Wildlife officials say a previously unknown pack of wolves is responsible for killing a calf in the Tom Miner Basin area of Park County.   LIVINGSTON, Mont. (AP) — Wildlife officials say a previously unknown pack of wolves is responsible for killing a calf in the Tom Miner Basin area of Park County. Yellowstone Cattle Company's Mike Hubbard tells The Livingston Enterprise he found the carcass April 18, and officials with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks determined two to three wolves were responsible for the death. FWP wolf management specialist Abby Nelson says the wolves returned to the carcass on two subsequent nights, but traps were removed after a couple of days because of signs that a grizzly bear was in the area. Nelson says a pack spent some time in the area last year but has since moved south into Yellowstone National Park. The depredation is the first reported in the area this year, and Hubbard has been issued a shoot-on-site permit for one wolf.

A $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever shot and killed a Florida panther in Seminole County.   VERO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever shot and killed a Florida panther. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the reward Monday. Remains of the dead panther were found along a Seminole County road last month. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is already working with prosecutors to file charges for the illegal possession of a Florida panther, but no information about the suspects has been released. The federal agency is still investigating who killed the animal. Florida panthers are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Scientists believe there are only about 100 left in Florida. Anyone with information should call 1-888-404-3922.                     

An attachment to a federal budget bill needed to avert a government shutdown would take gray wolves off the endangered species list across most of the Northern Rockies. BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — An attachment to a federal budget bill needed to avert a government shutdown would take gray wolves off the endangered species list across most of the Northern Rockies. Wildlife advocates conceded Tuesday the wolf provision was all but certain to remain in the spending bill after efforts to remove it failed. Congress faces a tight deadline on a budget plan already months overdue, and the rider has bipartisan support. It orders the Obama administration to lift protections for wolves within 60 days in five Western states. Protections would remain intact in Wyoming, at least for now. But wolf hunting would resume this fall in Idaho and Montana, where an estimated 1,250 of the animals have been blamed in hundreds of livestock attacks and for declines seen in some big game herds. Wolves also would be returned to state management in Washington, Oregon and Utah. Lawmakers said they inserted the rider to circumvent a federal judge who repeatedly blocked proposals to hunt the predators. The legislation would block further court intervention. "We needed to figure out a way to manage these critters just like we manage other wildlife, and this is the way to do it," Sen. Jon Tester said in an interview with The Associated Press. "If you take a look at impacts wolves have had on domestic livestock, on our big game, it is not deniable that it has been extensive." Wolves were wiped out across most of the United States last century under a government bounty program established to benefit the agriculture industry. They were reintroduced to Wyoming and Idaho in the mid-1990s, and at least 1,651 now roam parts of five states. Only a few dozen of the animals so far have colonized Washington and Oregon and no packs are known to exist in Utah. Idaho and Montana officials were forced to cancel wolf hunts planned last year when U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy restored protections for the species. Those plans are expected to be updated to allow hunting this fall for potentially hundreds of wolves. Wildlife advocates had sought to stop the legislation through a settlement on the issue with the Obama administration announced last month. But that settlement was scuttled in court by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, who cited dissension among some environmentalists who characterized the deal as politically-motivated sellout. Mike Leahy, with Defenders of Wildlife, said the time to head off congressional action "has come and gone." He said his group was turning its attention to the states, in hopes of averting overhunting that could drive wolves again to the brink of extinction. "The real threat here is the states grinding down wolf populations in response to anti-wolf rhetoric over time," Leahy said. "They can chip away at the population and manage them down to 100, 150 wolves if they want." Wyoming lawmakers inserted language into the bill to uphold a ruling on wolves by another judge last year that was favorable to their state. However, the ruling said only that the government must reconsider Wyoming's wolf management proposal — not necessarily accept it. Wyoming Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis said she hoped the rider would "clear away obstacles so that meaningful negotiations can continue" between the state and federal officials. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has said Wyoming law is too hostile to the predators, because it would allow them to be shot on sight across most of the state.

