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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Killing spree': Wisconsin's wolf population plunges after protections removed
Researchers blame poaching and hunting far beyond quotas after species dropped from endangered list
Associated Press
Mon 5 Jul 2021 11.25 EDT
As many as one-third of Wisconsins gray wolves probably died at the hands of humans in the months after the federal government announced it was ending legal protections, according to a study released on Monday.
Poaching and a February hunt that far exceeded kill quotas were largely responsible for the drop-off, University of Wisconsin scientists said.
Adrian Treves, an environmental studies professor, said his teams findings should raise doubts about having another hunting season this fall and serve notice to wildlife managers in other states with wolves.
. . .
The US Fish and Wildlife Service dropped gray wolves in the lower 48 states from its list of endangered and threatened species in January, shortly before former Donald Trump left office.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/05/gray-wolves-wisconsin-hunting-population
North Shore Chicago
(3,324 posts)Who needs a stinking quota?
I need to kill sumthin'! Cuz I can.
(((((Wolves)))))
Disaffected
(4,568 posts)bahboo
(16,355 posts)stop the hunt!
Dream Girl
(5,111 posts)Sickening.
yonder
(9,674 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,620 posts)Experts warn Wisconsin could be a harbinger of the fate of wolves in other states unless the Biden administration quickly restores federal protections.
ANDREA GERMANOS, STAFF WRITER
July 5, 2021
A new study published Monday estimates Wisconsin lost as much as a third of its gray wolf population after the Trump administration stripped federal protections for the animals and the state allowed for a public wolf hunt widely decried as being "divorced from science and ethical norms."
The February hunt, panned (pdf) by wildlife advocates as "an outright slaughter," killed 218 wolvesalready far past the quota the state had set. But over 100 additional wolf deaths were the result of "cryptic poaching," University of WisconsinMadison environmental studies scientists found, referring to illegal killings in which hunters hide evidence of their activities.
The majority of those surplus deaths, the researchers estimate, occurred after the Trump administration announced on November 3, 2020 the lifting of endangered species protections for gray wolves in the lower 48 states. That shift became effective in January 2021.
According to the study, published in the journal Peerj, between 98 and 105 wolves died since November 2020 "that would have been alive had delisting not occurred."
More:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/05/study-details-how-trump-unleashed-outright-slaughter-wolves-wisconsin
Duppers
(28,127 posts)Do these assholes care about anything other than their own sport & money?
They're cruel to the bone!!
Raine
(30,540 posts)Marrah_Goodman
(1,586 posts)Ecosystems rely on top predators to maintain health and balance.