Why are we still trapping and killing wolves and coyotes during the sixth mass extinction crisis?

 

A wolf leaves Yellowstone National Park. It follows the scent of elk, crosses an invisible boundary and enters Montana. Nothing in the landscape tells it that the rules have changed. Yet an animal protected and studied inside the park can now legally be shot or trapped. We call Yellowstone’s wolf restoration a conservation triumph. Why, then, do we permit the killing of the very animals we worked so hard to bring back?

Murdering wolves is the antithesis to conservation.

In 1995, gray wolves returned to Yellowstone after decades of absence following their extermination from the region. Their restoration became one of America’s most celebrated conservation achievements. But the protections surrounding these animals remain fragmented. Yellowstone’s wolves regularly move beyond park boundaries, particularly when following migrating elk. They cannot distinguish a protected landscape from a hunting district. We have created an unfair playing field, and then we congratulate ourselves when the wolf loses.

In February 2021, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte trapped and shot a radio-collared wolf known as 1155M, approximately 10 miles north of Yellowstone. The wolf had been born inside the park and collared by wildlife biologists. Gianforte had a valid wolf license but had not completed the required wolf-trapping certification course. State wildlife officials issued him a written warning. The governor subsequently completed the course. His actions were widely reported, but the larger question extends beyond one public official: What does it say about our conservation priorities when animals tracked for scientific research can be legally killed just outside the landscapes established to protect them?

The consequences are measurable. According to Yellowstone’s 2022 Wolf Project report, approximately 19 percent of wolves primarily using the park were killed during the 2021–22 hunting season. Researchers also documented changes in pack structure, including the dissolution of two packs. Although Yellowstone’s year-end wolf population increased, a population count alone cannot capture the disruption of family groups, the loss of breeding animals or the consequences for long-term research.

Why are we still trapping and killing wolves and coyotes during the sixth mass extinction crisis? At a time when humanity should be repairing the ecosystems it has fragmented, we continue to target native predators for fulfilling their ecological roles. An international scientific assessment estimates that approximately one million animal and plant species face extinction threats. Habitat destruction, exploitation, climate change and pollution are unraveling ecological relationships around the world. Yet our approach to predators too often reflects an older belief that nature must be controlled rather than understood.

Wolves are keystone predators. They are the gatekeepers of biodiversity, helping maintain the intricate relationships among wildlife species, ecosystems and habitats. Their presence influences prey populations, supports scavengers and can contribute to vegetation recovery and the restoration of wildlife habitats. Coyotes also perform important ecological functions, including regulating smaller mammals and sustaining food webs. These native predators are not obstacles to conservation. They are integral to the ecological systems we claim to protect.

The documentary How Wolves Change Rivers brought the concept of trophic cascades to a broad audience, showing how predators can influence entire ecological communities. Some of its claims, particularly those involving river channels, remain scientifically debated. Yellowstone’s recovery is shaped by many factors, including climate, vegetation, water and other wildlife. But that complexity strengthens the case for humility. We still have much to learn about the consequences of removing predators from functioning ecosystems.

Ranchers can suffer real financial losses when wolves or coyotes kill livestock. Wildlife managers must also consider public safety and local ecological conditions. But acknowledging these concerns does not require accepting recreational predator killing as a conservation necessity. Nonlethal approaches, including range riders, livestock guardian animals and improved fencing, can reduce some conflicts. Their effectiveness varies, and they require sustained investment. That is a challenge worth meeting.

We should also distinguish the temporary capture of wildlife for scientific monitoring from lethal trapping. Research collars help scientists understand migration, survival and family structure. Killing an animal for recreation serves a fundamentally different purpose.

We have converted vast landscapes into agricultural operations, highways and housing developments, then blamed wildlife for attempting to survive in the remaining fragments of its ancestral habitat. Rather than continually demanding that predators surrender their lives to accommodate human expansion, shouldn’t we be asking how human activities can change to accommodate the natural world?

