Temple Illuminatus2024-03-29T14:15:09ZNoitahttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/noitahttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3652264559?profile=RESIZE_180x180&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://templeilluminatus.ning.com/forum/topic/listForContributor?groupUrl=for-the-love-of-the-wolf&user=1ey75zghn6qig&feed=yes&xn_auth=noDebunking the Alpha Wolf: Why We Need to Rethink Our Understanding of Wolf Packstag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2023-05-29:6363372:Topic:36355372023-05-29T15:47:12.600ZNoitahttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/noita
<h2 class="name"><a href="https://www.onegreenplanet.org/author/kyle_vincent/">By Nicholas Vincent</a></h2>
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<p><span>If you’ve ever heard the term “alpha wolf,” you might imagine snapping fangs and fighting to the death for dominance. However, the idea that a ruthless dictator leads …</span></p>
<h2 class="name"><a href="https://www.onegreenplanet.org/author/kyle_vincent/">By Nicholas Vincent</a></h2>
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<p><span>If you’ve ever heard the term “alpha wolf,” you might imagine snapping fangs and fighting to the death for dominance. However, the idea that a ruthless dictator leads <a href="https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/for-the-first-time-in-history-california-has-two-packs-of-wolves-with-pups/">wolf packs</a> is a myth. In recent years, wildlife biologists have largely dropped the term “alpha,” Researchers have found that most wolf packs are simply families led by a breeding pair. So, what is the truth behind the wolf hierarchy?</span></p>
<p><span>In captivity, a dominance hierarchy arises when wolves are thrown together with no shared kinship. However, in the wild, wolf packs are usually made up of a breeding male, a breeding female, and their offspring from the past two or three years that have not yet set out on their own. All members in these family packs defer to the breeding male and female. When offspring are two to three years old, they leave the pack searching for mates and aim to start their pack. Infighting for dominance is unheard of in a typical pack.</span></p>
<p><span>The alpha wolf idea comes from outdated terminology from research on captive wolf packs in the mid-20th century. Wildlife biologists, like </span><a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/why-dont-people-care-that-more-men-dont-choose-caregiving-professions/"><span>L. David Mech</span></a><span>, once used terms such as alpha and beta to describe the pecking order in wolf packs. In the 1970s, Mech used the alpha wolf nomenclature in a classic book of wolf biology, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0816610266/?tag=onegrepla-20">The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species</a>. However, as new research has come to light, Mech has pushed back against the term, and The Wolf was taken out of print in 2022.</span></p>
<p><span>On rare occasions, wolf packs may balloon in size. There may be more than one breeding pair in these cases, and competition can erupt over breeding spots. However, having multiple breeding pairs in a pack is now uncommon, and hunting and trapping may also reshuffle wolf families. Usually, younger wolves lose their lives when hunting and trapping occur, and if a breeding female or male is killed, a lone dispersing wolf may step in to take its place. However, there is still a lot that still needs to be discovered about how hunting and trapping affect pack structure.</span></p>
<p><span>As wildlife biologists have dropped the term “alpha,” it’s essential to have a greater awareness of the origins of the myths surrounding the </span><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wolf-populations-drop-as-more-states-allow-hunting/"><span>wolf hierarchy</span></a><span>. The myth of the alpha wolf is a classic example of a cultural belief based on misinformation that influences our perceptions of wild animals. It’s crucial to recognize that we must learn and unlearn some ideas about nature to understand the world better. We should question commonly accepted beliefs and seek out current and accurate information.</span></p>
<p><span>The </span><a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/what-wolves-in-yellowstone-can-teach-us-about-probiotics/"><span>Alpha Wolf Idea</span></a><span> is a myth that is no longer relevant in today’s world. We should focus on learning about wolf packs’ real social structures and behaviors instead of relying on outdated and inaccurate terminology. Let’s continue to educate ourselves and others about the importance of respecting wildlife and the natural world.</span></p>
<p><span>So, the next time you hear someone talk about the alpha wolf, remember that it is likely a myth, and we should focus on learning about the real social structures and behaviors of wolf packs.</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span><a href="https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animals/debunking-the-alpha-wolf-rethink-wolf-packs/">https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animals/debunking-the-alpha-wolf-rethink-wolf-packs/</a></span></p> ‘Stunning’ Wolf Discovery Caught On Wildlife Camera In Minnesotatag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2023-04-24:6363372:Topic:36339832023-04-24T14:56:01.729ZNoitahttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/noita
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">This is a rare sight in the region.</span></p>
<p><span>By </span><a class="js-entry-link cet-internal-link" href="https://www.huffpost.com/author/ed-mazza">Ed Mazza</a></p>
<div class="entry__byline__author"><div> </div>
<div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text"><p>A wildlife camera in <a class=" js-entry-link cet-internal-link" href="https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/minnesota" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Minnesota</a> captured a rare sight recently: a…</p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">This is a rare sight in the region.</span></p>
<p><span>By </span><a class="js-entry-link cet-internal-link" href="https://www.huffpost.com/author/ed-mazza">Ed Mazza</a></p>
<div class="entry__byline__author"><div> </div>
<div><div class="primary-cli cli cli-text"><p>A wildlife camera in <a class=" js-entry-link cet-internal-link" href="https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/minnesota" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Minnesota</a> captured a rare sight recently: a lone <a class=" js-entry-link cet-internal-link" href="https://www.huffpost.com/topic/wolves" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wolf</a> with a stunning coat of black fur.</p>
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<div class="primary-cli cli cli-text"><p>The <a class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" href="https://www.voyageurswolfproject.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Voyageurs Wolf Project</a> said it is currently tracking some 19 packs in the area ― but none of them have any wolves with black fur, which means this one was just passing through.</p>
<p>The project released the “stunning” footage on social media as well as YouTube:</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0sXwTKwLZ2A?wmode=opaque" width="720" height="405" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<div class="primary-cli cli cli-text"><p>The International Wolf Center estimates that <a class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" href="https://wolf.org/original-articles/learn-about-black-wolves/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">less than 2% of wolves</a> in Minnesota are black.</p>
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<div class="primary-cli cli cli-text"><p>“We rarely see black wolves in our area so seeing this black wolf with its seemingly shaggy coat, especially around its legs and feet, was pretty neat!” the Voyageurs Wolf Project wrote in its YouTube description.</p>