Republican Rep. Judy Boyle did her part Tuesday, successfully sponsoring a disaster emergency declaration that cleared the Idaho House on a 64-5 vote.   BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Tiffani Bowen waits tables and cooks at the Country Coffee Cabin in Midvale, a little western Idaho ranching community along U.S. Highway 95 near millions of acres of National Forest land. The mother of a 2-year-old has never seen one of the wolves that roam the mountains here, but when local talk turns to the big predators, residents are unified, she said. "Everyone wants to have them all gone," Bowen said. The local Republican Rep. Judy Boyle did her part Tuesday, successfully sponsoring a disaster emergency declaration that cleared the Idaho House on a 64-5 vote. It would allow Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter to enlist local law enforcement agents to help kill wolves if he decides they are a risk to humans, livestock, outfitting businesses or wildlife. It's similar to a measure in which Idaho County in 2010 unsuccessfully sought authority from Otter to allow wolves to be shot on sight. Wolves haven't attacked humans since their reintroduction to Idaho in 1995, but there's an almost archetypal fear in some of Idaho's rural communities that they are under siege from the big canine carnivores. Ranchers complain they're losing their livestock, hunters say wolves have made big game scarce. And Rep. Lenore Barrett, R-Challis, says she won't let her grandchildren play outdoors because wolves have been spotted on nearby Blue Mountain. "They're killers, they do it for sport, and then they leave their victim still alive for a lingering death," Barrett said. After Tuesday's vote, the measure moves to the Senate. The estimated 1,650 wolves now in the Northern Rockies — about half the population is in Idaho — are descended primarily from 66 wolves trapped in Canada and released into remote areas of Idaho and Wyoming in the mid-1990s by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Federal Endangered Species Act protections have been lifted twice, once in 2008 and again in 2009 when there were legal public hunts in Idaho and Montana. But the protections were reinstated last August by a federal judge after a lawsuit filed by environmental groups. Just last month, ten conservation groups that had sued reached an agreement with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove federal protections from wolves. There's also an effort in Congress by lawmakers from the northern Rocky Mountains to act. Still, Idaho lawmakers like Rep. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian, are frustrated at the slow progress and hope to keep the pressure on with legislation like the disaster emergency declaration. Hagedorn, an avid hunter, complained it's been months since the Idaho Department of Fish and Game sought the go-ahead from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to kill dozens of wolves blamed for killing elk in northcentral Idaho. "That population of elk in that one zone is no longer sustainable," Hagedorn said. The five Democratic dissenters weren't convinced. Wolves have been spotted on golf courses near Sun Valley, said Rep. Wendy Jaquet, who represents the central Idaho vacation region. Still, she's more frightened of even bolder mountain lions that have also been sighted around town. Idaho already has the tools at its disposal to manage wolves appropriately without resorting to Boyle's bill, Jaquet said, including the likelihood of delisting, money to compensate livestock owners for losses and federal agents who can be called in to kill problem packs. "We do have lethal measures that take place right now," she said. "We should let the process go forward."

A hearing in Salem on proposed wolf management bills showed agreement from just about everybody involved on one issue — Oregon ranchers should be compensated for livestock losses.   SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A hearing in Salem on proposed wolf management bills showed agreement from just about everybody involved on one issue — Oregon ranchers should be compensated for livestock losses. But other issues may not be as easy to resolve. About 35 people showed up for the two-hour hearing Wednesday before the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources on five bills backed by the Oregon Cattlemen's Association. In addition to a pair of bills proposing a compensation plan, two other bills would authorize killing wolves — one when they attack livestock and another, without cause. A fifth bill would cut the state's population goal for wolf recovery in half, to four breeding pairs. Ranchers said they need the proposed changes to deal with livestock losses and threats to safety. But conservation groups said the proposals amount to a political end run around the current Oregon wolf management plan. "I am extremely disappointed to have to be here again today to discuss efforts to undermine Oregon's wolf plan and fragile wolf recovery that were proposed, discussed, debated, and soundly rejected in last year's extensive public process,'' Rob Klavins of Oregon Wild told the House committee. Opponents of the proposed management changes said the state should stick to the requirements for both wolf numbers and constraints on killing the animals outlined in the state wolf management plan updated last year. "The vast majority of Oregonians are proud of this compromise plan and the process that was used to create it, and it is important that state legislators defend it,'' said Randy Comeleo, of Corvallis. Suzanne Stone, with Defenders of Wildlife, said coyotes alone kill 10 times more livestock than wolves, while cougars, bears, bad weather, disease and birthing complications also take a toll. But ranchers told lawmakers that wolves are costing them money and peace of mind. Karl Patton, a rancher from Joseph in northeastern Oregon, said he was awakened last March by six wolves in the dark "coming full speed.'' He started shooting until they ran off. Wolves have killed his livestock twice, including two pregnant cows, one of which was carrying twins, he said. "When they were coming at me and the dogs, they were not coming to shake hands,'' Patton said. Ramona Phillips, also of Joseph, said wolves are changing the behavior of livestock and the members of her family. "Now we live the stress of wolf attacks 24/7,'' she said. Wildlife experts already are authorized to kill problem wolves, which can be killed if they are an immediate threat. But conservationists say easing protection for wolves as proposed by the bills could lead to poaching. "It would essentially take us back to the good old days where killing a wolf on sight was OK," Klavins said. "There's no way to prove after the fact that that wolf was, in fact, threatening your cattle or was within 500 feet of a house." Since wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, the animal populations in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, eastern Washington and eastern Oregon have grown to nearly 1,500. The first wolf crossed into Oregon in 1999. Wildlife managers confirm 39 domestic animals have since been killed by wolves, whose population now totals at least 23. Another hearing by the committee is scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday.

