The Wyoming Game and Fish Department will be trapping wolves east of Yellowstone National Park in the coming months as part of efforts to monitor populations since the animals were proposed for removal from the endangered species list.
As part of its ongoing efforts, Wyoming Game and Fish may conduct scientific trapping operations in several locations during the next few months, according to a statement released by the agency.
Trapping may take place in the Absaroka Range south and west of Cody and Meeteetse, more specifically along the Shoshone River, Greybull River, Wood River, Gooseberry Creek, Grass Creek, Cottonwood Creek and Owl Creek drainages and their tributaries.
The agency is required to monitor the wolf population in northwest Wyoming under the terms of its agreements with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Trapped wolves are immobilized, processed, and released on-site, in accordance with standard capture and handling techniques, according to agency officials.
All major access points where wolf trapping is being conducted will be marked with warning signs. Wildlife managers aid it is “critical that the public read and comply with these signs to prevent serious accidents involving people and/or pets.”
Specific information about exact dates or sites of trapping operations have not yet been released.
For more information regarding gray wolf trapping efforts, contact the Game and Fish Cody regional office at 307-527-7125.
Won’t trapping and tagging them make them easier prey for hunters. How hard would it be for a hunter to track the location of an animal? This seems like a death sentence for the animals, not a census tactic.
What is wrong with you people leave the poor wolves alone isn’t it bad enough you let babies be killed
Who are you trying to kid? You do not even monitor the wolves you have already collared. You even collar pups under a year old, how smart is that? Why don’t you just come out and tell the truth, you want to track the wolves and make sure they are killed by the hunters.
Your blatant mis use of power is disgusting to people of common decency.
You can fool some of the people some of the time but not all the people all the time. Monitor the wolves, how many times have you been phone called over an issue and have you say you don’t have anyone monitoring them. Your a bain to America!
State parks at least here in NYS have budget cuts. Who is paying for the wolves to be collared anyway? Taxpayers I bet. How many more wolves will be dead before people do anything? The hunters have to share wildlife with pro wildlife people not kill them all! The deer, pronghorn sheep, Elk and other wildlife will be hunted down to hang on some hunters wall. I would like to see animals alive.
PRONGHORN SHEEP ???????
Better know what you are talking about before you say anything
I did not know it was a done deal. The removal of endangered wolves from the endangered species list. I know scientists that spoke up against removal of wolves from the endangered species list were not allowed to weigh in because of the political agenda of catering to special interest groups who seem to have free rein of public lands and want to get rid of the wildlife. I thought the whole removal of endangered wolves from the endangered species act was on hold since they were caught not allowing scientists to speak up in the peer review against removal of wolves from the endangered species act. Wolves cross state and country boundaries. How could it be a state issue and not a federal issue? I also let the government know in their feedback site and your fish and game department. It’s a valid concern.
I am from Northern Wyo. By Douglas Wyo. My family has owned some land there for many years now, My mom and step dad worked in the oil fields there for years, I remember seeing my first grey wolf, it was after a priory dog or something like that, it was about 25 below with wind chill but I could not help to watch in amazement as this wonderful animal as on the first try he caught his meal, I asked my dad then about the wolves and he told me to always watch out and pertect them. Joan I agree with you how ever wolves are not animals that stay in one spot I have seen the in Idaho, and Canada so I would think that yes it should make it a federal issue. I like many people from wyo.and surrounding area’s would love to see the wild life of there area around for a long time remember it was there land before it was ours can’t we share so they eat to survive don’t we all do what we need to do to feed our family’s? come on America wake up safe our wildlife before it is to late and we have to read about another animal in a book…….
Etenn Layton Las Vegas
Why this constant focus on wolves? Why not trap & tag all the deer, elk, possum, mountain lions, bald eagles, etc. ? Do the Fish & Wildlife not realize that the public knows exactly who they are catering to when they do this? It certainly isn’t just hunters. Where does the money come from to do all this trapping and endless tagging? Study? By whom and for whom? How will this information be used? Questions need answers.
Do not kill they wolf they did nothing wrong .you keep killing them we wont have any left to see just read about them .please leave them alone
I really wish and hope that someone with brain will PLEASE LEAVE THESE BEAUTIFUL WOLVES THE HELL ALONE. They don’t need to have collars on them. Just leave them alone. Leave them alone….leave them alone….leave them alone…am I getting through to anyone ? LEAVE THEM ALONE.
STOP THIS MADNESS
Yes, of course… TRAP wolves, preferably in leghold traps like done in Washington to cripple them a bit, COLLAR them, no matter what size the wolf might be, as there’s a good chance that collar will not grow too tight with time, “monitor” them and publish the location, or better still, the frequency on your website so the hunters will have NO trouble at all to find the pack next hunting season. Whom are you trying to fool, Game&Fish Dept? Wyoming officials are not interested in the actual number of wolves, but only in decreasing it as close to zero as technically (and maybe, just maybe legally) possible. There is a WAR against wolves going on – and collaring them is nothing but marking the goals for the sharpshooters.
