On March 9, 2010, Candice Berner, a 32 year-old special education teacher working in Chignik Lake, Alaska, went jogging at dusk on a road near town and was attacked and killed by wolves. On October 28, 2009, Canadian folk singer Taylor Mitchell was hiking in a Provincial Park in Nova Scotia when she was attacked and killed by two coyotes, which were subsequently identified by park rangers as a wolf-coyote hybrid. In November of 2005, college student Kenton Carnegie was hiking on a road near Points North Landing in northern Saskatchewan when he was attacked and killed by wolves. There was some dispute over whether Carnegie was killed by wolves or a bear, but a provincial inquest found that wolves were responsible. The attacking wolves in these three incidents were not rabid. Some light on wolf-human encounters was shed in 2002 when Alaskan wildlife biologist Mark McNay published a report of a two-year study documenting 80 aggressive encounters between wolves and people in North America in the 20th century. In only 12 of the attacks were the wolves rabid. Since McNay's report came out there have been three fatal attacks by healthy wolves, and an unknown number of non-fatal aggressive encounters and attacks on people and their pets in the U.S. and Canada. So what's up? "In Wolves In Russia," Will Graves reports on a long history of wolf attacks on people in Eurasia, especially Russia, Pakistan, India and Kazakhastan, including thousands of fatal ones. Have Siberian wolves sneaked across the Bering Sea ice in winter and turned our harmless wolves into bad guys? People were killed by wolves in North America before the 20th century. The appearance of people with firearms led to the demise of wolves in the Lower 48 as there was concentrated effort to eradicate Canis lupus. More than two million wolves were killed in the process. Not nearly as many people in Eurasia are armed...more
Monday, April 26, 2010
The myth of the harmless wolf
On March 9, 2010, Candice Berner, a 32 year-old special education teacher working in Chignik Lake, Alaska, went jogging at dusk on a road near town and was attacked and killed by wolves. On October 28, 2009, Canadian folk singer Taylor Mitchell was hiking in a Provincial Park in Nova Scotia when she was attacked and killed by two coyotes, which were subsequently identified by park rangers as a wolf-coyote hybrid. In November of 2005, college student Kenton Carnegie was hiking on a road near Points North Landing in northern Saskatchewan when he was attacked and killed by wolves. There was some dispute over whether Carnegie was killed by wolves or a bear, but a provincial inquest found that wolves were responsible. The attacking wolves in these three incidents were not rabid. Some light on wolf-human encounters was shed in 2002 when Alaskan wildlife biologist Mark McNay published a report of a two-year study documenting 80 aggressive encounters between wolves and people in North America in the 20th century. In only 12 of the attacks were the wolves rabid. Since McNay's report came out there have been three fatal attacks by healthy wolves, and an unknown number of non-fatal aggressive encounters and attacks on people and their pets in the U.S. and Canada. So what's up? "In Wolves In Russia," Will Graves reports on a long history of wolf attacks on people in Eurasia, especially Russia, Pakistan, India and Kazakhastan, including thousands of fatal ones. Have Siberian wolves sneaked across the Bering Sea ice in winter and turned our harmless wolves into bad guys? People were killed by wolves in North America before the 20th century. The appearance of people with firearms led to the demise of wolves in the Lower 48 as there was concentrated effort to eradicate Canis lupus. More than two million wolves were killed in the process. Not nearly as many people in Eurasia are armed...more
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As I commented after the ESPN article, with the Mexican wolf program, habituation is also caused by the program management itself. This, to me, is one of the major reasons for the tremendous number of problems with that program, and is the major source of risk to humans here in Mexican wolf project area.
With that much handling, no way Mexican wolves could be considered "normal" or "wild". And therefore, no way they should be protected by the Endangered Species Act. Maybe they should come under the auspices of ASPCA!
Perhaps the answer is simply to manage wolves less. Stop removing them, let them spread of their own accord.
As for wolf-human attacks, funny how many more people are killed by their own dogs, or by mountain lions or dozens of other creatures. What a crock of a reason to oppose wolves!
The key to managing any wolf is the 3-S protocol.
A Letter to ESPN (and Disney) About Wolves
Matt Skoglund
Wildlife Advocate, Livingston, Montana
Blog | AboutPosted April 29, 2010 in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/mskoglund/a_letter_to_espn_and_disney_ab.html
Dear ESPN (and Disney),
I am baffled and troubled by your publishing of “The myth of the harmless wolf” by James Swan on the Outdoors section of your popular ESPN.com website. The article is so misleading, one-sided, over-the-top, and, at times, bizarre, it is difficult to understand how you decided to publish it.
I’d like to know why ESPN would baselessly demonize the wolf, an iconic wildlife species revered by many across the country, on its website. Why are you trying to needlessly scare people? What’s your goal here?
If a mainstream monster network like ESPN wants a legitimate outdoors section on its website, it should celebrate wolves and the amazing American conservation success story of wolf reintroduction in the Northern Rockies, not reach into the Fox News toolbox of fear tactics.
The majority owner of ESPN is The Walt Disney Company. Disney is quite proud of its conservation and environmental-protection efforts. (Full disclosure: Disney is supporting an NRDC conservation effort in Costa Rica.) Just last week, Disney announced:
The Walt Disney Company's rich legacy of respect for the planet and all its inhabitants began with Walt himself and continues on today. A new Disney Conservation Report provides an overview of The Walt Disney Company's efforts to save wildlife and wild places and engage people of all ages in conservation, as well as snapshots of some of Disney's most important initiatives.
ESPN also touts its own corporate-sustainability efforts on its website (and links to Disney’s corporate responsibility page):
It’s our fishing sanctuary, our local soccer pitch, our makeshift dirt bike track – but in the end, the Earth needs just as much attention as the things we enjoy in life. ESPN is proud to do its part to promote and resurrect a greener world.
Really? Swan’s article is a not-so-subtle call to kill wolves, which only occupy a tiny portion of their historic range -- about 5% -- in the lower 48. Please explain how trying to scare the soccer balls out of your viewership with a sensationalized, misleading vilification of wolves jibes with your and Disney’s statements.
Throughout Swan’s article, he misrepresents facts, spouts half-truths, makes astounding leaps for his “support,” and plays fast and loose with the truth.
read more at the link above
A Letter to ESPN (and Disney) About Wolves
by Matt Skoglund
http://tinyurl.com/2764gef
A Letter to ESPN (and Disney) About Wolves
by Matt Skoglund
http://tinyurl.com/2764gef
I grew up in the chignik area my whole life have had sevral encounters with wolf's but I had the knowledge from my elders to know better to stray out of protection of the village, and being a woman also you never go our before, during or after your womanaly cycles. These are wild animals we came into their land people need to remeber that. Our elders showed us how to live along with them for generations. Its not the wolf's fault they are hungry in the early springs people should have the common sense to stay out of their territory's.
http://tidogtendens.dk/ulv/
Heres a page for the Wolf hugging morons that say more people are killed by their dogs. 30 killed in one week globally by wolves.
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