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<div class="primary-cli cli cli-text"><p>The project is an effort by the University of Minnesota to <a class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" href="https://www.voyageurswolfproject.org/about-the-project" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study the wolves</a> in and around Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota.</p>
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<div class="primary-cli cli cli-text"><p>The footage shows the wolf pacing, looking around, and then briefly pawing at the snow before pulling something out and running off with the object in its mouth.</p>
<div class="primary-cli cli cli-text"><p>The organization said in response to a question on Twitter that the object was likely “a rock or something.”</p>
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<div class="primary-cli cli cli-text"><p>The Voyageurs Wolf Project has released some stunning clips in recent years, including <a class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw1CDs9aUd0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a pack that’s nearly all black wolves</a> passing through last year, <a class=" js-entry-link cet-internal-link" href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wolf-pup-first-howls_n_60a72221e4b019ef10d84c03" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trail camera video of a pup learning to howl</a>, and footage taken from <a class=" js-entry-link cet-internal-link" href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wolf-collar-cam_n_607d11cbe4b0bc5a3a58d0ca" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a collar camera that had been place on a wolf</a>.</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/black-wolf-in-minnesota_n_6446280ce4b0408f3e541e39">https://www.huffpost.com/entry/black-wolf-in-minnesota_n_6446280ce4b0408f3e541e39</a></p>
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<p>55555555555555555555555</p> Dire Wolftag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2023-02-15:6363372:Topic:36314782023-02-15T23:20:49.797ZNoitahttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/noita
<p class="topic-paragraph"><strong>dire wolf</strong>, (<em>Aenocyon dirus</em>),<span> </span><a class="md-crosslink" href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/canine">canine</a><span> </span>that existed during the<span> </span><a class="md-crosslink" href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Pleistocene-Epoch">Pleistocene Epoch</a><span> </span>(2.6 million to 11,700 years ago). It is probably the most common mammalian<span> …</span></p>
<p class="topic-paragraph"><strong>dire wolf</strong>, (<em>Aenocyon dirus</em>),<span> </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/canine" class="md-crosslink">canine</a><span> </span>that existed during the<span> </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Pleistocene-Epoch" class="md-crosslink">Pleistocene Epoch</a><span> </span>(2.6 million to 11,700 years ago). It is probably the most common mammalian<span> </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/species-taxon" class="md-crosslink">species</a><span> </span>to be found preserved in the<span> </span><span id="ref197131"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/La-Brea-Tar-Pits" class="md-crosslink">La Brea Tar Pits</a><span> </span>in southern<span> </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/California-state" class="md-crosslink">California</a>.</p>
<p class="topic-paragraph">The<span> </span><a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/dire">dire</a><span> </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/wolf" class="md-crosslink autoxref">wolf</a><span> </span>differed from the modern<span id="ref1290997"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/gray-wolf" class="md-crosslink"><span> </span>gray wolf</a><span> </span>(<em>Canis lupus</em>) in several ways: it was larger and it had a more massive<span> </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/skull" class="md-crosslink">skull</a>, a smaller<span> </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/brain" class="md-crosslink">brain</a>, and relatively light limbs. The species was considerably widespread, and skeletal remains have been found in<span> </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Florida" class="md-crosslink">Florida</a>, the<span> </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Mississippi-River" class="md-crosslink">Mississippi River</a><span> </span>valley, and the Valley of Mexico.</p>
<p class="topic-paragraph">The lineage that included the dire wolves and their ancestors emerged some 5.7 million years ago during the late<span> </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Miocene-Epoch" class="md-crosslink">Miocene Epoch</a><span> </span>(which lasted from 23 million to about 5.3 million years ago), and it evolved independently of the lineage that produced modern wolves and their close relatives. Dire wolves first appeared in the<span> </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Americas" class="md-crosslink">Americas</a>, and there is no evidence that they interbred with gray wolves (which originated in Eurasia before<span> </span><a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/dispersing">dispersing</a><span> </span>to<span> </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/North-America" class="md-crosslink">North America</a>).</p> wolf numberstag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2022-11-01:6363372:Topic:36298082022-11-01T04:01:14.025ZNoitahttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/noita
<p><a href="https://nbcmontana.com/news/local/montana-wolf-population-stable-through-2021#:~:text=By%20the%20numbers%3A,end%20of%202021%20is%201%2C141.">Montana wolf population stable through 2021 | KECI (nbcmontana.com)</a></p>
<p>In Montana wolf numbers and distribution continue to be stable across Montana, according to numbers released Monday in the 2021 Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Wolf Report.</p>
<p>In understanding this report, people must keep in mind that population trends are…</p>
<p><a href="https://nbcmontana.com/news/local/montana-wolf-population-stable-through-2021#:~:text=By%20the%20numbers%3A,end%20of%202021%20is%201%2C141.">Montana wolf population stable through 2021 | KECI (nbcmontana.com)</a></p>
<p>In Montana wolf numbers and distribution continue to be stable across Montana, according to numbers released Monday in the 2021 Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Wolf Report.</p>
<p>In understanding this report, people must keep in mind that population trends are monitored by the calendar year, in this case 2021, which is consistent with how FWP and other agencies have tracked wolf populations since the 1980s and how wolf populations are tracked in other areas. However, the wolf hunting and trapping season ended March 15, 2022. The harvest realized during this first three months of 2022 isn’t reflected in the 2021 wolf population estimate.</p>
<p>Another interesting aspect of the data is that wolf trapping efforts were down this license year from past years. This means fewer trappers were on the landscape. Potential reasons for this include unfavorable weather conditions during the trapping season.</p>
<p>The 2021 Montana Legislature approved a suite of legislation that added more tools for hunters and trappers for harvesting wolves. The legislature also passed legislation directing FWP to manage wolves in a manner that would reduce numbers to a sustainable level above minimum recovery goals.</p>
<p>In response, the Fish and Wildlife Commission increased bag limits, allowed snaring outside of lynx protection zones, and extended the season. Additionally, the commission also set harvest threshold numbers in each FWP region and at a statewide scale that required them to reconvene if those harvest levels were met. Ultimately, the commission closed wolf season in southwest Montana early because the pre-established threshold was met.</p>
<p>“We are following the law,” Worsech said. “And are doing so in a way that provides certainty that wolf populations in Montana will remain off the Endangered Species List.”</p>
<p>By the numbers:</p>