By: Don Germaise ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A St. Petersburg boy narrowly escaped an alligator attack because the gator bit his baggy pants instead of his leg, police said. Seventeen-year-old Kendrick Williams was walking home from work Monday night and taking a shortcut near a pond at the Reserve Apartments in south St. Petersburg. "I heard the hiss and then I looked down and I seen the alligator on the ground," said Williams. "I ran. I didn't look back." Williams said the alligator appeared to be six to seven feet long. However, one witness told St. Petersburg police the gator was 10 feet long, said police spokesman Mike Puetz. The gator took a bite out of Williams' baggy pants, tearing large holes in the fabric. Williams' mom thinks the pants might have saved her son's life. "That was the advantage of wearing baggy pants that day," said Tanita Murray. "It's dangerous. If a toddler had been standing there, it (the alligator) would have bit his neck or head." Wildlife officers told St. Petersburg police there are so many gators in the pond at the Reserve Apartments, they couldn't determine which one tried to bite Williams. The apartment complex would not let a reporter on the property to ask managers about the problem.

Authorities have shot a mountain lion that was wandering around a residential Redwood City neighborhood.   REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) — Authorities have shot a mountain lion that was wandering around a residential Redwood City neighborhood. State Department of Fish and Game Lt. Todd Ajari says a warden with the agency hit the animal with two rifle shots around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in the backyard of a home. Authorities concluded that trying to tranquilize the animal was too risky. Ajari said it could have become angry and escaped into the community. The animal was first spotted about three hours earlier on a busy street near Sequoia Hospital. The sighting prompted authorities to ask the residents of about 600 homes to evacuate or stay inside. A house-by-house search led them to the animal. Officials say the mountain lion weighed between 100 and 150 pounds. It's not clear how it got into the neighborhood, which is not near any open space.

Missouri conservation officials have confirmed that a tuft of hair found on a fence in southwest Missouri came from a mountain lion.   WEST PLAINS, Mo. (AP) — Missouri conservation officials have confirmed that a tuft of hair found on a fence in southwest Missouri came from a mountain lion. Conservation resource scientist Jeff Beringer says DNA from the hair showed it belonged to a mountain lion. The hair was found March 9 on a fence near the Oregon County town of Rover. The Missouri Conservation Department says a resident said he saw a mountain lion get its hind leg caught in the fence before escaping. The Carthage Press reported Tuesday that the hair will be sent to a genetics lab in Montana to try and determine the cat's origin. This is the sixth verified mountain lion sighting in Missouri since late November. Beringer says the conservation has no evidence that a breeding population is living in Missouri.

