Conservation news snapshot January 2005

The Bern Convention:

 The Bern Convention had a 25’th Birthday party in Strasbourg in November. The treaty, which was adopted in Europe in September 1979 in Bern, Switzerland is now 25 years old. Despite occasional difficulties in implementation and several routine and flagrant breaches of it in respect of wolves and especially by Norway, it has, by and large done a good job of protecting Europe’s endangered plants and animals. Forty-five countries - including both members and non-members of the Council of Europe - are now party to the convention

 The treaty has provided protection for 600 species of flora, 111 species of mammals, 363 species of birds, 84 species of reptiles, 46 species of amphibians, 9 species of fish and 102 species of invertebrates

Croatia:

Since the war in the early 1990’s, Croatia has become keenly involved with several European conservation projects to protect its population of wolves, bears and Lynx. The main populations of these are focussed around the central part of the country in the mountainous and heavily forested areas.

The total area of the former Yugoslav republic contains around 170 wolves – hardly an astronomical number although as a stable and controlled population it would be an adequate number for the region.

Killing a wolf now – rightly - carries a massive fine of around $7000 but since the war, wolf numbers have risen steadily and the inevitable complaints are starting to roll in from shepherds used to operating in the bad old days of total predator extermination. The situation away from the more tourist-rich areas is becoming increasingly politically sensitive with the area behind Mount Biokovo in southern Dalmatia suffering more than most. Here, attacks on sheep are becoming an almost daily occurrence despite the fact that the shepherds have tightened up on their herding practises and make good use of guarding dogs.

Their complaint that the compensation for loss of a sheep to a wolf is only about $85 is nothing more than a wish for it be equal to the penalty for killing a wolf – which would then allow the shepherds to carry on killing anything they just didn’t happen to like with financial impunity. A typical piece of bucolic selfishness. The survival of each and every wolf is more vital to the planet’s ecosystems at the moment than the survival of just another sheep. One-for-one is NOT a bargain in this instance.

Europe: NATURA 2000:

Europa Press Release. Brussels, 8 December 2004

The European Commission has taken another major step forward in establishing NATURA 2000, the network of protected nature sites in the EU. It has decided to include more than 7,000 nature sites in the Atlantic and Continental regions of the EU in the network. The 197 animal species, 89 plant species and 205 habitats covered are scientifically considered of European importance. This means that their protection must be enhanced to preserve valuable bio-diversity in Europe. Species such as the Wolf, the Otter, the Salmon as well as certain coastal lagoons and river systems are part of the lists, which cover most of the EU’s territory (France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, UK, Sweden, Austria and Denmark).

The Natura 2000 network is set up under the EU’s Habitats Directive[1] to safeguard Europe’s most important wildlife areas and species. Being part of Natura 2000 means that the selected areas benefit from increased protection as set out in the Directive. Member states must take all the necessary measures to guarantee their conservation and avoid their deterioration. Not all economic activity in the sites is excluded, but Member States must ensure that such activities are carried out in a way which is compatible with the conservation of the habitats and species living there.

The Atlantic and Continental lists just adopted cover sites in 12 Member States. The entire territory of Luxembourg and large parts of Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Italy and Sweden are included In the Continental list of sites. The Netherlands, the UK, Ireland, the Western part of France, as well as parts of Belgium (mainly Flanders), Germany, Portugal and Denmark are included in the Atlantic list of protected sites.

The lists of protected areas include a large number of endangered animal and plant species and habitats such as for example the Wolf, the Otter, the Salmon, coastal lagoons, heath- and grasslands, bogs, several types of forests and river systems. The protection of these species and habitats is scientifically considered to be of European importance, and a joint EU effort is therefore necessary to ensure bio-diversity and the conservation of natural fauna and flora in these regions of Europe.

For more information on the adopted lists (decision-text and annexes, overview maps, background material) see:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/nature/home.htm

Italy:

Wolves are thought to be returning to the Gran Paradiso Park in Italy and a group of Scientists are setting up automatic cameras to try and catch the elusive predators on film. Ruthless hunting had reduced Italy’s wolf population to no more than 100 or so by the mid 1970’s but well implemented conservation measures since then have helped numbers to recover and it is almost certain that the wolves now returning to France have crossed the Alps from Italy to do so. The Scientists are hoping to put any pictures they get on the Parks’ website at www.pngp.it/eng. There were none there as of Christmas so presumably the wolves haven’t agreed to have their portraits done yet.

New Mexico:

According to an article in the Arizona Daily Star in November 2003, Illegal killing has claimed the lives of 20 of the highly endangered Mexican Grey wolves since protection and re-introduction began in 1998. There are still only 50 of these animals in the protected zone which is not exactly large anyway – a mere 10,000 square miles of Southern America’s vastness called the “blue range primitive area”. The long term objective is to achieve a population of about 100 animals in this zone but it is too easy for them to stray outside it and any encounter with any human in that part of the world can only have one outcome.