<p>The estimated wolf population in Montana at the end of 2021 is 1,141. This is down 40 wolves from 1,181 in 2020. This is not a statistically significant difference. In the last 10 years, wolf populations saw an estimated high of 1,256 in 2011 and a low of 1,113 in 2017. The small difference in these two numbers demonstrates a population trend that is very stable.</p>
<p>At the end of 2021, Montana had an estimated 192 wolf packs. This is down from an estimated 198 in 2020. In the last 10 years, estimated pack numbers have fluctuated from a high of 205 in 2012 to a low of 186 in 2017.</p>
<p><a href="https://wolf.org/things-you-need-to-know-about-wolves-and-delisting/">Things you need to know about wolves and delisting | International Wolf Center</a></p>
<p>Most U.S. wolves outside of Alaska may be removed from the protection of the Endangered Species Act. Here are 10 frequently asked questions about the proposal, and information on how you can comment.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>What is being proposed? </strong>The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) wants to remove the gray wolf (Canis lupus) from the list of endangered species in the contiguous United States.</li>
<li><strong>What would the proposed change NOT do? </strong>It would not remove protection from the Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi), which would be listed as an endangered subspecies. About 143 Mexican wolves have been reestablished in central Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico. The proposal also would not affect the endangered status of red wolves (Canis rufus) in the Southeast.</li>
<li><strong>Where would wolves NOT be affected? </strong>Wolves have already been delisted and are under state management in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and north-central Utah.</li>
<li><strong>In what states would gray wolves no longer be listed as an endangered species?</strong>All 50 states, except Arizona and New Mexico.</li>
<li><strong>Where in the U. S. are wolves present now? </strong>Gray wolf packs are known to be in Washington state, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Alaska.<br/> Individual dispersing wolves have also been documented in Utah, Colorado, North Dakota, Iowa, South Dakota, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Maine, Kentucky, Nebraska and New York.</li>
<li><strong>Wasn’t the Endangered Species Act required to restore wolves to their entire historic range? </strong>The FWS says, “The Act does not require us to restore the gray wolf (or any other species) to all of its historical range or even to a majority of the currently suitable habitat. Instead, the Act requires that we recover listed species such that they no longer meet the definitions of “threatened species” or “endangered species, i.e., are no longer in danger of extinction now or in the foreseeable future. For some species, recovery may require expansion of their current distribution, but the amount of expansion is driven by a species’ biological needs affecting viability and sustainability, and not by an arbitrary percent of a species’ historical range or currently suitable habitat. Many other species may be recovered in portions of their historical range or currently suitable habitat by removing or addressing the threats to their continued existence. And some species may be recovered by a combination of range expansion and threats reduction. There is no set formula for how recovery must be achieved.”</li>
<li><strong>What are some commonly stated pro/con comments about the proposal?</strong></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>PRO: </strong>Wolves are recovered, according to biological standards, with a population of at least 6,100 in many areas of the contiguous 48 U.S. where there is enough wild prey, good habitat and minimum road- and human-density. Their population has been stable or increasing for several years and is contiguous with the Canadian population of about 60,000 and Alaska’s 8,000-10,000.</p>
<p><strong>CON:</strong> One school of thought holds the following view: The USFWS’s portrayal of recovery disregards the full definition for threatened (any species likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range) and endangered (any species likely to become extinct within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range) species. The USFWS perspective does not meet the 1973 regulations (amended from legal antecedents in 1966 and 1969). The Service cannot ignore the geographic component of recovery. Moreover, the FWS cannot implement the Act in a manner consistent with Congressional intent and previous agency action by equating “its range” with “its current range”. “Its range” has to equate with “its historical range” for the ESA to have the broad sweeping impact intended by Congress and for previous agency actions to have relevance to future agency actions. Otherwise, there would be no recovery program for the black-footed ferret, California condor, red wolf, and Mexican wolf, to name just a few species that existed only in captivity and therefore had no current range prior to ESA-authorized reintroduction programs.</p>
<p><strong>PRO:</strong> Delisting will help states without wolves, in that if wolves recolonize those states, they can be managed like other species without special federal regulations.</p>
<p><strong>CON:</strong> The nationwide delisting would make it less likely that wolves will repopulate, on their own, parts of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and New England. In particular, suitable high-quality habitat is abundant in the Southern Rockies Ecoregion.</p>
<p><strong>PRO:</strong> Delisting wolves would prove that the ESA works, making Congress less likely to amend or repeal it.</p>
<p><strong>CON:</strong> One cannot say that the ESA works if it embraces a simplistic perspective of success and does not meet its own stated criterion for recovery of a species.</p>
<p><strong>PRO:</strong> As management for wolves passes to the states, wolves will still be protected so that their populations never dip below the numbers set in the USFWS’s recovery plans.</p>
<p><strong>CON:</strong> Where states have assumed management of wolves they have instituted or plan controversial (although sustainable and regulated) recreational hunting and trapping seasons, that, for animal protectionists, seem to subvert the whole purpose of past wolf recovery efforts.</p>
<p><strong>PRO:</strong> Scarce federal funds that would have been used for continued wolf recovery can now be allocated for many lesser-known endangered species on a lengthy waiting list.</p>
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<p> </p> A Wolf-Colonized Island Gives New Insights Into Predator and Prey Relationshipstag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2022-04-24:6363372:Topic:36233702022-04-24T19:45:51.073ZNoitahttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/noita
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Michigan's Isle Royale has been the perfect fishbowl for wolf research. A new study from the island shows wolves may actually help the animals they prey on.</span></p>
<p>April 23, 2022</p>
<p><strong>By <span class="byline-name"><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/author/evan-bush-ncpn1281465">Evan Bush</a></span></strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p class="">Sarah Hoy spends winter in a small cabin on a remote, snow-covered island colonized by wolves.…</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Michigan's Isle Royale has been the perfect fishbowl for wolf research. A new study from the island shows wolves may actually help the animals they prey on.</span></p>
<p>April 23, 2022</p>
<p><strong>By <span class="byline-name"><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/author/evan-bush-ncpn1281465">Evan Bush</a></span></strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p class="">Sarah Hoy spends winter in a small cabin on a remote, snow-covered island colonized by wolves.</p>
<p class="">Drinking water comes from a hole in the ice on Lake Superior, which surrounds the island. A generator provides a few hours of electricity for laptops. A wood-burning stove provides heat. </p>
<p class="">Isle Royale is the perfect place for a researcher. </p>
