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Coyotes-Wolves-Cougars.blogspot.com

Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions. This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization. Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. - Blogger Rick

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Tuesday, September 26, 2017

"With Federal protections still in effect for Great Lakes wolves, Minnesota Wildlife Officials estimate that the 2016-2017 population count is roughly 500 packs and 2,856 wolves at midwinter after remaining relatively steady in the previous four surveys"................ "The margin of error is plus or minus 500 wolves".................. "The 2015-2016 aerial survey estimated the state had 439 packs and 2,278 wolves".................. "The higher wolf numbers are consistent with the growing deer population in the state's wolf range, which grew an estimated 22 percent from 2015 to 2016(1 million deer in the state)"................That is how things normally work for a vibrant carnivore population,,,,,,,,,,,,,Mild Winters of late as well as hunters only annually killing some 16% of the herd, have the deer population growing despite wolf presence and pressure.................This same "predator and prey dance" has been going on for millenia without wolves wiping out deer............"It’s possible the wolf population could continue to increase if deer numbers keep rising"............. "But with rare exceptions, wolf populations hardly ever exceed four or five animals per 100 square kilometers(38.61 square miles-25,483 acres), which is close to what it was at its peak(3000 wolves) in Minnesota in 2004"...................... "When populations exceed the amount of territory or food available, wolves tend to disperse into other areas or they control their own numbers through fighting or having less pups annually"

Whttps://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://www.startribune.com/dnr-estimates-surge-in-wolf-population-in-minnesota/447709373/&ct=ga&cd=CAEYACoTMzEzNTgwMjQwNjkzMjg5MTczNjIaZGE5N2NmOTQ3ODA0Njk5YTpjb206ZW46VVM&usg=AFQjCNHtDWOU_CbVyvQl2EAsGgWcjF

DNR estimates surge in wolf population in Minnesota

The number of wolves in the state was once as low as 750, but that was still the largest population in the lower continental United States after many decades of attempted extermination pushed the animal onto the endangered species list. Since then, their number has steadily grown, and they’ve begun to populate northern Wisconsin and Michigan as well.
Minnesota and other states instituted a hunting season on wolves when they were temporarily removed from the endangered species list in 2012. But a federal judge ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to re-list them in 2014 after wildlife protection groups argued successfully that the agency had failed to follow requirements of the Endangered Species Act. The suit is still pending.
Today their number is well above the 1,251 to 1,400 that the state has set as its goal for the animal, which is also protected in Wisconsin and Michigan.
“I do not know if or when a wolf harvest may resume,” Erb said. “It is not really about the numbers. It’s now more about legal and sociopolitical wrangling.”

The number of wolves in the state was once as low as 750, but that was still the largest population in the lower continental United States after many decades of attempted extermination pushed the animal onto the endangered species list. Since then, their number has steadily grown, and they’ve begun to populate northern Wisconsin and Michigan as well.
Minnesota and other states instituted a hunting season on wolves when they were temporarily removed from the endangered species list in 2012. But a federal judge ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to re-list them in 2014 after wildlife protection groups argued successfully that the agency had failed to follow requirements of the Endangered Species Act. The suit is still pending.
Today their number is well above the 1,251 to 1,400 that the state has set as its goal for the animal, which is also protected in Wisconsin and Michigan.
“I do not know if or when a wolf harvest may resume,” Erb said. “It is not really about the numbers. It’s now more about legal and sociopolitical wrangling.”
A Minnesota-based wolf advocacy group was heartened by the DNR’s latest survey.
“This is encouraging news for an endangered, vulnerable and valued species in Minnesota,” said Maureen Hackett, founder and president of Howling For Wolves. “Although our gray wolf population estimate is still below the level of 10 years ago and before three years of wolf trophy hunting, we’re moving in the right direction
A Minnesota-based wolf advocacy group was heartened by the DNR’s latest survey.


However, she was critical of the DNR’s counting method, saying it “makes unsophisticated assumptions and presumes wolf population based on former estimates of available habitat.”
Mech, however, said that the DNR’s methodology is sound, and that it accurately reflects long-term trends.
Erb said that it’s possible the wolf population could continue to increase if deer numbers keep rising. But with rare exceptions, wolf populations hardly ever exceed four or five animals per 100 square kilometers, he said, which is close to what it was at its peak in Minnesota in 2004.
When populations exceed the amount of territory or food available, wolves tend to disperse into other areas or they control their own numbers through fighting or other methods, he said.
“There are biological limits,” he said.

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