The issue is not whether every wolf or coyote population is endangered. Coyotes remain widespread, and wolf populations differ substantially across regions. The question is whether wildlife policy adequately values predators’ ecological functions, social relationships and contributions to healthy habitats. Abundance alone does not make an animal disposable.

State wildlife agencies should strengthen protections for wolves that routinely cross Yellowstone’s boundaries, evaluate the ecological effects of lethal trapping and expand funding for coexistence programs. They should also make the scientific basis for predator-killing policies transparent to the public. Conservation should be judged not merely by how many animals remain alive, but by whether their populations can fulfill their ecological roles.

What are we teaching younger generations when killing a wolf becomes an occasion for applause? A rifle does not make a human ecologically superior to a predator. Neither does a photograph of its lifeless body. Wolves hunt to survive and feed their young. They communicate, cooperate and maintain intricate family relationships. Their value exists independently of our approval.

We cannot proclaim our love for wilderness while treating its inhabitants as disposable trophies. We cannot claim to be guardians of biodiversity while dismantling the relationships that sustain it. We have made the rules, drawn the boundaries and equipped ourselves with the weapons. The wolf has only its instincts, its family and its will to live.

If we are responsible for creating the conditions that endanger wolves, shouldn’t we also be responsible for protecting their right to exist?

Sources and References

1. National Park Service: Yellowstone Wolf Management

https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/management/wolf.htm

2. National Park Service: 2022 Yellowstone Wolf Project Annual Report

https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/upload/2022-Web-Wolf-Report.pdf

3. Mountain West News Bureau, March 23, 2021: Montana Governor Given Written Warning After Trapping, Killing of Yellowstone Wolf

https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/natural-resources-energy/2021-03-23/montana-governor-given-written-warning-after-trapping-killing-of-yellowstone-wolf

4. Montana Public Radio, March 24, 2021: Gianforte Takes Wolf Trapping Course Following Warning

https://www.mtpr.org/montana-news/2021-03-24/gianforte-takes-wolf-trapping-course-following-warning

5. IPBES: 2019 Global Biodiversity Assessment

https://www.ipbes.net/global-assessment

6. National Park Service: Yellowstone Wolf Ecology

https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolf.htm

7. USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service: Wildlife Services

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife-services

Christine Villabona-Kuntz is the founder of Pure Trixie Productions, an independent conservation media initiative focused on biodiversity, wildlife protection and ecological restoration.

 

“I felt love, concern and care from the whale”

 

Eight years into studying whales, Nan Hauser believed she understood their size and strength. Then one afternoon off Rarotonga she felt a pressure she had never felt before — a 40‑ton humpback whale pressing its head against her body and lifting her toward the surface.

At first, she thought the animal was playing too roughly. She tried to push away, but the whale kept tucking her under its pectoral fin. For seven and a half minutes the great creature nudged and nudged, even raising her clear of the water on its flipper.

Only when she glimpsed a second silhouette did she understand. The “whale” moving side to side was actually an 18‑foot tiger shark, arched in attack posture. In that instant the humpback positioned her on its head and raced toward her boat, shielding her with its massive body. Within ten minutes she was safely back on deck, shaking with shock and gratitude.

Hauser, a lifelong marine biologist, had never experienced anything like it. “I felt love, concern and care from the whale,” she told The Guardian. She had spent her career filming these animals quietly, believing the best way to understand them was to let them be. Now one seemed to understand her vulnerability and acted.

Scientists note that humpbacks have been documented interfering when predators attack other species, behaviour some call “mobbing”. Whether the whale’s act was true altruism or an instinct honed by eons of kin‑selected behaviour, Hauser felt the encounter as a deliberate choice.

The story didn’t end there. A year later Hauser was back in the Cook Islands when a familiar tail surfaced. She recognised the whale by the notches on its fluke and the scar on its head. As she slid into the water the whale approached, looked her in the eye and extended its giant fin. She rubbed its face and began to cry. The whale lingered near her boat for twenty minutes before swimming away.