<p class="">The 45-mile-long hunk of land, belonging to Michigan, offers some of the most interesting terrains for researchers examining how natural ecosystems work, and since 1958, researchers have continually monitored animal populations there.</p>
<p class="">“It’s very quiet,” said Hoy, a research assistant professor in the college of forest resources and environmental science at Michigan Technological University. “It makes it so much easier to monitor wildlife.”</p>
<p class="">Despite the serene surroundings, new research published earlier this week about wolves and moose in Isle Royale’s special environment provides fascinating insights into the relationship between predators and prey. </p>
<p class="">Wolves take down moose with arthritis and kill them at an outsized pace, according to the study in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. The moose on Isle Royale might need wolves, the study suggests, to keep their populations healthy from disease. The research could offer data for fresh arguments in the divisive debates over wolf management roiling many communities, where some ranchers view the creatures as a threat to their livestock and livelihoods. </p>
<h2 class=""><strong>A researcher's paradise</strong></h2>
<p class="">For scientists, Isle Royale has long been a fascinating fishbowl for research. </p>
<p class="">“It’s the longest-running <a href="https://isleroyalewolf.org/overview/overview/at_a_glance.html">predator-prey study</a> in the world,” said Doug Smith, a wildlife biologist who has worked on Isle Royale in the past and now operates a wolf restoration program for the National Park Service in Yellowstone National Park. </p>
<p class="">For more than a century, scientists have observed dramatic shifts in the seesawing populations of wolves and moose. </p>
<p class="">Moose are thought to have arrived on the island first. A few animals likely swam (Moose are unsteady on ice) more than a dozen miles to the island in the early 1900s, Smith said. Their population settled into a boom-bust pattern. </p>
<p class="">“The moose eat themselves out of house and home, literally, and then they have a massive die-off. They crash, and then it starts all over again,” Smith said. </p>
<p class="">Then came the wolves. </p>
<p class="">They arrived on the island sometime around the 1940s, likely traveling over a 15-mile bridge of ice that sometimes forms between Isle Royale and mainland Minnesota. </p>
<p class="">Wolves are the only predator to eat moose on the island. “By keeping wolves in Isle Royale, you keep the moose population in check, which means they don’t eat the whole forest up,” Smith said. “Without a predator, they repeat the whole cycle.” </p>
<p class="">Diseases, tick outbreaks and severe winters have driven some population trends. But in recent years <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.413">climate change made an impact</a> so significant that the U.S. government decided to step in. </p>
<p class="">Ice bridges to the island once formed seven years out of 10. Today, these bridges form just once or twice during the same time span, Smith said. </p>
<p class="">And in recent years, the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10592-014-0604-1">wolf population dwindled to just two</a> — a severely inbred pair who were both father and daughter and brother and sister, according to Hoy. They couldn’t produce pups that would survive. </p>
<p class="">“It was clear why the wolf population crashed. It was because of the loss of the ice bridge. They no longer had connectivity,” Smith said. “Genetic depression.” </p>
<p class="">The moose population began to skyrocket. </p>
<p class="">The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began a project in the fall of 2018 <a href="https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/nature/upload/NPS-SUNY-ISRO_Web_Accessible_Isle-Royale-Wolf-Summary-Report-2018-2020_Compressed.pdf">to relocate wolves to the island</a> to provide genetic diversity. </p>
<h2 class=""><strong>The perfect prey</strong></h2>
<p class="">Researchers visit Isle Royale at least twice each season. </p>
<p class="">“We work in the winter because it’s easier to track and observe wolves and moose. They leave tracks in the snow,” Hoy said. Aerial surveys are easier when there aren’t leaves on trees. </p>
<p class="">During summer, volunteers and researchers help collect moose remains, which provide research data points. </p>
<p class="">In the <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.819137/full">recent Frontiers study</a>, researchers evaluated the bones of moose killed by wolves over a 32-year period from 1975 to 2007. More than 38 percent of the 1,572 moose skeletons they examined had signs of osteoarthritis. </p>
<p class="">Analysis of wolf kills suggests they preyed more frequently on old moose. Wolves didn’t appear to target moose in their prime ages, unless the moose were affected by severe arthritis, the study found.</p>
<p class="">Rates of arthritis in moose grew during years with lower kill rates from wolves, the research says. </p>
<p class="">To kill a moose, a wolf must attack an animal about 10 times its size with only its teeth, so it makes sense that wolves would succeed in taking down those unable to move well, Hoy said. </p>
<p class="">The study hints that wolves could play an important role in controlling genetic diseases by removing unhealthy animals from the population. It follows similar research in deer, which show wolves can help dampen the impacts of easily spread infections like chronic wasting disease. </p>
<p class="">“This is a good example of how the predator is actually helping the moose population,” said William Ripple, a professor and ecologist at Oregon State University, who was not involved in the research. “The wolves don’t just randomly take prey. It just so happens they will take more prey that are diseased than by chance, and that has strong evolutionary implications for natural selection.”</p>
<p class="">In other words, it’s possible that a landscape with wolves produces genetically healthier moose, though more research is needed. </p>
<p class="">Ripple said he viewed the Isle Royale research as careful and credible. </p>
<h2 class=""><strong>Wolf politics </strong></h2>
<p class="">Wolves are a controversial topic.</p>
<p class="">Driven to near extinction by the middle of the 20th century by poisoning, trapping and shooting, the Endangered Species Act and wolf restoration projects have pushed their <a href="https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2020-10/trump-administration-returns-management-and-protection-gray-wolves-states-and#:~:text=In%20total%2C%20the%20gray%20wolf,and%20Western%20Great%20Lakes%20populations.">numbers to more than 6,000</a>, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. </p>
<p class="">But wolves are not welcome in many ranching communities. The animals sometimes prey upon cattle. </p>
<p class="">When wolves came to Washington state, for example, they prompted <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/judges-decision-will-allow-washington-state-to-kill-wolves/">decades of lawsuits</a>, hard-fought political battles and <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/northwest/death-threats-new-conflicts-over-killing-of-wolves/">even death threats</a> — for wolves and humans alike.</p>
<p class="">In some states, poaching and poisoning cases are not uncommon, and wolves are killed by state wildlife managers after they attack livestock. </p>
<p class="">The federal protection status that has kept the species off-limits to hunting has changed with the political seasons. The Trump administration <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-officials-end-gray-wolf-protections-across-most-u-s-n1245374" target="_blank" rel="noopener">removed gray wolves from protection in most of the U.S.</a> in 2020, allowing them to be hunted. This year, a federal judge <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/judge-reverses-trump-admin-efforts-remove-protection-gray-wolves-rcna15818">reversed the Fish and Wildlife decision in that case</a>, restoring protection in many areas. State policies in the northern Rocky Mountains — where <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/protected-no-longer-more-550-gray-wolves-killed-season-hunters-flna1c8735978">wolves do not have protection</a> — recently <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/states-defend-expanded-hunting-after-biden-administration-says-gray-wolves-n1279952">expanded hunting</a>. </p>
