Conservation news snapshot July 2004

Finland
At the end of April, the Finnish government announced that it is drawing up a "care plan" for wolves in Finland. Traditionally, wolves there have been hunted ruthlessly and became almost extinct by the beginning of the 20'th century. Northern Finland is the only route into Scandinavia for wolves and the recent discovery of genetic problems in the Scandinavian population can only be remedied by an influx of new bloodlines from Russia via Lapland.

Public meetings are to be organised and people will be given the chance to air their opinions on wolves but first, a survey amongst game-keeping and nature protection bodies will test the ambient attitude and information available. There are currently thought to be about 150 wolves in Finland. The Lapps are highly intolerant of them and despite being paid massive compensation for the were presence of a wolf in their area - there doesn't even have to be an attack - they still just tend to take the money and kill them anyway.

Ethiopia
The recent rabies outbreak which further decimated the already highly endangered Ethiopian wolf seems to over for the time. No new rabies cases have been reported since February 2004 and the population is now stable but highly vulnerable at about 450.

Canada
A sponsor-a-wolf project for school children in Calgary, Alberta, which ran for nearly eight years has been closed down after hunters and trappers killed most of the animals. The few they didn't get succumbed to road and rail accidents. Only one of the original 15 wolves has survived. Although wolves are protected in the National parks, they are completely without protection as soon as they stray outside them. In the eight years for which it ran, the project raised about 1 million dollars for environmental projects - but obviously the trappers needs were much more important.

Hank Halliday, of the Ontario group "Wolf Awareness", says his group is trying to get a similar sponsorship program for wolves up and running again.

http://edmonton.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=wolfproject05062004

Yellowstone
Two notorious anti-wolf activists in the Yellowstone area appear to be in
trouble. Both are the epitome of the worst kind of selfish, ignorant USA
shooting fraternity militant.

The two are:

Tim Sundles of Carmen (near Salmon, Idaho) - who achieved notoriety for a) shooting a wolf and making up a ludicrous story claiming that it was in the process of attacking him and b) subsequently posting "how to poison a wolf" instructions on a website. In brief, he is now under police investigation for laying poison baits which have killed a number of pets

Robert Fanning of Paradise Valley, Montana's, anti-wolf "Friends of the North Yellowstone Park Elk Herd". A group of shooting militants who believe that America is their personal shooting gallery. In brief, the "Friends" company has been wound up for what looks like financial irregularities.

France
In June, Ecology Minister Serge Lepeltier told reporters he was undecided about a proposed cull of wolves in the French Alps. There are currently about 50 wolves in the regions, having re-populated the French part of the Alps from Italy about twelve years ago. French shepherds and the powerful French farming lobby have been demanding a cull for several years, claiming that the world will come to a sticky end if the government doesn't wipe out all the wolves the way governments always have. The wild animal protection society "ASPAS" said that it would file a suit against the government for breaching laws on endangered species if the cull went ahead while the SPA organisation warned that losing the seven wolves which the government is proposing to kill would wipe out the Alpine population by removing its genetic diversity. In recent years, the French government has declared several times that it intended to cull Alpine wolves but does not appear to have done so. Maybe they don't need to - the shepherds are busy illegally poisoning and shooting as many as they can get anyway. http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040610164352.93lxbrtj.html

India
Scientists at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), in Dehradun, have analysed the DNA from a female Himalayan wolf and found that this sub-species is almost certainly the oldest wolf sub-species of all. The tests indicate that the Himalayans have been a distinct sub-species for about 800,000 years and are genetically different enough from other wof populations to be considered as a separate species in their own right. The European and American wolf lineages only go back separately to a time about 150,000 years ago whilst the Indian plains wolf goes back about 400,000 years. Currently, there are thought to be around 350 Himalayan wolves left and there is no specific protection plan for them in place. Mr.AK Gulati, Himachal Pradesh wildlife chief announced in a recent article for the BBC that a protection plan is now being drawn up.

Wolf attacks
..don't happen, but Bear attacks often do: Utah May 6'th 2004: A black bear attacked and injured a recreational rafter on the Green River in eastern Utah's Desolation Canyon -- the second bear attack there in 10 months. Two government trappers from Wildlife Services, a federal predator control agency under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, were flown by helicopter to the site Thursday afternoon to set snares for the two bears and put up warning signs closing the area to river runners.