Saturday, July 19, 2008

Good news from the Rockies

It's looking like the wolf recovery program out in the Rockies is going to be allowed to proceed awhile longer without the wolves being used for target practice:

A federal judge has restored endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, derailing plans by three states to hold public wolf hunts this fall.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy granted a preliminary injunction late Friday restoring the protections for the wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Molloy will eventually decide whether the injunction should be permanent.

The region has an estimated 2,000 gray wolves. They were removed from the endangered species list in March, following a decade-long
restoration effort.

I think the article caught my eye because I'd just finished reading Nevada Barr's Winter Study, a mystery set in Isle Royale National Park that incorporates the wolf study there into the plot. The study celebrates its 50th year in 2008 and is the longest predator-prey study to date.

3 comments:

  1. how can they shoot those beautiful creatures...pretty soon there will only be a few cats and a parakeet left alive..

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  2. Forget about the cats. If food prices go high enough, they'll become an endangered species, too. They're edible. I knew a guy from Chicago who used to refer to cats as "roof rabbits."

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  3. Back during the first wave of Laotian immigration in the early 80's I worked with two guys (we named them Ping and Pong) who regularly brought in what they claimed was cat stir fry. These same two also brought in robin wrapped in bananna leaves, apparently a quite tasty entree. They quickly learned however that the culture does not take kindly to those who eat household pets and songbirds. Go figure!

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