<p class="">Despite the political battles, other research has suggested that wolves can have an outsized, positive role on ecosystems. </p>
<p class="">Years ago, Ripple revealed that aspen trees began to die off in Yellowstone following wolves’ slaughter in the 1920s. The extirpation of wolves caused a proliferation of elk, which ate baby aspen trees. </p>
<p class="">Other research suggests wolves might help <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320712005320">keep the population of coyotes down</a> and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2023251118">prevent car accidents by reducing the deer population</a>.</p>
<p class="">Hoy hopes the new research provides a reason to avoid intensive hunting of wolves and pushes communities to consider their potential benefits.</p>
<p class="endmark">“Think of the widespread ecological benefits wolves provide,” Hoy said. “What kind of things might we lose out on if we don’t have wolves on the landscape?”</p>
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<p class="endmark" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><em><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/wolf-population-moose-research-predator-prey-isle-royale-rcna24485">https://www.nbcnews.com/science/wolf-population-moose-research-predator-prey-isle-royale-rcna24485</a></em></span></p> Dire Wolvestag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2022-04-14:6363372:Topic:36232212022-04-14T22:49:03.327ZNoitahttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/noita
<p><strong>Dire Wolves</strong></p>
<p>The remains of thousands of these extinct Pleistocene carnivores have been recovered from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>A new study of dire wolves' genetics has startled paleontologists found that these animals were not wolves at all, but the last of the canid lineage that evolved in North America.</p>
<p>Ever since they were described in the 1850s, dire wolves captured the human imagination. Their remains are found pretty much throughout…</p>
<p><strong>Dire Wolves</strong></p>
<p>The remains of thousands of these extinct Pleistocene carnivores have been recovered from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>A new study of dire wolves' genetics has startled paleontologists found that these animals were not wolves at all, but the last of the canid lineage that evolved in North America.</p>
<p>Ever since they were described in the 1850s, dire wolves captured the human imagination. Their remains are found pretty much throughout much of the Americas, from Idaho to Bolivia. Dire wolf's tar-preserved remains reveal imposing hunters up to six feet long, with skull adaptations to take down enormous, struggling megafauna.</p>
<p>Skeletal resemblances between dire wolves and today's smaller grey wolves suggested a closer kinship. Paleontologists long assumed that dire wolves made themselves at home in North America before grey wolves followed them across the Bering Land Bridge from Eurasia. Now some well-preserved DNA may fundamentally change that story.</p>
<p>Researchers hoped to pinpoint dire wolves were related to other wolves. The dire wolves were possibly a specialized lineage or subspecies of a grey wolf but the new evidence suggests otherwise. Preliminarily genetic analysis indicated that other dire and grey wolves were not close relatives.</p>
<p>By sequencing five genomes from dire wolf fossils between 50,000 and 13,000 years old, the scientists found that the animals belonged to a much older lineage of dogs. Dire wolves, the data suggests, had evolved in the Americas, and had no kinship with the grey wolves in Eurasia; the last time dire wolves and grey wolves shared a common ancestor was about 5.7 million years ago.</p>
<p>The strong resemblance between the two, the researchers say, is a case of convergent evolution. This occurs when different species develop similar adaptations or even appearances thanks to a similar way to life. Sometimes such convergence is only rough, such as both birds and bats evolving wings despite their different anatomy. In the case of dire and grey wolves, a dedication to chasing large herbivores resulted in two different canid lineages independently producing similar wolflike forms.</p>
<p>These results totally shake up the idea that dire wolves were just bigger cousins of grey wolves. In fact, the similarity between the two has led grey wolves to be taken as proxies for dire wolf biology and behavior, from pack dynamics to the sound of the animal’s howls.</p>
<p>The dire wolf’s new identity means that many previous assumptions including what it looked like in life inquire reinvestigation. The study in ancient of ancient DNA and proteins from fossils and bones is rapidly rewriting the Ice Age and more recent history of North America’s mammals.</p>
<p>These findings may mean dire wolves need a new genius name to indicate that they are not actually part of the grey wolf’s genius, Canis. The name Aenocyon, meaning “terrible wolf,” was a name coined a century ago. But the researchers do not expect their findings to completely overturn tradition, and Aenocyon dirus would likely still be called the dire wolf. They would join the club of things like maned wolves is called wolves which are called wolves but are not really.</p>
<p>These predators had become specialized in hunting camels, horses, bison, and other herbivores in North America for millions of years. As those prey sources disappeared so did the dire wolves. In contrast to grey wolves, which are a model of adaptation dire wolves appear to be much less flexible to deal with changing environments and prey.</p>
<p>Nor did dire wolves leave a genetic legacy beyond their ancient bones’ decaying DNA. Canids such as coyotes and wolves can mate and produce hybrids, but dire wolves apparently did not do so with any other canid species that remain alive today.</p>
<p>Excerpted from Scientific American Magazine.</p>
<p>April 20212. Pages 10 to 13.</p>
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<p> </p> Wolf Gods and Goddessestag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2022-01-17:6363372:Topic:36094112022-01-17T18:27:09.232ZNoitahttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/noita
<h4 class="post-title"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Wolf Gods and Goddesses: Artemis, Odin, Apollo and More!</span></h4>
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<div class="post-excerpt"><p class="has-medium-font-size">One of the most majestic of the animal kingdom is the wolf. Dating back thousands of years are stories of wolf gods and goddesses. Shamans of nearly…</p>
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<h4 class="post-title"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Wolf Gods and Goddesses: Artemis, Odin, Apollo and More!</span></h4>
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<div class="post-excerpt"><p class="has-medium-font-size">One of the most majestic of the animal kingdom is the wolf. Dating back thousands of years are stories of wolf gods and goddesses. Shamans of nearly every culture have revered the wolf for its swiftness, instinctual abilities and wild freedom. Wolf medicine is strong medicine. Unfortunately, in past years wolves were killed off because of superstition, so there aren’t nearly as many wolves as there once was. But still, they live on. And so do the myths of gods and wolves.</p>
