June 2011 CWWC Newsletter

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JUNE 2011 ANOTHER CAT IN THE HOUSE ...AT LAST!

Come on just kiss me....

I really don’t have bad breath....

For the month of May, our ‘Animal of the Month’ was the Tiger. Our own big cat Kenya was thrilled to have another feline around vs the constant canine companionship... and the occasional torment by Calvin, the ferret.

Regal Tala CONSERVATION

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Each month we will feature a different animal in danger of extinction (already on the ES list) or an animal that is scheduled for inclusion to the Endangered Species list. We’ve set up a display table in the Visitor Center with information on the animal of the month and a donation jar. At the end of each month, monies collected will be sent to a non-profit ambassador organization chosen by us.

Julys animal is the

Polar Bear money collected will benefit Polar Bears International www.polarbearsinternational.org

Experts predict that as the Arctic continues to warm due to climate change, two-thirds of the world’s polar bears could disappear by mid-century—although hope remains if action is taken to greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Rapid loss of sea ice is their major threat. Others include pollution, poaching, and industrial impact. Hunting will become a threat if not well regulated.

In 2005, the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) classified polar bears as vulnerable on the IUCN World Conservation Union’s Red List of Threatened Species noting that extinction could occur due to sea ice changes.

In May 2008, U.S. Department of the Interior listed the polar bear as a Threatened Species under the Endangered Species Act. Canada and Russia list the polar bear as a species of concern.

At the 2009 meeting of the PBSG, the world’s leading polar bear scientists reported that of the 19 subpopulations of polar bears, eight were declining, three were stable, and one was increasing. They lacked sufficient data to say what is happening to the remaining seven.

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Fast Facts Type: Mammal Diet: Carnivore Average life span in the wild: 25 to 30 years Size: Head and body, 7.25 to 8 ft; Tail, 3 to 5 in Weight: 900 to 1,600 lbs amazing video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gqL2NVUYiU&feature=fvsr

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fire mitigation

BE A WOLF PACK VOLUNTEER FOR FIRE PREVENTION MONTH

If you have been watching the news for the last couple weeks, you would have certainly heard about the fires in the Southwest United States. The drought that has allowed these fires to burn out of control is not unique to Arizona and New Mexico - we too have been affected greatly by it.

For the last weeks, the sanctuary has been under extreme fire danger conditions. Even though we have evacuation plans and an off-site facility for just this very situation, it is a scary time for us.

We have already seen what the Hayman fire did and how fast we had to react in order to save the lives of every one of our animals.

We are taking these measures and much more to protect ourselves from the consequences of a similar event.

So we are calling on everyone who has a willing and able hand to come join us in our efforts to protect the sanctuary from fire!

For the next few weeks and longer if needed, we will be

Getting ready to carve a fire break and path for a nature trail.

constructing a fire break around the rest of the sanctuary in hopes of preventing a potential fire from burning the sanctuary. We will be accepting volunteers to clear brush, move piles of sticks and slash, and help with constructing this fire break.

If you would like to volunteer, please make sure you meet the following: • Must be in good physical health.

• Bring/wear gloves, good shoes, jeans.

• No pets or children under 16.

If you would like to be a part of our team to help with fire prevention please call 719-687-9742 for details.

Thank you for your help on behalf of the Animals and Staff of the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center.

Tons of work! Over 60 trees just in this area were taken out. 20 more acres to go.

Path between the new property and the wolf enclosures. This will be clear cut and cleaned for a 50’ fire break. Logs will be put horizontally to prevent erosion.

Chips for new trails

New property....Barn in distance will provide for fire staging area and a wildlife rehab. center next year.

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in the news

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of the Clearwater and WildEarth Guardians, that challenges the constitutionality of the wolf delisting rider. The rider was slipped into a must-pass budget bill by Senator Jon Tester (D-MT). 81 Senators then voted yes to delist wolves in a budget bill. Only three Democrats voted against it: Leahy, Levin and Wyden.

Bernie Sander of VT, an Independent, also voted no.

Friends of Animals’ president Priscilla Feral says, “We must do everything in our power to undo the deadly disservice that was done to gray wolves; taking them off of the Endangered Species List was not only unethical and unjust—it was unconstitutional.”

Project Coyote is encouraging supporters to write to their members of Congress and let them know that the Congressional rider that was approved by Congress and signed into law by Obama on April 15th that de-listed wolves in Montana, Idaho, and portions of Utah, Washington, and Oregon not only completely undermined the integrity of the Endangered Species Act, but is ecogically reckless and will likely lead to wolves being re-listed after their populations are drastically reduced from state and federal predator control hunts- and after continued costly litigation.

