowa county chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association.

Morgan, the ODFW’s wolf program coordinator, pointed out that wolf kills can appear perplexing because often they barely have a scratch. The reason is wolves kill with multiple bites that often do not break an animal’s skin. The bites trigger massive internal bleeding.

“Multiple-bite trauma causes hemorrhaging (internal bleeding) and bruising,” Morgan said.

The hemorrhaging and bruising is apparent when the animal is cut open. This is why when animals suspected of being killed by wolves are examined it is important to conduct an internal exam similar to an autopsy, Morgan said. Such exams help confirm that a wolf killed the animal.

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“This decision is a significant victory for wolves, for the integrity of the Endangered Species Act, and for all Americans who care deeply about conservation,” said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife. “The court’s ruling makes it clear that decisions under the Endangered Species Act should be based on science, not politics.”

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Saving the Ethiopian wolf in face of habitat loss, diseased dogs, and climate change, an interview with Claudio Sillero-Zubiri, founder of the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme.
Living on the roof of Africa, the Ethiopian wolf is one of the world’s rarest carnivores, if not the rarest! Trapped on a few mountain islands rising over 4,000 meters above sea level on either/both sides of the Great Rift Valley, this unique canid has so far survived millennia of human-animal interactions in one of Africa’s most densely populated rural lands. But the threat of climate change and a shifting agriculture frontier may require new conservation measures, according to Argentine-born Claudio Sillero, the world’s foremost expert on the Ethiopian wolf, who has spent two decades championing this rare species.

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He is a fully grown Rottweiler. She is a tiny wolf pup.

But that hasn’t stopped 18-month-old,150lb dog Ulrok and and eight-week-old cub Beldaran becoming best of friends

They sleep together, frolic in the sun and even howl at the moon in unison – and their unlikely union brings a smile to the face of everyone who sees them.

Full story and magnificent pictures here

AKWESASNE TERRITORY — An unusual wolf-dog hybrid that went missing from a northern New York Native American territory in a case of foul play has been recaptured and safely returned to a wolf pack sanctuary in Indiana.

The canine disappeared from its cage on the Akwesasne Territory April 19. Akwesasne authorities immediately suspected foul play after the local animal control officer noticed the lock had been cut off the animal’s cage.

Full story here with pictures and video

From the outside, it takes a moment to discern the slowly moving shapes within the dense shade of the enclosure. Two layers of steel-wire fencing distract your focus like a window screen, while the glare of the afternoon sun dares the eye to tune into the darkness.

For the wolves, though, it’s taken no time at all to take in your sights and smells.

The pack’s alpha male, Wa-Ta-Chee – whose Choctaw name means “meeting at the waters of talking spirits” – begins pacing a figure-eight around the enclosure, keeping watch over his pack.

“They’re very protective of their territory,” Ferguson said, asking that you respect it, too.

For child visitors, that means following careful instructions not to run or holler. Grown-ups are told to walk slowly, speak lowly and not to make quick movements.

No fairy-tale villains these, each of the seven pack members at the Wolf Howl Animal Preserve is at one a muse, a cause and a pet for Ferguson. She left her home in Wisconsin four years ago to found this preserve in the Pinedale community, in western Union County not far from the Lafayette County line.

Down here, the land was cheap and roots already in place for her husband, Don, whose family hails from Hamilton in Monroe County.

After a year and a half spent clearing a site on their 43-acre property and making preparations, the couple opened the preserve in September 2005. They’ve since established an extensive Web site at www.everythingwolf.com and begun welcoming a few visitors at the preserve itself.

Her husband said Ferguson “lives, breaths, eats and sleeps wolves.”

It all started with her purchase of a Siberian Husky pup, whose breed she began researching. Digging deeper into Huskies’ wolf ancestry, Ferguson learned that the animals were a threatened species. They’re listed as endangered or threatened in some parts of the world, including the continental United States.

Choosing to champion their cause, Ferguson made a visit to the Wolf Park preserve in Battleground, Ind., and later became a volunteer tour guide and caretaker at a wolf preserve near her home in Wisconsin. The notion of providing a safe haven and educational facility on their own land became a dream for the couple.

Maria, who previously sold insurance, and Don, a self-employed computer programmer, searched for nearly two years for a large tract of land that was affordable.

With their first wolf enclosure now in place for nearly two years, they are in the process of raising some $100,000 to fence in a much larger enclosure of 5 to 7 acres total, including a pond.