Beyond their importance as a critical keystone species, wolves are really playful! As highly social animals that live in well-organized family units called packs, wolves will often engage in social play to strengthen family bonds and assess social status within the pack. When seeking to play, wolves will dance and bow playfully. Playtime can also include…

The New Mexico Game Commission today approved trapping of bobcats, foxes, and other wildlife throughout nearly all of the state, despite public opposition to the practice long criticized as inhumane and indiscriminate. The decision reauthorizes the use of leghold traps, body-crushing traps, and strangulation snares that have killed and maimed endangered Mexican wolves and countless…

Each year thousands of animals, including coyotes, die in cruel wildlife killing competitions held in New York, where contestants compete to shoot the most or biggest animals for cash prizes. Incentivizing the killing of New York’s coyotes is wrong – it’s both cruel and scientifically unsound as a management tool.  For more than 100 years,…

Wolves are highly social animals that live in structured family units called packs. A pack is simply a family, with parents at the lead (sometimes referred to as the breeding pair or alpha pair) and offspring of varying ages. Sometimes unrelated wolves will join a family too. Cooperative living gives wolf families a number of…

A face like this needs more than just a number! This season, the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team (IFT) is completing its annual year-end population survey of the Mexican gray wolves living in Arizona and New Mexico. As part of this survey, the IFT collars and identifies each wolf they find with a number. We…

“…the best wolf habitat resides in the human heart. You have to leave a little space for them to live.”  – Ed Bangs (Former Wolf Recovery Coordinator U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) Yellowstone: The “little space” wolves were given 25 years ago today when the federal government gave the green light to return wolves to…

Wolves are built to withstand extremely cold temperatures, but unseasonably warm weather during the winter months can be a challenge. Wolves (like dogs) will stay cool by panting to evaporate heat and moisture off their tongue. Panting is especially effective for wolves. A wolf’s elongated muzzle and the shape of the inner nose ensure optimal…

…the 1970’s absolutely must be the years when America pays its debt to the past by reclaiming the purity of its air, its waters, and our living environment. It is literally now or never. ~ President Nixon’s Signing Statement for the National Environmental Policy Act, January 1, 1970 Considered the nation’s oldest environmental law, the…

Although Colorado has not been home for wolves since they were exterminated by federally-funded bounties in the 1940s, a small number of lone wolves have wandered into the state over the past two decades. Single wolves were confirmed in 2004, 2009, 2015, and 2019. Despite their federal protection, these lone travelers are vulnerable without a…