Our elected officials need to hear a ground swell of opposition to how our federal government- and our states- “manage” wildlife. Ultimately we need total reformation in bothand this will take public pressure and policy change – and litigation.

Support The Sportsmanship in Hunting Act Recently an Animal Planet special aired footage from a new Humane Society of the United States undercover investigation into captive hunts -- facilities where exotic animals such as a kangaroo or an endangered antelope can be shot for the right price. Investigators uncovered shocking new evidence that animals are even being drugged with tranquilizers. Fortunately, Congress is considering a bill, H.R. 2210, that cracks down on this cruel industry where exotic animals are shot for trophies, and we need your support.

Please make a brief, polite call today to Representative Doug Lamborn (202) 225-4422 urging co-sponsorship of H.R. 2210. And don’t forget to send a follow-up message.

Thank you for helping us put a stop to this cruel industry.

Friends Of Animals Petitions Court To Join Lawsuit Challenging Wolf Delisting Rider...

This is terrific news!! If Friends of Animals joins the lawsuit there will be four highly respected conservation groups going to bat for wolves.

If you noticed The Safari Club, NRA and Montana Farm Bureau have also asked to intervene in the wolf delisting lawsuit for the other side.

Friends of Animals, a staunch supporter of animal rights, has filed a motion in Montana District Court to join the lawsuit brought by Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends CONSERVATION

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Come see our two new swift fox babies. Two males arrived from Riverside Discovery Center in Nebraska on July 22nd, 2011. They were introduced to our 3 original swift fox and are doing great together. Names will be given soon.

Information presented on this newsletter is considered public information (unless otherwise noted) and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/ photo/image credit is requested. Some of the documents in this newsletter may contain live feed references (or pointers) to information created and maintained by other organizations. Please note that CWWC does not control and cannot guarantee the relevance, timeliness, or accuracy of these outside materials.

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VIP’s

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THANK YOU

Sandy Berg, founder of Jeremiah Sanctuary and Susie Yost for a great RAPTOR presentation

I would like to give special thanks to Mike, who is our VP and my mate. Without him and all of his work, this Center would not function as smoothly as it does nor would we be as far along with the many projects we have everyday. He is an engineer by trade, welder/ fabricator,builder and wolf handler. He also is an excellent cook and even does laundry. How lucky am I? Every job he does is with precision and the finished project is something to be proud of. My special thanks to Mike for helping to make this Center one of the best wolf and wildlife sanctuaries in the world.

With love, Darlene CONSERVATION

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Scientists debate ‘magic number’ of wolves needed for species’ survival

By ROB CHANEY of the Missouliane

Conservation groups and the federal government continue to disagree how many gray wolves are needed in the Northern Rockies to ensure the species’ survival.

One of the biggest arguments left unresolved by last year’s wolf lawsuit was the most obvious: How many wolves are enough?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took the gray wolf off the endangered species list in 2009, with the caveat that at least 150 wolves and 15 breeding pairs endure in each of the three states in the northern Rocky Mountain population (Montana, Idaho and Wyoming).

Recent surveys found at least 1,700 wolves in that area - more than enough to justify delisting.

But a coalition of environmental groups sued the government, claiming those numbers were wrong. To survive and thrive, they argued, the population needed at least 2,000 and preferably 5,000 wolves.

FWS biologists said they used the best available science to pick their number.

Coalition members cited the well-established rules of conservation biology to justify their threshold. While the scientists dueled, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy decided the case on a technicality and Congress reversed him with a budget rider. Wolves in the Northern Rockies are now delisted, but almost nobody’s happy.

Over the past decade, biologists have sought a “magic number” that would simplify endangered species debates. In 2010, an Australian team led by Lochran Traill of the University of Adelaide published a study declaring 5,000 was the CONSERVATION

population size required to prevent any species’ extinction.

“We don’t have the time and resources to attend to finding thresholds for all threatened species,” Traill told Science Observer Magazine.

“Thus the need for a generalization that can be implemented across taxa (classes of animals and plants) to prevent extinction.”

But another group of U.S. Forest Service researchers along with American and British professors warn that a simple tool may be a flawed tool. While they agree that an easily understood standard helps persuade judges or members of Congress of the need for action, the 5,000 figure doesn’t add up. Their paper will be published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

“It’s natural for any policy maker and practitioner to look for ways of simplifying the overwhelming process of endangered species management,” said Greg Hayward of the Forest Service’s Alaska Region Office. “If that worked, it would be a delightful world to live in.

But if you’re really going to do anything positive, in terms of turning around the situation for these species, going for that simple rule of thumb isn’t going to help.”