There is no moral to pin on a whale’s fin, no proof that a giant mammal meant to save a human. There is only a moment when a life hung between a predator and a protector and something ancient stirred.

Perhaps this is what happens when we spend enough time listening rather than dominating: another being may recognise us as kin. In a world where we often assume only humans are capable of compassion, a humpback whale carrying a scientist to safety suggests the ocean itself may be watching over us.

#WhaleGuardian #HumpbackRescue #MarineLife #InterspeciesAltruism #OceanConnection #WildCompassion #ProtectiveWhale #NatureStories #HumanAnimalBond #LoveAndRespect

 

A Tiger with Empathy

 

The incident occurred during an early morning routine. Julian, a veteran caretaker at the animal refuge, was patrolling the perimeter track next to the tiger habitat when he abruptly lost consciousness and collapsed close to the perimeter wire.

He remained motionless on the ground. Khan, a tiger Julian had raised by hand since early cubhood, was lounging nearby when Julian collapsed. Within moments, the big cat hurried to the steel mesh, pressing his heavy frame against the enclosure structure. Then the animal displayed behavior staff had never witnessed previously. He extended one enormous paw through an opening in the bars toward Julian, softly brushing his shoulder and arm repeatedly, unwilling to pull it back.

A coworker noticed the commotion from a distance and rushed over, fearing an attack. However, Khan showed no signs of aggression. Instead, the tiger fixed his gaze on the security camera above the enclosure, emitting deep, urgent chuffing noises, the same vocalizations tigers rely on to communicate with one another.

Colleagues noted the animal was actively sounding an alarm for assistance. When medical responders reached the scene moments later, Khan remained stationed at the barrier. He observed silently as they treated Julian, finally stepping away only after the caretaker was placed onto a stretcher.

Physicians later verified that Julian experienced a sudden blood pressure drop brought on by dehydration, a medical event that might have gone undetected much longer without someone close by.
Julian returned to work two weeks afterward. His first stop wasn't his office. He wanted to thank Khan.

-FB

Coach Ben Johnson asked Cairo Santos If He Wanted the Opportunity: "Think about how powerful that is."

With about eight minutes left, Cairo Santos lined up for a 53-yard field goal that would have given the Bears a two-score lead. He missed. The ball hit the upright, announcers couldn’t stop saying “doink” and the Patriots had life.

Fast forward a few minutes. The Bears have another chance to put the game away, but now the kick would be from 58 yards. Five yards farther than the one Santos had just missed. Longer than any field goal he’d made in his 13-year NFL career.

Coach Ben Johnson initially called for a punt. Then he asked if Santos wanted the opportunity. Santos didn’t hesitate. “I want it.” Johnson trusted him. His teammates trusted him. And more importantly, Santos trusted himself. He stepped up and drilled a 58-yard field goal right down the middle. Career long. I woke up thinking how awesome that moment really was. Some pretty powerful lessons in those few minutes. First, confidence isn’t believing you’ll never fail. It’s believing in your ability to respond when you do.

Second, one mistake doesn’t erase years of preparation. Santos didn’t suddenly become a better kicker in those few minutes. He was the same guy who had just missed. The difference was that he refused to let his last attempt define his next one.

And finally, there’s a leadership lesson here that I love. Johnson could have played it safe. He could have let the previous miss influence his decision. Instead, he listened to his player and trusted him with an even bigger opportunity.

Think about how powerful that is. Having someone believe in you at a moment when it would be easy to question yourself. Whether you’re coaching athletes, leading employees, raising kids, or just trying to navigate life, people are going to miss sometimes. So are you.

The question is whether we create environments where mistakes become something to learn from or something to fear. And when your next opportunity comes, will you be willing to take it? Don’t let your last miss convince you that you’re incapable of making the next one. Sometimes the biggest moment of your career comes just minutes after one you’d rather forget.

Bear Down.

