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Gray wolves will regain federal protection across most of the lower 48 United States following a court ruling Thursday that struck down a Trump Administration decision to take the animals off the endangered species list. Senior District Judge Jeffrey S. White, of United States District Court for the Northern District of California, found that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, in declaring wolf conservation a success and removing the species from federal protection, did not adequately consider threats to wolves outside of the Great Lakes and Northern Rocky Mountains where they have rebounded most significantly. Although the decision to...

It is the first time researchers have directly observed how border fences hinder the Mexican gray wolf, which is on the verge of extinction One chilly early morning in November, a wolf roamed southwest of Las Cruces, New Mexico, on the southern border of the U.S. He was probably driven by the call for survival and wanted to mate, researchers say. In his search for a mate or for better opportunities, the wolf tried to cross the dangerous Chihuahuan Desert, a region he knows very well because it has been his species' habitat since time immemorial. This time, however, he...

An endangered gray wolf that traveled at least 1,000 miles from Oregon to California's Central Coast before his tracking collar stopped giving signals in the Spring, may still be alive and roaming in Ventura County. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said Friday that it received three reports last month of a wolf with a purple collar in the northern part of the county, and officials were able to confirm wolf tracks in the vicinity. The reports match the description of OR-93, the young male who was fitted with a purple tracking collar by federal wildlife officials in Oregon...

Over the weekend wolf OR-93 had traversed the Central Valley and crossed Interstate 5 to enter San Benito County, but the wolf didn't stop there. He has continued west and now joins spring breakers in Monterey County. Amaroq Weiss with the Center for Biological Diversity has been tracking OR-93's journey. Weiss said about 50% of young wolves leave their birth packs to start their own families. "They are looking for a mate of their own and they are looking for a place to set up a territory, it's like an 18-year-old kid leaving home for the first time, going off...

Wandering wolf OR-93 crossed into San Benito County over the weekend after traversing the Central Valley and crossing Interstate 5 in what wolf biologists are calling a remarkable journey.The Central Coast can now call itself home to a Gray Wolf at least for now. Wandering wolf OR-93 crossed into San Benito County over the weekend after traversing the Central Valley and crossing Interstate 5 in what wolf biologists are calling a remarkable journey. The rolling hills and farmland of San Benito County are hardly wolf country, which raises the questions about what OR-93 is after and how he long he...

Twitter post in article. The Trump administration announced it will propose a rule to strip gray wolves of their endangered species protections, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson confirmed in a statement to The Hill. Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced the decision during the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Denver, the spokesperson said. "The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will soon propose a rule to delist the gray wolf in the lower 48 states and return management of the species to the states and tribes," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Recovery of the gray...

The House passed a bill Friday that would remove federal protections for the gray wolf, allowing ranchers, hunters and others to kill the animals. The Manage Our Wolves Act passed 196-180, mainly with Republican support. It would direct the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to end Endangered Species Act protections for the species and prohibit lawsuits challenging the removal. The GOP and many western states have long argued that four decades of federal protections have been too successful in bringing the wolf back from the brink of extinction, and the species now poses a significant threat to livestock, pets and...

Large turnouts are expected at two upcoming public hearings on proposed changes to the Mexican wolf management plan, including expansion of the wolf-management areas in Arizona and New Mexico. The hearings, Aug. 11 in Pinetop, Ariz., and Aug. 13 in Truth or Consequences, N.M., will be the final opportunity for verbal testimony on proposed changes to management of the endangered Mexican gray wolf population in the two states. Public hearings last year in Albuquerque and Pinetop drew a total of around 1,000 people, most of whom were not allotted time to speak. ... The Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to...

Gov. Jan Brewer will not give ranchers and their employees permission to kill endangered Mexican gray wolves on federal lands. The measure vetoed Tuesday was crafted by Sen. Gail Griffin, R-Hereford. She has been a vocal foe of the program by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce the wolves into sections of Arizona and New Mexico, saying they are endangering not only cattle but also pets and children. SB1211 would have spelled out that ranchers could “take” a wolf — legalese for killing — that was killing, wounding or biting livestock. It also would have legalized a guard...