Since 1998, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has paid out around $10 million to protect and re-introduce the Mexican Grey Wolf. Up until that moment, control of the animals had been under the so called “U.S. Biological Survey” which had spent nearly that much sponsoring ruthless extermination and hate campaigns.

Oddly, the Mexican Grey Wolf “canis lupus Baileyi” is named after the American Biologist who fervently led the mass destruction of it and boasted proudly of the many hundreds that his team had killed. It does not seem to have occurred to anyone that a change of scientific name would be highly appropriate in this instance as it is not desirable to reward mass murder and environmental terrorism with immortality and fame.

Canada:

In November, the government of Ontario took a step into the twentieth century (only one more century  to go to catch up!) and decided to implement a province-wide control program to restrict hunting and trapping of wolves and to actually bother to count how many wolves they have left to hunt and trap in the first place. The government has already provided belated and much needed protection for wolves in the Algonquin National Park. The proposed new regulations would introduce the first ever closed season for wolf and coyote killing and are open for public comment until early spring 2005.

Scotland:

Paul Lister, the son of the co-founder of MFI recently bought the 23,000 acre Alladale estate in Scotland and is proposing to re-introduce wolves, bears, lynx and bison on a quasi-wild scale. (How “captive” is an animal in a 23,000 acre cage ? – remember that some populations wolves live on islands not much bigger than that !)

Lister is proposing a sort of Safari Park on a grand scale and it certainly sounds feasible in principle but there is a whole cats cradle of bureaucracy and regulations to overcome before any such plan can become a reality. For one thing, it would be absurd if the wolves were to be fed dead carcasses by rangers like zoo wolves. Part of the whole proposition is that the wolves should be allowed to live as part of their ecosystem and therefore kill their own food. In theory, this shouldn’t be a problem as Scotland has a massive and horrendous deer population problem.

Red deer always were substantially controlled by wolf predation until humans removed the wolves and now Scotland’s forests are paying the price for that piece of stupid arrogance. You may be surprised to know that the most vociferous and serious organisation calling for the re-introduction of wolves to Scotland is not an animal group at all, it is “Trees for Life” and they are calling for the return of the wolf specifically in order to control the deer which destroy hundreds of acres of new forest planting every year. There are around 350,000 red deer in Scotland on top of an unknown but enormous population of roe deer.

The main problem with Lister’s idea is the proposal that so many predators could be self sustaining on just 23,000 acres. A small wolf population could certainly be viable but would need some degree of human intervention in the shape of culling and fertility control. A larger population of wolves plus bears plus lynx et al. could very easily boom and bust as they ate their way through the available game. Regular human intervention would certainly be needed to prevent this.

The scheme is very similar to one proposed by the South African millionaire, Paul Van Vlissingen two years ago and it is understood that Lister and Vlissingen have been in talks about the possibility of pooling their estates to provide what amounts to a private national wildlife park. (I can’t help wondering what the cost of weldmesh fencing 23,000 acres would be – let alone the 100,000 acres which would result from a union of Lister’s and Vlissingen’s land. The sort of fence they would need runs to about £100 per metre at present prices.).

The last wolf in Britain was killed in Scotland in 1743. – roughly eight hundred years after the last brown bear disappeared.

Slovakia

Last year the Slovakian government issued permissions for the sport shooting of 63 bears and 112 wolves. The populations of both are still relatively small and the figure of 112 wolves is thought to be roughly the number of cubs born per year. The previous year’s bear quota (71 animals) was not even reached due to the rarity of the animals.  A protest was staged in both Poland and Slovakia on November 9’th. Both wolves and bears are protected under the Bern Convention – to which Slovakia is a signatory.

Switzerland – completely astonishing

A letter early last year from a member in Switzerland raised some eyebrows. It seems that Switzerland is not quite as civilised as you might believe. Apparently, since wolves have begun returning there, the fun hunting community have decided that there will be no wolves in Switzerland and various powerfully placed allies of theirs have been deliberately sabotaging livestock defence plans in some cantons in order to start a wave of public panic over livestock attacks. Shepherds are being actively discouraged and prevented from using guard dogs and actively encouraged to leave their sheep unprotected in high risk areas.

It therefore came as no surprise to read, last autumn, that “Switzerland” wants to un-apply the Bern Convention to wolves and kill them all. For “Switzerland” read “militant ranching and gun-fun lobby”.

Wolves in Switzerland are currently on the “Strictly Protected Fauna Species” list but the anti lobby there presented proposals to the Bern Convention meeting at the end of November that would downgrade it to “Protected Fauna Species”. This is the same level of coverage which applies to Lynx and it allows the animals to be shot if there are “good” reasons – and you can bet that the fun-gun lobby would make sure that enough good reasons were found.