Justin M Boyd

Human Pandemic? Deadly Outbreak: A bird flu outbreak has been raging uncontrolled on a Utah mink farm for two months. Flu experts fear it could spark a devastating human pandemic

Federal officials brushed off the issue as Utah prioritized the fur industry’s interests. Little has been done to stop the spread of the virus and ensure it can’t spread to humans, a failure that experts called “irresponsible’’ and “astounding.” Reporting Highlights: Deadly Outbreak: A bird flu outbreak has been raging uncontrolled on a Utah mink farm for two months. Flu experts fear it could spark a devastating human pandemic. Government Failures: State officials didn’t order the mink to be killed, which other countries with outbreaks have done. They are prioritizing the financial interests of the fur trade. Silent Risks: Despite CDC guidance urging officials to monitor workers, they actively chose not to and declined to test workers — including one with a symptom experts said would warrant testing. These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story. -ProPublica Bird Flu Is Raging on a Mink Farm. It Could Spark a Human Pandemic, Experts Say, but Officials Won’t Act. — ProPublica

"If We Burn, You Burn with Us": France’s Youth Ignite a Massive Revolt

 

PARIS — “Make sure you tell the Americans that trash cans aren’t the only things burning in France,” 16-year-old Ewen told Truthdig as protesters gathered on the Place de la République on Saturday. Tear gas canisters had been falling into the growing crowd for about an hour, and the teen struggled to make himself heard with his mask.

“Our future is burning, too,” Ewen added. Due to the repression and arrests by police, most protesters asked that only their first names be used.

In rapid succession, he listed everything he’d come to protest against: his rat-infested high school, the violent police repression of the student movement, but also the lack of hospital beds across the country, the cost of living, the saturated job market and the quickly forgotten fires that ravaged France this summer. During the country’s hottest summer on record this year, some 250,000 acres of forest burned...

Grabbing his three friends, Ewen then posed for a photo, holding up a sign that read: “If we burn, you burn with us!” “It’s a ‘Hunger Games’ reference,” Ewen explained, as though I were decidedly too ancient to get it on my own. “It means that we’re not just fighting for ourselves, but for you, too.”

Marine Champetier de Ribes, who teaches literature at a school in a Paris suburb, said she felt France’s youth had awakened something in the rest of society. “Us adults had collectively fallen into torpor,” she said. “They shook us out of it and reminded us all that we’re right to be angry.”

On Oct. 17, that torpor lifted in plain sight. Between 550,000 and 800,000 people marched across the country. Though much of the national and international coverage focused on the violence that marred the margins of Saturday’s protests, the lesson was elsewhere: In less than a month, the high schoolers’ movement managed to pull a tired, resigned country back into the streets. Students were joined by teachers, parents, doctors, nurses, lawyers, pensioners, Yellow Vests, farmers and firefighters in perhaps the most intersectional movement France has seen in decades.

“They write the rules, and we follow”

Champetier de Ribes, 34, and her colleagues across the education sector had been organizing for years but had been slowly losing steam. “No one was listening to us,” she lamented.

In her school alone, she cited “cockroach-infested walls, clogged toilets, rat droppings in the microwaves and boiling classrooms that have yet to cool down after this summer’s heat waves.” Champetier de Ribes said she has also been forced to fit 38 students into her 215-square-foot classroom, which never has enough chairs and desks: “I’ve had to insist that at least three of them be absent every week so I can teach the rest,” she said. Champetier de Ribes said teachers had become disillusioned. “We’d quite forgotten how to be angry, until, that is, our students began leading by example,” she said.

Starting on Sept. 17, high schoolers across the country began barricading their schools to demand better material conditions and equal education opportunities. The movement began in the Paris suburb of Créteil and it spread fast: By Oct. 1, the Interior Ministry reported that more than 1,000 of France’s 3,700 high schools had been affected, over 200 of them blockaded. 

The students’ demands are more specific than their critics let on: a 10-billion-euro investment plan for schools, and an end to Parcoursup, the national platform that manages university admissions, which is often compared to a “social sorting machine” and criticized for its lack of transparency.