<h2 id="h-the-gods-and-the-wolves"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Gods and the Wolves</span></h2>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">Gods and goddesses of the ancient world often held a special connection with wolves. Some say this is because the beliefs of our ancestors were animistic – they believed everything in nature had consciousness including animals. Wildlife was thought of as sacred in ancient times, and there are scholars who believe ancient land guardian spirits were worshiped by ancient tribes and would eventually rise to become great gods and goddesses. To find an image of a god or goddess in the likeness of an animal was commonplace. Some of the more obvious animal-god connections can be seen on the ancient temple walls in Egypt. For example, the ibis-headed god Thoth. Or the hawk-headed god Horus. Wolf gods and goddesses were depicted with the heads of wolves, transformed into wolves, or were strongly associated with wolves.</p>
<h2 id="h-artemis-diana-wolf-goddesses-of-the-woods"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Artemis & Diana: Wolf Goddesses of the Woods</strong></span></h2>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">Artemis is the Greek Goddess of the hunt, the forest, archery, chastity, and the moon. She was also a protector of women and children and was known to heal women’s injuries and disease. When depicted, Artemis was nearly always shown with animals of some kind – most often with dogs or deer. This is because her domain was the forest, and therefore all wildlife within the forest was under her guidance. This would have included wolves.</p>
<h3 id="h-artemis-wolves"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Artemis & Wolves</strong></span></h3>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">If you are to research Artemis, you will find mostly references to her link with hunting dogs. The greek god Pan gave Artemis a pack of hunting dogs of which Artemis takes seven when she goes hunting. Her connection with the moon serves to tell us that any animal with a draw towards the moon would be favored in Artemis’ eyes. Therefore, wolves, the primal original canines who so love to howl at the moon are also Artemis’ animals.</p>
<h3 id="h-diana-moon-and-wolf-goddess"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Diana: Moon and Wolf Goddess</strong></span></h3>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">Diana, the Roman Goddess of the Moon, was thought to be Artemis’ Roman equivalent. They had many of the same qualities and attributes including domain over the forest and wildlife therein. Diana was the Roman Goddess of the Moon, just as Artemis was the Greek Goddess of the Moon. She ruled over the woodland creatures, which would include wolves. She was also a protector of women and children. In recent times, wolves have come to be associated with the “primal” or “wild” woman, essentially taking us back to our primitive instincts and intuition. Diana’s inseparable link with women and the fact that she was a wild forest goddess makes her connection with wolves palpable.</p>
<h2 id="h-leto-the-original-greek-wolf-goddess"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Leto: The Original Greek Wolf Goddess</strong></span></h2>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">It’s no wonder Artemis is thought to have wolves in her compendium of animal guardians and helpers, as Artemis’ mother in Greek mythology was Leto. Leto was born on the island of Kos and her parents were Titans. Leto had relations with Zeus and gave birth to Artemis and Apollo. She was a goddess of womanhood and motherhood, and thus the birth of Apollo and Artemis are significant to the Leto myth. The legend says that Leto labored for days to deliver the twins Artemis and Apollo – this is related to wolves’ difficult delivery of their young. The journey that Leto took from the Hyperboreoi to Delos took twelve days, which is the time it took for wolves to deliver their young in Greek mythology. This made her one of the Greek wolf goddesses. She might have been the original Greek wolf goddess!</p>
<h3 id="h-leto-the-she-wolf"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Leto the She-Wolf</strong></span></h3>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">Leto was also believed to have had the ability to shift into the form of a wolf. Sometimes she was said to have been a she-wolf and so is linked to Lycia a.k.a. wolf-country. Leto honored and adored wolves because they were thought to have provided her assistance in her times of need.</p>
<h2 id="h-the-morrigan-celtic-wolf-warrior-goddess"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>The Morrigan: Celtic Wolf Warrior Goddess</strong></span></h2>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">The Morrighan is an ancient Irish (Celtic) goddess of life and death, wisdom, magic, shapeshifting, and war and also one of the Celtic wolf goddesses. She might have originally been three separate goddesses that eventually were merged into a triple-goddess. The Morrighan in her three aspects include Badh, Macha, and Nemain. The Morrighan is almost always seen as a fierce, aggressive goddess with a yearning for blood on the battlefield. She takes no prisoners, and shows little mercy to those who are her enemies. For those she loves – she will do whatever it takes to help them, including shapeshifting into various forms. One of those forms is in the shape of a large grey-red wolf, making her an ancient wolf goddess.</p>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">In the Irish epic tale The Cattle Raid of Cooley, the Morrigan takes on many forms in the presence of Cu Chulainn. She is an eel and a wolf, among other things. Because the Morrigan is seen as a wild, liberated and independent goddess, it only makes sense that the wolf is one of her sacred familiars.</p>
<h2 id="h-skadi-norse-goddess-of-winter-wolves"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Skadi: Norse Goddess of Winter & Wolves</strong></span></h2>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">A favorite of the wolf goddesses in ancient Scandinavia was Skadi. Skadi is a Norse Goddess of the Winter and a Giantess. Her plight for revenge against the gods for her father’s death was met with a trick – Odin tricked her into marrying Njord, a god of the sea, instead of Odin’s son, Baldur, of whom Skadi was determined to marry. The two lived together for a short time but the marriage was doomed, as Skadi’s heart was in the mountains and Njord’s was in the sea. Eventually Skadi fell in love with Ulle and they lived in the snowy mountains together.</p>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">Skadi often has wolves at her sides, as the Poetic Edda shows. Njord, after returning to the sea from his stay in the mountains with Skadi, mentions how the howling of the wolves kept him awake at night. But Skadi doesn’t mind the howls, she welcomes them. She is one of the wolf pack, and she will forever guard the mountains as her sacred home.</p>
<h2 id="lycaon-wolf-god-of-myth"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Lycaon: Wolf God of Myth</strong></span></h2>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">Lycaon, also known as Arcadia, was a mythological king of Arcadia. There were many Greek myths surrounding Lycaon’s life, but the most popular tells of Zeus turning Lycaon into a wolf after Lycaon tried to trick Zeus. Here again we see the “trickster” archetype alive in the myth of Lycaon who is then turned into the trickster-creature – the wolf. The term <em>lycanthropy</em> is directly related to the name Lycaon, and is a disorder in which a person believes he or she is actually a wolf.</p>
<h2 id="mars-the-wolf-god-brothers-and-lupercalia-festival"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Mars, the Wolf God Brothers, and Lupercalia Festival</strong></span></h2>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">In ancient Rome, there was a wild fertility festival that happened every year on February 15th called Lupercalia. This festival involved a number of bawdy and lascivious acts, including men running around naked chasing women, beating women with sticks to ensure fertility throughout the year, and animal sacrifices of goats and a dog. The priesthood known as the Luperci (brothers of the wolf) were to perform these rites. This festival was put on every year until approximately the fifth century AD, when all pagan holidays and celebrations were outlawed by the Church. What does this have to do with a god and his association to wolves?</p>
