The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Five Conservation Groups Are Offering a $15,500 Reward for Information About the Killing of a Federally Protected Gray Wolf

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and five conservation groups are offering a $15,500 reward for information about the killing of a federally protected gray wolf.

The four-year-old male, known as OR-33, was found dead in late April in southwestern Oregon's Fremont-Winema National Forest, according to the agency. A necropsy confirmed that it was OR-33, which had a collar that had stopped working the previous year. The wolf died of gunshot wounds.

"This is a heartbreaking loss for Oregon's wolves," Amaroq Weiss, West Coast wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. "Wolf recovery in Oregon depends on wolves like OR-33 making their way west and thriving, so his death is a major setback."

Gray wolves are listed as endangered in the western part of Oregon. "The federal offense is punishable by up to a $100,000 fine, a year in jail, or both. The maximum state penalty is a fine of $6,250 and a year in jail," according to The Associated Press.

OR-33 was a lone wolf, having left the Imnaha pack in northeastern Oregon in 2015, the Fish and Wildlife Service said.

Last year, "OR-33 roamed almost within Ashland city limits — a city of more than 20,000. From June 10-12, he attacked and killed two goats and one lamb at a small livestock operation northeast of Ashland," the Statesman Journal reported, citing the agency.

The animal was apparently not subtle. "This wolf is acting like David Lee Roth," Greg Roberts, a media personality in Southern Oregon, told the Statesman Journal last year. "I had eight people in Ashland say that they've seen him around their property."

Oregon had at least 112 wolves in 2016, according to state statistics. But the conservation groups contributing to the reward for information say that "since 2015 at least eight wolves have been poached or died under mysterious circumstances in Oregon."

Quinn Read, Northwest representative of Defenders of Wildlife, said poaching in Oregon is "a huge and growing problem." She added: "We need everyone's help to catch this killer."

If you have information about this case, you can call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at (503) 682-6131, or Oregon State Police Tip Line at (800) 452-7888.

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Feds Want to Shrink the Range of Endangered Red Wolves in N.C.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed dramatic changes Monday to its 29-year effort in North Carolina to save endangered red wolves, including dramatically shrinking their range.

An estimated 45 to 60 wolves – down from more than 100 in recent years – now roam five counties of northeastern North Carolina, much of it private land. Under the proposal, they would be limited to federal land in Dare County, in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and the Dare County Bombing Range.

The change would take effect by the end of 2017 after further studies and public comment. Conservation groups quickly condemned the proposal Monday.

Wolves on private property would be removed and made part of a captive wolf population, which now numbers about 200 animals. The captive wolves include only 29 breeding pairs, which is not enough to sustain the population, the agency says.

The service will identify potential new sites to release wolves into the wild by October 2017. Coastal North Carolina is now the only place where they run wild.

The wolf recovery program has been hailed as ground-breaking for saving animals that were declared extinct in the wild in 1980. But wolves in recent years have faced a backlash, including growing numbers shot to death and mounting pressure from landowners to keep them off private property.

To read more on this story, click here: Feds Want to Shrink the Range of Endangered Red Wolves in N.C.


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