Wildlife Weekly Wrap-Up

Written by Melanie Gade with contributions from Courtney Sexton and Haley McKey

Gray Wolves Love California… That’s Why They’ve Come Home! We couldn’t be more excited to learn and share wonderful news about California’s new resident wolf pack. Our hopes for restoring wolves to the Golden State have been steadily building since “OR-7” first visited in 2011, and now it looks like they are coming true! Yesterday the California Department of Fish and Wildlife released photographic evidence of a new pack of gray wolves established in northern California. The pack has been named the “Shasta Pack” and consists of two adults and five pups, all captured on camera. The pups are approximately three to four months old and all appear to be healthy. This news comes just weeks after officials announced sightings of a suspected wolf caught on trial cameras in May and July. The presence of a whole pack in California affirms that wolves know there is suitable habitat in the state and are ready to use it! And California is ready for wolves! Last year’s California listed wolves as endangered under its state Endangered Species Act, indicating that the state is ready and willing to protect this iconic species as soon as they cross state lines.

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The most important thing to remember as we welcome wolves back to the Golden State is that we must help people and livestock live with them in harmony. As Defenders’ California Representative Pam Flick recently wrote, “California, along with Oregon and Washington state, has an important role to play in setting the standard for managing wolves in a more principled, ethical and sustainable manner, avoiding the ruinous path followed by other western states where slaughtering wolves is considered wildlife management. I believe California can lead the way to peaceful wolf restoration and recovery.”

20 Year Old DNA Gives Much Needed Genetic Diversity to Endangered Ferrets: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists are using 20-year-old frozen sperm to increase the genetic diversity of today’s endangered black-footed ferret population. Black-footed ferrets once numbered in the tens of thousands, but exotic diseases and widespread destruction of their habitat in the 1900s brought them to the brink of extinction. By 1986, only 18 remained. While today ferrets are making a comeback – with approximately 300 black-footed ferrets in the wild and another 300 living in captive breeding facilities – the species still struggles from low levels of genetic diversity. In short, all 600 ferrets alive today are descended from only 15 of those surviving 18 individuals! By using sperm from one of the non-breeders to artificially inseminate females alive today, scientists are essentially adding a new “breeding male” into the mix, making this population less vulnerable to the effects of inbreeding. While labor intensive, this project is working! Eight ferret babies have been born from this innovative project. As an official member of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service black-footed ferret recovery implementation team, Defenders of Wildlife works with governments, non-profits and private landowners to maintain and expand recovery sites for ferrets across the West. Learn more about our work here.

Mountain Lion’s Death in Southern California Underscores Need for More Highway Wildlife Crossings: A mountain lion that was killed crossing Southern California’s 101-Freeway brings added visibility to the need for additional wildlife crossing structures over or under busy highways nationwide. While advocates are pushing hard to get additional wildlife crossings built in this area, Defenders is actively involved in other parts of the country building wildlife crossings to allow safe wildlife movement across highways. For example, working in a partnership with tribal government and researchers, Defenders is helping share the wildlife research results of a revamping of U.S. Highway 93 N in northwest Montana into the nation’s most wildlife-sensitive highway. Today this section of the highway has 41 fish and wildlife crossing structures, 18 miles of fencing, and numerous other wildlife crossing tools to provide safe crossing opportunities for wildlife and improve motorists’ safety. Monitoring efforts have found these structures are frequently used, with documentation of over 70, 850 wildlife uses from 2010-2013 by over 30 species! Check out this video clip we created to see these wildlife crossings in action!

Polar Bears and Oil Spills: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a new plan for saving polar bears from oil spills, and the news isn’t all good. Officials say they would have limited capability to clean off oiled polar bears, and responders would only have a single portable holding facility, capable of holding up to six bears at a time, to rely on. (You can read our blog about our work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop these holding facilities here!) However, typically, polar bears travel alone or in small family groups, not in large groups like Pacific walrus, so it may be easier to help them in the event of a massive oil spill.

Help Ensure Elephants Are Fully Protected in the U.S: In response to the growing poaching crisis that is rapidly pushing elephants to the brink of extinction, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed new regulations to crack down on ivory trafficking and the sale of illegal ivory within our borders. The proposed restrictions tighten longstanding loopholes in sale of commercial ivory, loopholes that have allowed the illicit trafficking of elephant ivory to thrive. Legal ivory acts as a cover for poached ivory, making a ban on commercial ivory sales the only way to ensure U.S. markets do not contribute to the poaching crisis. But despite this, special interest groups are working overtime in Congress to make it easier for illegal ivory to flow into our country! Tell FWS to implement the strongest regulations possible to fully protect elephants!