<h3 id="h-romulus-and-remus"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Romulus and Remus</strong></span></h3>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">If we identify the term Lupercalia, we find that <em>luper </em>translates roughly to <em>wolf.</em> The ancient Romans and Greeks held wolves in high honor and regard, and so the war and agriculture god would come to be associated with the wolves. Romulus and Remus, twin brothers associated with the founding of Rome, were said to have been orphaned by Mars and their orphan mother then suckled by a large she-wolf in a cave known as Lupercal. Fun Harry Potter fact: there is a professor known as Remus Lupin who makes a debut appearance in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Where do you think JK Rowling thought up his name?</p>
<h2 id="h-odin-and-his-wolves"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Odin and His Wolves</strong></span></h2>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">Often we see <a href="https://otherworldlyoracle.com/odin-allfather/">Odin</a>, the all-father of Norse mythology, shown with two ravens; however, when Odin is not accompanied by his large corvid friends he is flanked by two great wolves named Geri and Freki. The mention of Odin’s wolves comes from the Prose and Poetic Edda. Their characters in the Poetic and Prose Edda demonstrate a warrior quality, in particular a greed for blood and corpses. The names Geri and Freki are translated to be “greedy” and “the ravenous one”. They are destruction that makes way for creation.</p>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">Odin has been associated with the greek god Apollo, who also has an evident connection with wolves and ravens. The Ulfednar in Norse Mythology are wolf-warriors and are referred to as Odin’s fighters. They always wore the pelts of wolves when going into battle.</p>
<h2 id="h-apollo-greek-wolf-god"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Apollo: Greek Wolf God</strong></span></h2>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">Apollo, the Greek wolf god of the Sun, healing, archery, poetry and more. Old sources say Apollo was “wolf-born”, which refers to his mother Leto (see above). Some say Apollo was once an anthropomorphic wolf-god who later took on more human characteristics. Basically, Apollo and his twin sister Artemis were raised by a she-wolf and around wolves.</p>
<h2 id="h-loki-norse-trickster-god"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Loki: Norse Trickster God</strong></span></h2>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">Loki, Norse God of Trickery and Transformation, is yet another wolf god. Or, at least, a god who has close connections with these magnificent creatures. Loki is the father of many gods and creatures, including Fenrir, the wolf who will destroy Odin at the end of the world. Being a god of mischief and transformation, I’d venture to say Loki would have no problem shapeshifting into wolf form when the need arose.</p>
<h2 id="h-nehalennia-celtic-wolf-goddess-and-fertility"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Nehalennia: Celtic Wolf Goddess and Fertility</strong></span></h2>
<p class="has-medium-font-size">Nehalennia is a lesser-known Celtic, possibly Germanic, wolf goddess from the first and second century. Most evidence of her comes from The Netherlands, Sweden and islands off the coast of Europe. She is almost always depicted with a wolf-hound at her feet, symbols of the sea, and carries a basket of fruit or bread. She is associated with the harvest, wolves, fertility, the ocean, trading, shipping and horticulture.</p>
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<p class="has-medium-font-size" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><em><a href="https://otherworldlyoracle.com/wolf-gods-wolf-goddesses/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://otherworldlyoracle.com/wolf-gods-wolf-goddesses/</a></em></span></p>
</div> 10 REASONS WHYtag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2022-01-12:6363372:Topic:36086822022-01-12T19:47:53.853ZNoitahttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/noita
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10006497501?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10006497501?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10006497501?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10006497501?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p> It's Time to Thank Wolvestag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2021-11-25:6363372:Topic:36065132021-11-25T17:25:38.239ZNoitahttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/noita
<h3 class="subtitle"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">A better way of viewing wolves</span></h3>
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<td><div class="meta-right-column"><div class="meta-author"><div class="account-hover-wrapper"><a href="https://substack.com/profile/5777805-rick-lamplugh">Rick Lamplugh</a></div>
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<h3 class="subtitle"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">A better way of viewing wolves</span></h3>
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<td><div class="meta-right-column"><div class="meta-author"><div class="account-hover-wrapper"><a href="https://substack.com/profile/5777805-rick-lamplugh">Rick Lamplugh</a></div>
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<p>As the season of giving thanks arrives, I think it’s time to thank wolves, fine creatures whose ancient ancestors befriended us, shared with us, and taught us. </p>
<p>Ancient wolves, for hundreds of thousands of years, dogged herds of caribou that migrated between what is now Spain and Siberia. After the last Ice Age, early humans may have watched wolves bringing down caribou. Our ancestors may have been as hungry as those wolves and wondered how to plunder some of their competitor’s bounty. But a few humans, no matter how desperate, couldn't just take a wolf pack's kill. </p>
<p>Early humans, though, were superior to wolves in some ways, say Wolfgang Schleidt and Michael Shalter in a journal article, “Coevolution of Humans and Canids.” Humans have greater cognitive ability. Humans can see better at longer distances because we stand taller than wolves. Humans with weapons can hit a target from a distance. Early humans, these scientists believe, could have used these strengths to partner with wolves in hunting.</p>
<p>Ancient wolves hunted, as they do now, by sorting and sifting a herd to expose the animal that requires the least effort to bring down. Once wolves cut that animal from the herd, the dangerous work begins. And that’s where humans could come in. With bigger brains, better vision, and deadly weapons humans could have helped wolves finish the job. Working together, a meal was won and shared using the strengths of the two-legged and four-legged partners.</p>
<p>Another author, Pat Shipman, an anthropologist, also theorizes that early humans partnered with wolves. But in her book, <em>The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction</em>, she adds a twist: that alliance gave our ancestors an unbeatable advantage over Neanderthals, our competitor.</p>
<p>Scientists figure that Neanderthals dominated the European continent when our ancestors reached there about 45,000 years ago. But by just 5,000 years later, Neanderthals had disappeared. While some experts believe that climate change caused their demise, Shipman presents an exciting alternative. She says that while modern humans and Neanderthals competed to kill grazers, humans partnered with wolf-dogs. She found no evidence that Neanderthals did so. She believes that our alliance with wolf-dogs helped us outcompete Neanderthals and win the evolutionary race.</p>
<p>The wolf-dogs we partnered with, says Shipman, were not the same as modern wolves or modern dogs. They were not a wolf-dog hybrid. But they had characteristics similar to those of today’s wolves. They would have tracked animals like caribou, elk, and bison and hounded them until they tired. Then early humans would have stepped in to kill the prey with spears or bows and arrows. The wolf-dogs would have kept competitors and scavengers from stealing the kill—just as wolves protect their kills today. The partners shared the work and the meal.</p>
