Already there has been discussion (how far along it is, I do not know) of establishing a wolf corridor between the Idaho Rockies and the Oregon Cascades.  If there is a likelihood that wolverines would use such a corridor, then that increases the promise of the idea.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

But speaking of wolves, a farmer in the next town over from me in Massachusetts recently shot the state's first confirmed wolf in 160 years...

First wolf found in Mass. in 160 years

By Beth Daley, Boston Globe Staff

More than 160 years since hunters drove wolves out of Massachusetts, federal officials have confirmed finding a wild gray wolf in the state.

US Fish and Wildlife Service officials said today that genetic tests performed on an animal killed on a Shelburne farm in October, after it mauled more than a dozen sheep, showed that it was an eastern gray wolf.

"We have no indication that this wolf was ever held in captivity," said Thomas J. Healy, special agent in charge of the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Northeast Region. "But what we don't know about this wolf's origins far outweighs what we do know."

The confirmation is giving wildlife enthusiasts hope that the animal may one day reestablish itself in the forests of the Northeast. Wolves were aggressively hunted by farmers in the early 1800s until virtually none were left. The nearest established populations to New England are in Ontario and Quebec.

While the public often reports sighting wolves, most of those animals turn out to be coyotes or wolf-dog, wolf-coyote mixes, officials say. The last time a purebred wolf that did not live in captivity was found in New England was around 1992 in Maine.

The genetic tests on the 85-pound male were conducted by scientists at the wildlife service's National Forensic Laboratory in Ashland, Ore. Massachusetts and other wildlife biologists had previously said they doubted the wolf was a purebred.


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I suppose that's something to consider, but the idea seems funny to me!

If you continue to do what you've always done you'll continue to get what you've always got. - Yogi Berra

Having a wolverine for a pet would be interesting. You could tell everyone that it's an exotic dog breed. Of course, you might want to wear chain mail clothing. Even the pit bull owners would give you a wide berth.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

I dunno...plenty of people keep tigers, lions, bears, wolves and other "dangerous" animals as pets illegally.

Still, a corridor for wolves (and wolverines maybe) between the Northern Rockies and the Cascades is at least in principle desirable.  Unfortunately it would probably have to pass through Idaho, which is apparently the most wolf-hating state in the Lower 48.  (Alaska has its own traditions of anti-wolf animosity.)  It would be lovely to open up a way for wolves between Montana and Oregon without having to deal with Idaho, but that is sort of like Thelma and Louise trying to flee from Arkansas to Mexico without passing through Texas.

For a number of reasons it seems unlikely that a corridor could follow the Snake valley directly from Yellowstone NP and Bridger-Teton NF, through the more populated and wider southern end of Idaho.  But possibly a corridor could start from up the Bitterroot valley in MT at Nez Perce Pass, and on the other side get into the Salmon valley.  But that would bring the wolves out to the Oregon border at Hell's Canyon, and how the hell the wolves are supposed to cross the notoriously forbidding Snake River is indeed a problem.

Thanks, Erik, for relating the recent wolf encounter in Massachusetts.  I get the feeling that in the Northeast, including well south of New England, there have been more and more sightings of returning big wildlife; these are thus far anecdotal and unconfirmed, but often come across as credible, when the witnesses are intelligent, self-critical people with no motive to exaggerate.  (Often witnesses are not, of course; and that is presumably the motive of the state wildlife officials to keep these reports suppressed.)  Certainly it should not be all that surprising that the solitary cats -- the mountain lion and the lynx -- are being seen where they have not been seen in ages, the former even well down the Appalachians.

Wolves would presumably be more visible, and audible.  In the case of this unfortunate wolf in MA, it seems to have been behaving more like a coyote than a typical wolf.  That is not in itself surprising, since coyote-behavior is just a species of wolf-behavior in peculiar circumstances.  (So is dog-behavior, for that matter, though the genetic differences have moved things along a bit.)  But it does not look as though there is yet room for a healthy wolf population in the Berkshires.

Of course I hope I am wrong.

The people at the Wolf Conservation Center in downstate New York -- nywolf.org -- no doubt have something helpful to say.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

On TasPar's "pet" theory: Yes, that too is credible.  Apparently there are a lot of people in this country of ours who acquire potentially dangerous animals, and then when the animals become inconvenient or too hard to handle, the owners have little scruple about dumping them somewhere outdoors where there is a chance that they will survive.  And snakehead fish in the Potomac valley, and Burmese pythons in South Florida, seem to be surviving quite nicely.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

Obviously wisdom comes with the name!

Sorry, I just see so many animals being killed, that I wonder how long before some hunter or ranger will come and kill the poor wolverine!

http://www.newsweek.com/id/117875

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

Well, even as a child, I use to look at the other Indian womens "elephant teeth" bangles. - However, it did not seem right! well, now as a married older woman - well I am 31! I understand the evil in those bangles. I use the word evil, because it is!

I remember this because the article you sent me said that the elephants in africa are killed for their teeth, for exports to Asia! - India!

P.S. When I got married, I asked not to have the elephant teeth bangles, even though I was very able to afford them!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/03/10/sierra.wolveri ....

Notice the curious remark at the end, by the Tucson expert, that they "know" there are wolverines in the southern Sierra Nevada; oddly, it is the steady presence of wolverines further north, where this photo was just taken, that is uncertain.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.