The Arizona House of Representatives has approved a Senate bill allowing ranchers to kill endangered wolves in self-defense. Senate Bill 1211 would allow livestock owners to kill a Mexican gray wolf if one was caught attacking livestock or a person. Wildlife activists say the bill violates the federal Endangered Species Act. But a staff attorney says the bill has been watered down and now meets constitutional requirements.

Past experience in Idaho, northeastern Oregon and Washington state illustrate that it's time to take gray wolves completely off the federal list of endangered species. The West’s wolf problem started in 1995 and 1996. That’s when 66 wolves from Canada were reintroduced in Idaho and Yellowstone National Park. Those wolves multiplied and spread into Wyoming, Utah and Oregon. They also took up residence in Washington state and Montana, where other wolves from Canada already lived. Today at least 1,674 wolves live in 321 packs within the region, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That’s in addition to the...

Pack lives about 90 miles east of Seattle . This makes the fourth resident wolf pack in the state, and the second known pack of wolves in the Cascade Mountains ... ... The gray wolf is protected throughout Washington as a state endangered species. In the western two-thirds of Washington, the species is also federally protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The Arizona Game and Fish Commission has voted to support congressional action aimed at removing gray wolves from the federal endangered species list. The commission voted 4-1 after a lengthy meeting Saturday in support of federal legislation that would declare the wolves recovered and no longer in need of federal protections.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and environmentalists reached an agreement Friday that scraps a rule the agency had used to kill or permanently remove any wolf that killed three heads of livestock in a year. Fish and Wildlife spokesman Tom Buckley said the three-strikes rule "will no longer stand." Ranchers said the policy targeted wolves that grow accustomed to preying on cattle. Several environmental groups sued in May 2008, asking a U.S. District Court in Arizona to stop the removal policy on the Mexican gray wolf, a subspecies of the gray wolf. Buckley said agency officials hope a judge...

Federal wildlife managers have decided to allow an endangered Mexican gray wolf that has been linked to four livestock killings to remain in the wild in southwestern New Mexico. Despite a policy that allows the agency to remove a wolf from the wild after three livestock kills in one year, Tuggle said in a memo to the coordinator of the Mexican gray wolf recovery program ... Tuggle requested in his memo that the recovery program's interagency field team continue to monitor the San Mateo pack and try to prevent any further livestock kills by the pack.

The change should be published in the Federal Register next week, Scarlett said. It will formally take effect 30 days after publication. Delisting means wolf management will become a job for state and tribal wildlife agencies instead of the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. There are about 1,500 wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains. That includes about 390 in Montana and 788 in Idaho. Wyoming has about 340 wolves. Montana’s gray wolf may be off the federal threatened and endangered species list next month. “We believe this is a major success story for conservation,” deputy secretary of the Interior Lynn...

Catron County officials say an endangered Mexican gray wolf has been causing problems in the Cruzville area and they want the animal removed. The county said Monday that the uncollared wolf has killed family pets and attacked a horse at one property in the western New Mexico community. The county's wolf investigator has apparently confirmed the problems.

ISLE ROYALE - From an old and sagging log cabin on this island in the cold reaches of Lake Superior, Rolf Peterson and dozens of other biologists have made history and put to rest many of the persistent and wrongheaded myths about the island's most famous resident: the gray wolf. Peterson is a wildlife biologist who is the latest researcher working on what has become the world's longest predator- prey study. Since 1970, Peterson has studied the relationship between wolves and moose on Isle Royale. He was just 9 years old when the research started in 1959. Eisenhower was president...

Once-Hated Gray Wolf Thrives in the U.S. Rockies Wed Jan 5,10:07 AM ET Science - Reuters By Judith Crosson DENVER (Reuters) - As the gray wolf hovered on the brink of extinction a decade ago, U.S. officials embarked on a controversial plan to open the vast refuge of Yellowstone National Park to the pack-based predators in the hopes of rebuilding the species. Seeking to reintroduce an animal that had been an icon of the West even though it was reviled by ranchers, the Clinton administration 10 years ago this month released gray wolves imported from Canada into Yellowstone with great...