Wyoming Game & Fish – you should be called Wyoming Hunting, Cattle & Killers! You have ignored ALL input from citizens who are TOTALLY AGAINST the hunting of wolves and other wildlife, especially in or near YNP – yet you choose to ignore them all of the time. Both Wyoming & Montana have chosen to stack the deck against wolves by placing outfitters/hunters/cattle ranchers on your commission’s & advisory boards. The non-consumptive wildlife viewers & majority of the American people including your states citizens voices have been totally ignored & silenced for money $$$$$$$$$!!!!!!!! You know it’s true – why don’t you admit it & stop playing games. You have sold out the wolves & other wildlife for money & cows!! Your motives are transparent – please don’t insult us with your LIES!!!! The so-called hunters are salivating to kill a YNP wolf & you are obliging them. Immoral & Disgusting.
They can call this ” research” if they want, but it’s really just tracking. Putting a radio beacon on at least one dominant wolf per pack turns them into Judas wolves, easier to find later for ” control”, which is a term for eradication in most cases. When have we ever heard the word ” relocation” applied to wolf management ?
The real question here would be to ask Wyo G&F to spell out in detail their NON-LETHAL wolf management activity. It is nearly impossible to get information from Wyo G&F on wolves . When you FOIA them, the documents come back heavily redacted if they bother to respond at all . They are almost, but not quite, as bad as Wildlife Services about this. It is impossible for the citizens to know or understand how the state’s actual on-the-ground wolf management is proceeding because so much information is withheld. By law. It was written into the Wyoming wolf plan that location of wolf kills—whether legally hunted or not — and wolf control was prohibited to be public, except in the most generalized nonspecific manner.
However, during his ” Swan Song” presentation on the past present and future of the Grey Wolf in Wyoming, Mark Bruscino flashed a slide on the screen of an accurate map showing where all the wolves were killed during the recent first ever legal hunt. I managed to grab a photo of that slide. It showed among other things that a disproportionately large number of wolves killed in the predator zone were shot right on the boundary of the Trophy zone in the area where they would be if dispersing south to Colorado or back west to Idaho and Utah, many right on the boundary of that ridiculous ” Flex Zone” seasonal area. When I FOIA’d the Wyo G&F to retrieve the very same PowerPoint slides that Bruscino showed PUBLICALLY to a crowd of over 100 in Cody , that was redacted, big time.
Wyo G&F does not want the public to know how wolves areally being ” Managed”. An informed public and people asking questions about policy is anathema to them , the Legislature, and Governor Matt Mead. all they want to do is keep the barest minimum number of wolves in the smallest legal space, and kill all those that make a break for it. But not only is that not wolf management, it’s not wildlife conservation , and goes against the intent and letter of the Endangered Species Act. But guess what ? US Fis and Wildlife has totally abrogated wolves and washed their hands of them.
It’s all political, and dark. No way to run a wolf program.
Dewey, Is it true that 75 – 80% of our endangered species resources are spent on just the grizzly and wolf?
What is wrong with you!!leave wolves alone! They deserve to live in peace, they are ESSENTIAL. Stop selling yourselves to the Ranchers and hunters. Listen to your people, there are more who want wolves alive. I’m not from USA, I live in Mexico, and we are passing the voice so no one visit your bloody state. It’s such a shame money and personal interest are more important than Wolves.
Well the game an fish dept has reared its ugly head yet again who are they trying to kid do they think were all as stupid as them for gods sake Americans give this lot the sack they are desimating your wildlife
Leave them alone if they trap wolves from pacs and move them to other places the wolves will be distressed and may not be able to get into other pacs.what they should do is dart by helicopter rabies vaccines and distemper and canine cough .Ensuring for healthy wolf pacs and protecting the public from any diseases
the gray wolfs are not native to the lower 48 states and should have never been put here. They are killing all other forms of wild life and not for food but for fun. ether we get rid of this invasive wolf are all other wild life will be extinct!
Fortunately someone who speaks from the facts instead of emotion. The wolves introduced to Yellowstone 15+/- yrs ago have multiplied into over 200 packs from 2 or 3 and are killing off the Elk herd and working on the deer and buffalo and have left the confines of this huge park to neighboring ranches for killing the sheep and cattle on ranches. (last week in Idaho there were 176 sheep and two guard dogs slaughtered by one wolf pack in a killing spree, wolves do not kill just to eat, they kill for the sport of it teaching their young to do the same.) When man interferes with nature everyone suffers. Even the previously native wolves that inhabited the park. All you emotionalists do your research.
From what I have read, most of these so called wolf sympathizers are from out of state and are women or children that cannot write a letter correctly. You have no idea what goes on in our State of Wyoming and how wildlife is managed. I feel we should place some wolves in your backyard along with 300 prairie dogs and see how long before you want someone to rid your property of them. There is still predator and prey in this world and man is still at the top of the food chain. It’s too bad you don’t have the same feelings for human life (babies, of which 50 million have been aborted since 1973 Roe verse Wade) as you do for the so called poor wolves. I love animals , they taste great and I’m a hunter and proud of what I shoot and put in my freezer to eat and feed my family. No one ever gets e-coli from eating Deer or Elk.
Well said and I agree, saw far fewer Elk this year than the past three times I visited Yellowstone. The idiots are trying to reintroduce wolves to CA and grizzly bears. Wonder if dinosaurs could be introduced to the big city parks because they inhabited the area before man, residents would be happy to see them in their back yards. Coyotes and snakes are common in some cities and other critters and people complain. How about the gators that are taking over Florida along with non-native pythons? As far as killing 55 million innocent babies those who do not believe that murder is murder will someday have to face the truth.