They’re also asking for more teachers, Last year, students across France lost some 20 million hours worth of lessons because absent teachers were not replaced. The education shortfalls are a result of President Emmanuel Macron’s neoliberal approach to public education funding while simultaneously increasing defense spending.

Teachers, in turn, organized to support their pupils. “They write the rules and we follow,” Champetier de Ribes said. She and her colleagues created an Instagram account to share the students’ demands with a grown-up audience: “We have to speak their language,” she added with a laugh.

From the start, the movement was met with force. The government, which chose to label the movement not as a “school protest” but as “urban violence,” sent police riot squads directly into high schools and universities.

Eden, 14, had his jaw fractured and most of his teeth knocked after being struck in the face by a tear gas grenade in a Paris suburb, leaving him, according to his mother, barely able to eat through a straw in his hospital bed. A 15-year-old in the north had his hand torn off by a so-called anti-encirclement grenade. On Saturday, in the eastern town of Mulhouse, Maïssa, 17, was struck by a tear-gas canister and lost her left eye.

Some 6,773 minors have been taken into police custody since the protests began in mid-September. Complaints are currently being filed across the country for verbal and physical mistreatment of these high schoolers during their detention.

This level of violence gave teachers yet another cause for concern, Champetier de Ribes said. “We were, to put it plainly, terrified at the very idea of seeing our students face off with the police.” Five months pregnant, she herself cannot physically protect her students, as tear gas is highly toxic. But she did help her colleagues prepare emergency kits. Identified with a white armband, these teachers carry masks, saline solution, bandages, disinfectant, water and applesauce pouches, ready to assist their pupils should they need help.

“This generation shook us awake,” Champetier de Ribes said. “Now, we have to be there for them, and alongside them.”

Christophe, who teaches mathematics in a private Paris high school, joined the protest Saturday with a sign that read: “You should not have betrayed us. We’re here to take our future back.” He stated that, while his was not an underprivileged school, his students had nonetheless joined their peers on the street, demanding equality. “My students may not be the ones getting beat up, but they’re still children,” he said... . 

-Truthdig

'If We Burn, You Burn With Us': France’s Youth Ignite a Massive Revolt

Florida woman killed a cat, put its remains in a blender, and then drank them: Seriously!

A young Florida woman is accused of killing a neighborhood cat and then blending its organs to drink. ​Juliana Alyssa Brown captured the animal in May 2024 while her family was on vacation, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by The Independent. At first the 21-year-old tried to kill the cat by drowning it in a white trash bag, before stabbing it with a kitchen knife, the affidavit said. Pasco County Sheriff’s Office interviewed Brown earlier this month after a mandatory clinical reporter told them she had confessed to the killing.

“The defendant proceeded to admit to trying to kill the cat various ways over the course of several days,” the affidavit stated. “The defendant explained the cat was screaming in pain which caused her to become ‘sexually aroused’. “Ultimately the defendant was able to drown the cat in her bathroom. Following the cat’s death the defendant placed it in a refrigerator hiding it from family members. “The defendant admitted that she skinned the cat, dissected its organs, placed them in a blender and drank them.”

The accused told patrol deputies she decapitated the animal, keeping its head for several months by preserving it with alcohol, per the affidavit. Brown told cops she often fantasized about killing animals and had done so since she was three years old. The sheriff’s office said the suspect had given them photographs showing the cat alive and then skinned two days later, as well as the knife she claimed she used to kill the animal.

Brown was arrested on October 14, according to jail records, and has now been charged with one count of aggravated animal cruelty causing excessive pain or death. The sheriff’s office requested a high bond be set “due to an enhanced fear of public safety”. ​“I understand that cruelty to animals is often a precursor for individuals who go on to carry out mass attacks or acts of targeted violence against individuals,” a deputy wrote in the affidavit.

​Under Florida Statute 828.12(2), aggravated animal cruelty is a third-degree felony and punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000, The Herbst Firm says. Anyone convicted of the crime could also be required to undertake an anger management program or psychological counselling.

 -Owen Scott, The Independent