Both sides use a lot of math to make their points. Traill and company looked at 1,198 species with a computer model that calculated how many of each would be needed for the plant or animal to survive in the long term. In particular, ·

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the study looked at how many are needed to ensure a species doesn’t in-breed itself into extinction.

That’s key because one requirement to getting off the endangered species list is a population big enough to guarantee genetic diversity. Earthjustice attorney Doug Honnold relied on that in his argument to Molloy, to show why the wolf should remain a listed species.

“If you’re talking about genetics, then there are some basic genetic principles that apply across all species,” Honnold said. “It’s been documented with every species that’s been studied.”

Honnold referred to what’s called the “50-500 rule” which states you need at least 50 breeding-age females of a species for short-term survival or 500 for the long term. In the case of wolves, there’s usually only one breeding female in a pack of four to 10 wolves, so the total population number balloons to 2,0005,000.

The “magic number opponents” respond that genetics isn’t everything.

In the case of wolves, where might that 2,000-5,000 figure apply? Do we need a minimum viable population in the three states where wolves were reintroduced back in 1995? Or should the figure be spread across the six-state area ·

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Lots of scientific reasons justify the wolf’s presence on the landscape: It reduces elk populations, which in turn improves the plant communities along streams, which brings back songbirds and beavers.

But reduced elk numbers aggravate a hunting community that’s invested millions of dollars to improve elk habitat.

Wolves also have proved a poster target for politicians who want to leash the Endangered Species Act. Natural Resources Defense Council staff scientist Sylvia Fallon said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service knew it would face public resistance if it proposed reintroducing lots of wolves, so it picked a deliberately low 150-per-state figure to get the reintroduction in play.

“They (FWS biologists) say they came up with that number in consultation with scientists, but they never said who they were,” Fallon said. “It was some guesswork factoring in social and political considerations at the time, what would be acceptable to the states and the public.”

FWS attorneys rejected that claim in

now delisted by congressional fiat (adding Utah, Washington and Oregon to Montana, Idaho and Wyoming)? Does it count the Canadian wolves that have relations with American packs along the international border?

“Under the Endangered Species Act, we sort of ignore other segments of populations that are outside the United States,” said Hayward’s colleague, Steven Beissinger of the University of California-Berkeley. “In the case of the paper we did, one thing we found was, the particular technique people used to come up with this minimum number was very context-specific.”

In other words, each animal needs its own formula. Passenger pigeons had different lifespans and breeding rates than wolves. They could fly across continents at will, while wolves may be stymied by freeways. Passenger pigeons were, in fact, the most abundant land bird in the continental United States - 3 billion to 5 billion individuals - before the population crashed between 1870 and 1890.

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their court briefs, but they never got to have the argument in Molloy’s courtroom. Without ever discussing what an appropriate number should be, the judge only said the federal government illegally used state boundaries to divide a natural population.

Beissinger suggested a better target in the search for the elusive magic number.

Instead of a unified field theory of how many of a species is needed to survive, we humans should settle on what risk factor we’re willing to work with, he said.

“In my profession, we don’t have a single standard that’s been set for what degree of risk we’re willing to accept for a species to go extinct,” he said. “I could make a calculation for a species and say nine times out of 10, it would be viable there, for 50 years. Would that be good enough, or would you want a 95 percent chance, or an 80 percent chance?

But it’s too naive to use just measures of population size and come up with some rule of thumb whether a population is safe or not.”

Navi stole a prize... somebody’s camera.

It took about 20 minutes and he soon gave up.

It was replaced with a nice bone which tasted better.

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UPCOMING EVENTS Natural Resources Defense Council www.nrdc.org

www.aza.org

Mexican Grey Wolves www.mexicanwolves.org

Wild Earth Guardians www.wildearthguardians.org

FULL MOON TOURS JULY 16th & 17th TIME: 7:30

BOOK SIGNING SUNDAY, JULY 31st NOON-2:00pm

Defenders of Wildlife www.defendersofwildlife.org

ADULTS: $25 KIDS: $15 (8-12 years) No children under the age of 8

Make plans now to visit CWWC on July 31st for a special event. Brent Carter, PH.D., author of “Untamed Leadership” will be signing copies of his book from 12:00 to 2:00.

Books will be available for purchase the day of the event. The book contains pictures of Kekoa and several pages of observations made while at CWWC. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of his book will be donated to CWWC.

Project Coyote www.projectcoyote.org

For current wolf articles and to be a voice through knowledge

become a fan of CWWC

Be here at 7:00 for a meet & greet with one of our ambassador wolves.

Wear warm clothes and good boots.

Bring a camera & flashlight.

Cocoa and coffee will be provided.

RESERVATIONS required 719-687-9742

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