The astonishing selfishness and bigotry of the anti lobby becomes apparent when you realise just how many wolves they are trying to panic everyone about:

SWITZERLAND HAS not 500 wolves, not 100, not 50, not even 10 – but just THREE TO SIX WOLVES !

Naturally, the whole twisted and corrupt proposal has been criticised by Pro Natura, the biggest conservation group in Switzerland.

Their website is at http://www.pronatura.ch/content/english/EN/page1.html

Turkey

On very, very rare occasions, wild wolves do sometimes attack humans. At the end of November a story arrived from Ankara about a ten-year old boy from a town called Talas – which is a small town in central Turkey. His body was found by his father one day in a field near his house with amongst others, fatal injuries to the throat. Tracks and prints at the scene strongly indicated that a wolf was the culprit. Local opinion concluded that he appeared to have been attacked by a wild wolf which was probably heading to or from the town’s rubbish dump on a scavenging spree. The reason for the attack is not known and there was no definite proof that a wolf was responsible for the death.

Yellowstone

At the end of October the American group “Forwolves” released the following statement:

The results are now in for the second year of the study of the causes of elk calf deaths on the Northern Range of Yellowstone.

This study is important because the elk population has declined by about half in the last ten years, and wolf critics (the USA gun lobby) put the blame squarely on wolves and a low elk calf survival rate. (The lunatic anti-environment group "Friends of the Yellowstone Elk Herd", whos leader was arrested earlier this year, has been calling for the total re-eradication of wolves from Yellowstone - and pretty well everywhere else on the planet as well - for this very reason.).

The study (with the delightful title "Multi-trophic level ecology of wolves, elk, and vegetation in Yellowstone National Park") is a 3 year one.

The first year showed that bears took more elk calves that wolves.

The first year breakdown is:

44 elk calves less than 6 days were radio collared. 31 are now dead. Preliminary causes of death are 18 by bears (grizzly and black), 3 by wolves, 4 by coyotes, 1 by a golden eagle, 1 by either bears or wolves, 2 by unknown predators, and 2 by non-depredation causes.

The breakdown from 2003 is:

51 elk calves collared. 34 died. 19 were killed by grizzly or black bears, five by wolves, three by coyotes, two by either bears or wolves, one by a mountain lion, one by a wolverine and three died from causes other than predators.

The study's author concludes that there is high predation on northern range Yellowstone elk calves with far less than half surviving into fall, but the cause is mostly bears, not wolves. We should be careful generalizing this to locations where there the density and type of predators is different, and the land is not managed to keep it basically unmodified by human activity.

http://www.forwolves.org/ralph/grizzlies-kill-elkcalves.htm

Alaska:

In Autumn 2004, the Alaska game board decided that the previous spring’s aerial war against wolves was so successful and enjoyable that it would issue permits this winter for up to 900 or more wolves to be shot by gunmen in aircraft.

Last winter, 147 wolves were shot from aircraft despite massive protests to the Alaskan legislature by biologists and wildlife groups from all over the USA. Several attempts to have the whole killing spree declared illegal under US law failed on technical points although plans to extend the action this winter to federally controlled areas were successfully blocked by legal action taken by the group “Defenders of Wildlife”.

The slaughter for this winter began on the Thanksgiving weekend in November when aerial gunners managed to kill four wolves. By Early December a total of 51 wolves had been killed but as of early January 2005, the campaign was running into trouble with pilots reporting bad weather and lack of snow for tracking.

Alaska’s record on hunting ethics is probably the worst in the world. Already, as you would expect, the aerial “hunters” have been widely cheating and abusing their permit rights. Two Alaskan gunners will appear in court on January 7’th 2005 charged with numerous counts of killing wolves out of the permitted area, trapping wolves and other animals out of season and leaving them to rot and falsifying records of their activities. The two, David Haeg, 38, of Soldotna, and Tony Zellers, 41, of Eagle River, face tens of thousands of dollars in fines for their activities.

Wolves aren’t the only animals that Alaskan “hunters” like to beat up on though.  The following extract from the Denlines newsletter shows what Alaskan bears will be in for shortly:

“In order to artificially boost numbers of moose and caribou for sport hunters, the Alaska Board of Game recently approved plans to kill 80 grizzly bears by allowing hunters to bait the bears with human food. Hunting grizzlies by baiting is currently illegal in Alaska. The Department of Fish and Game may also provide a "bounty" to grizzly bear hunters in this area, pending legislative approval this winter.”

It is interesting how the Alaskan Board of Game keeps on changing the law to suit their taste. Aerial wolf hunting has twice been banned in Alaska after public referenda (1996 and 2000) but the Game Board “re-legalised” it.

For more information on and a map of Alaska’s aerial wolf killing program, visit http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/wolf/alaska.html