By Alex Felsinger •
March 18, 2009
Alaska abruptly resumed shooting wolves from helicopters this weekend in hopes that shooting the wolves will increase the population of caribou for hunters to kill. The state plans to kill up to 328 wolves, sparing under 100 in the Yukon area.
Not everyone in Alaska is gung-ho about the plan. The National Park Service has been collaring wolves for a two-decade-long study tracking predator-prey relationships, and now many of those wolves are bound to turn up dead.
By Alex Felsinger •
February 3, 2009
The website, accompanied by a new advertisement starring Ashley Judd [below], will feature a tracker of headlines regarding Palin’s treatment of wildlife in Alaska. For instance, the discussion right now is focused on her willingness to ANWR to drilling.
By Alex Felsinger •
January 11, 2009
A wolf was shot from a helicopter in Montana after avoiding hunters for months. The wolf had been picking off sheep from a ranch along with his mate, who was killed in November.
Wolves were removed from the endangered species list in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho this Spring, but a lawsuit from environmental groups reinstated the dwindling species position on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service list. However, wolves that are believed to be killing livestock can be legally hunted.
By Dana Nuccitelli •
September 12, 2008
The Republican vice presidential nominee’s Alaskan administration has not only supported the aerial hunting of adult wolves, but also the slaughter of their pups.
Sarah Palin’s record is not very favorable for wildlife. She’s put efforts into undoing federal wildlife protections for polar bears and beluga whales in order to protect oil and gas drilling operations, for example. But her position on wolf hunting is perhaps the most controversial.
One of Palin’s first acts in office was to put a $150 bounty on the heads of her state’s wolves, allegedly with the goal of increasing the moose and caribou population. But this was no ordinary hunt - it was meant to incentivize the aerial killing of wolves, in which private hunters take a small plane and chase down wolf packs until they’re exhausted and can’t move any more, when they either shoot them from the air or land and execute them at point blank range. A Defenders of Wildlife ad illustrating this process is available at ClimateProgress.
