Two alpha males Mexican gray wolves have been found dead under suspicious circumstances and another collared alpha male wolf is missing. This is a disaster for the struggling population of wolves in Arizona and New Mexico.
US investigates wolf killings.
Tony Davis Arizona Daily Star
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Ken Cole is a 5th generation Idahoan, an avid fly fisherman, wildlife enthusiast, and photographer. He is the interim Idaho Director for Western Watersheds Project.
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When is FWS law enforcement going to get serious about finding these guys? The perpetrators think they won’t get caught and they are probably correct.
Rick
Another pack with a damaged hierarchy right when additional food is needed to maintain pups. They will probably move on to livestock then be lethally prosecuted. By this time everyone will have forgotten that the real cause were poachers who get away scott free. FWS step up and do your job.
I doubt any of these people will be caught. I do hope they get whats coming to them, They are scumbags.
I’m with Rick. And what good is it to put radio collars on wolves if you can’t even figure out where and how they are being poached? And these particular wolves didn’t kill livestock? It’s obvious that people are taking matters into their own hands and I would like to see much more energy put into enforcement, not because these are wolves, but because poaching of endangered species and getting away with it is such a bad precedent. I hope the reward will make someone squeal.
Call me paranoid but I think law enforcement and fish and game have to be in on these killings. There is no way this many killings can go on without someone being caught.
I’m still amazed at the precision of the location data that the agencies provide to the public about these wolves.
I’ve worked telemetry studies with T&Es before and we didn’t provide anywhere near the detail that these folks are.
Another point is that there are not that many people in and out of this area. Especially when one looks at the span and frequency of these shootings.
Someone has to be bragging about this. The saying that, if more than one person knows it’s no longer a secret has got to kick in at some point.
They need to look for someone driving back and forth through this area on a regular basis. Maybe a government employee in Silver City with ties to Arizona.
I’m not familiar with the area, but if it is anything like Montana or Wyoming it does make sense that it would be a case of if one person knows it’s not a secret. I think the place to check is the bars. Some drunk idiot who is either doing it or knows about it is going to be full of truth serum. There is something not right with this situation.
Kropotkin Man: not only is relatively precise location data provided to the public, but much more interesting is the fact that since at least 2003 or 2004 (maybe earlier) the government has been lending telemetry receivers to landowners and permittees in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area when wolves are nearby.
They are pre-programmed with the collar frequencies of the wolves known to be close to their property and/or livestock. The ostensible reason for these loans of receivers is so they can monitor the wolves’ locations and take proactive measures to protect their livestock, families, etc.
You can see the “non-agency telemetry statement of use” at http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/wolf/documents/MWNon-agencyTelemetryStatementofUse.20081031.Final.pdf
These loans are available only to landowners and livestock owners. A person merely camping in a pack’s home range, for example, is not accorded the same privilege.
Is there potential for abuse? I’ll leave it to others to contemplate that question.