<p>While Shipman sees early humans partnering with wolf-dogs, Mark Derr in his book, <em>How the Dog Became the Dog, </em>describes how humans partnered with actual wolves. Derr’s view of our connecting with wolves is quite unlike the more commonly told story that wolves were curs slinking around the edge of early human settlements begging for handouts and eventually tamed by intelligent humans. </p>
<p>Our partnership with wolves, says Derr, occurred even before early humans had settlements. Certain nomadic humans and wolves met on the trail and were simply right for one another; were both sociable and curious. Those initial connections were no small thing. The first wolves to take up with humans were exceptional animals capable of making what Derr calls “a leap of friendship” with a creature from another species.</p>
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<p>Once that leap was made, early human and wolves evolved together, with our ancestors learning from wolves. Over centuries, humans eventually domesticated some wolves into dogs, animals that have helped us survive and prosper.</p>
<p>Derr’s image of two intelligent and resourceful creatures meeting on the trail, befriending one another, and evolving together is an important addition to wolf natural history. I believe that how we view wolves historically is critical to how we treat them today.</p>
<p>Consider this scenario: You’re in the market for a dog and you go to a reputable breeder. She has two dogs from which you can choose. The dogs look similar, and you ask about each. She points to one and says, “Oh, his parents hung out by my trash pile. They were just scavengers.” Then she points at the other and says, “This one’s parents were two of my best friends. They were intelligent, attentive, and curious.” </p>
<p>Which animal would you take as one to love and care for? Which might you keep at a distance or demonize? </p>
<p>As I see it, ancient wolves were intelligent enough to grasp the advantage of working with our ancestors. Ancient wolves were brave enough to make a dangerous leap of friendship with a competitive species. Ancient wolves were generous enough to share their hard-earned kills.</p>
<p>Instead of hating wolves and treating them as unacceptable competitors for game and livestock, we should thank these essential predators that befriended us, shared with us, and taught us.</p>
<p>We should protect them under the Endangered Species Act so their tiny population can grow in safety.</p>
<p>Thanks for joining me in this <em>Love the Wild</em>! If you haven’t yet subscribed, I hope you’ll do so. It’s free and brings a <em>Love the Wild</em> letter to your inbox each week. In addition to commentaries such as this one, you’ll enjoy a variety of podcasts, photo essays, stories inspired by photos, excerpts from my books, and more. With each, I hope to warm your heart and excite your mind as we share moments with wildlife and in wild lands.</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><em><a href="https://ricklamplugh.substack.com/p/its-time-to-thank-wolves" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://ricklamplugh.substack.com/p/its-time-to-thank-wolves</a></em></span></p> 22 Mexican Wolf Pups Released into Wild to Avoid Extinctiontag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2021-08-16:6363372:Topic:36005122021-08-16T20:23:17.821ZNoitahttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/noita
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9433785676?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9433785676?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710"></img></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">A record number of 22 captive-born Mexican wolf pups have been <a href="https://worldanimalnews.com/22-captive-born-mexican-wolf-pups-are-released-into-the-wild-to-be-raised-by-surrogate-wolves-to-save-their-species-from-extinction/">released into the wild</a> to be taken care of by surrogate wolf parents. During April and May, …</span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9433785676?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9433785676?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710"/></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">A record number of 22 captive-born Mexican wolf pups have been <a href="https://worldanimalnews.com/22-captive-born-mexican-wolf-pups-are-released-into-the-wild-to-be-raised-by-surrogate-wolves-to-save-their-species-from-extinction/">released into the wild</a> to be taken care of by surrogate wolf parents. During April and May, <a href="https://worldanimalnews.com/22-captive-born-mexican-wolf-pups-are-released-into-the-wild-to-be-raised-by-surrogate-wolves-to-save-their-species-from-extinction/">nine</a> wolf pups were fostered in three different packs in eastern Arizona, and <a href="https://worldanimalnews.com/22-captive-born-mexican-wolf-pups-are-released-into-the-wild-to-be-raised-by-surrogate-wolves-to-save-their-species-from-extinction/">thirteen</a> wolf pups were fostered in five packs in New Mexico.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">For <a href="https://worldanimalnews.com/22-captive-born-mexican-wolf-pups-are-released-into-the-wild-to-be-raised-by-surrogate-wolves-to-save-their-species-from-extinction/">six years</a>, Mexican wolf pups have been raised in captivity and released to foster parents. This not only helps to boost the genetic diversity of this species but also helps to move the population towards a safer number.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.fws.gov/news/ShowNews.cfm?ref=from-pens-to-dens:-a-record-number-of-mexican-wolf-pups-fostered-into-t&_ID=36926&Source=iframe">Jim deVos</a>, AZGFD Mexican Wolf Coordinator, said, “Fostering is an outstanding example of a working private-public recovery program. Wolf recovery has to recognize the importance of meeting genetic criteria. Which requires many private organizations to maintain captive wolves for release into the wild. Without this important partnership, genetic recovery would be essentially impossible. Importantly, we are now seeing Mexican wolves that have been fostered producing litters themselves. Further supporting the use of fostering as an effective conservation tool.”</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">These types of fostering programs are more important than ever to keep the species diverse and flourishing. With Mexican wolves at dangerously low numbers, this is their best chance at growing again.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">These<a href="https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/sanctuaries-working-to-save-abused-and-neglected-wolves-and-wolf-hybrids/?_sf_s=wolf"> types of programs</a> are giving conservationists hope that the population of Mexican <a href="https://www.endangeredwolfcenter.org/blog/wild-mexican-wolf-population-declines/">wolves will grow</a> and become self-sufficient.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.thepetitionsite.com/259/810/575/demand-the-u.s.-passes-the-extinction-crisis-emergency-act-now-before-more-species-die-off-forever/?TAP=1732">Sign this petition</a> to tell Congress to pass the Extinction Crisis Emergency Act, and to urge President Joe Biden to use the National Emergencies Act of 1976 to mobilize resources that will save animals’ and plants’ lives. He must declare the current extinction events a national emergency!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span class="external-link-title">Urge the US Government to Address the Extinction Crisis</span><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><a class="external-link-btn" href="https://www.thepetitionsite.com/259/810/575/demand-the-u.s.-passes-the-extinction-crisis-emergency-act-now-before-more-species-die-off-forever/?TAP=1732" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click Here to Sign Petition</a></span></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><em><a href="https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/22-mexican-wolf-pups-released-into-wild-to-avoid-extinction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/22-mexican-wolf-pups-released-into-wild-to-avoid-extinction/</a></em></span></p>