State wildlife officials say a six-month effort to remove wolves considered dangerous has succeeded, with 10 of the animals killed in the Anchorage area. ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — State wildlife officials say a six-month effort to remove wolves considered dangerous has succeeded, with 10 of the animals killed in the Anchorage area. Mark Burch of the Alaska Fish and Game Department estimated that four wolves remain in the area, after one died in a collision with a car that was not connected to the predator-control effort. "We believe we've mitigated the risk,'' Burch told the Anchorage Daily News. "We're not trying to eradicate wolves. We're trying to reduce the risk.'' Fish and Game officials and wildlife officers said the control efforts are necessary because of a pattern of increasingly bold wolf behavior. Last November, a man walking his dogs on base was briefly surrounded by four wolves. The predators also treed two female runners with a dog for about two hours nearly a year ago. "It's not common for wolves to become aggressive toward people, but when they do, it's a public safety issue,'' Burch said. "While wolf attacks on humans are rare, this lack of fear and aggression is the kind of behavior seen by wolves that have attacked people in the past — so we are doing what we can to minimize the risks.'' Others think the fears are overblown. Gary Gustafson, chairman of Chugach State Park Citizens' Advisory Board, has criticized the fish and game department for nearly wiping out the wolf population in a portion of the half-million-acre park. "I'm not a biologist in any way, shape or form,'' Gustafson said. "But what's troublesome to us is that the department has decided one size fits all and that the plan is to exterminate all wolves.'' Pete Panarese, another member of the board and a former state parks deputy director, agreed. "If somebody sees a wolf and it just looks at them and doesn't run away, is that grounds to shoot the wolf?'' he asked. "Sometimes wolves, when they show up, they're checking something out to see if it will go away. "They're predators, looking at you to see what you're going to do. A very small number of them keep pushing the envelope.'' Food, trash, unsecured dog food and habitation to humans tends to draw them in, Panarese added. Burch said that though the winter-long control effort is over, Fish and Game employees can still kill wolves they deem dangerous. "It's the same judgment that's involved with dealing with moose, bears and wolves on a daily basis,'' he said. "The public accepts the judgment of professionals on matters like this that involve public safety.'' State wildlife officials say a six-month effort to remove wolves considered dangerous has succeeded, with 10 of the animals killed in the Anchorage area.   ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — State wildlife officials say a six-month effort to remove wolves considered dangerous has succeeded, with 10 of the animals killed in the Anchorage area. Mark Burch of the Alaska Fish and Game Department estimated that four wolves remain in the area, after one died in a collision with a car that was not connected to the predator-control effort. "We believe we've mitigated the risk,'' Burch told the Anchorage Daily News. "We're not trying to eradicate wolves. We're trying to reduce the risk.'' Fish and Game officials and wildlife officers said the control efforts are necessary because of a pattern of increasingly bold wolf behavior. Last November, a man walking his dogs on base was briefly surrounded by four wolves. The predators also treed two female runners with a dog for about two hours nearly a year ago. "It's not common for wolves to become aggressive toward people, but when they do, it's a public safety issue,'' Burch said. "While wolf attacks on humans are rare, this lack of fear and aggression is the kind of behavior seen by wolves that have attacked people in the past — so we are doing what we can to minimize the risks.'' Others think the fears are overblown. Gary Gustafson, chairman of Chugach State Park Citizens' Advisory Board, has criticized the fish and game department for nearly wiping out the wolf population in a portion of the half-million-acre park. "I'm not a biologist in any way, shape or form,'' Gustafson said. "But what's troublesome to us is that the department has decided one size fits all and that the plan is to exterminate all wolves.'' Pete Panarese, another member of the board and a former state parks deputy director, agreed. "If somebody sees a wolf and it just looks at them and doesn't run away, is that grounds to shoot the wolf?'' he asked. "Sometimes wolves, when they show up, they're checking something out to see if it will go away. "They're predators, looking at you to see what you're going to do. A very small number of them keep pushing the envelope.'' Food, trash, unsecured dog food and habitation to humans tends to draw them in, Panarese added. Burch said that though the winter-long control effort is over, Fish and Game employees can still kill wolves they deem dangerous. "It's the same judgment that's involved with dealing with moose, bears and wolves on a daily basis,'' he said. "The public accepts the judgment of professionals on matters like this that involve public safety.''

Federal officials on Monday signaled their preliminary support for a plan to kill gray wolves in western Montana that have preyed on big game herds along the Idaho border.   BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Federal officials on Monday signaled their preliminary support for a plan to kill gray wolves in western Montana that have preyed on big game herds along the Idaho border. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a draft environmental review of a Montana proposal to kill 18 of an estimated 30 wolves along the West Fork of the Bitterroot River. That would include the elimination of between one and three packs in the area. A similar petition from Idaho remains pending. Wildlife advocates have challenged the states' plans in court. A proposed settlement in a related case would lift federal protections for wolves and render the challenge moot. A final decision will follow a 14-day public comment period, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Shawn Sartorius. He did not have any further timeline for action. "On the face of it, it appears to meet the requirements we made,'' Sartorius said of Montana's plan. However, he added that officials could alter their initial inclination to approve the plan based on the public comments received. Montana wildlife officials say elk populations along the West Fork have suffered due to increasing wolf numbers. Other measures to boost elk numbers have not worked, including more hunting of other predators such as black bears and mountain lions, habitat improvements and changes in elk hunting harvest limits. An estimated 764 elk live in the area where wolves would be targeted. That compares with a population objective of 1,600 to 2,400 of the game animals, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "We want to be able to keep things in balance and, from what we can see, the only way to get there is to start managing wolves,'' said agency spokesman Ron Aasheim. Wolves have also been blamed for declining elk herds in other parts of the state, particularly around Yellowstone National Park. Aasheim said there are no current plans to submit additional petitions to kill wolves in those areas — but added that could change depending on the outcome of the proposed settlement. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula has been asked to approve the deal. Molloy has rejected prior attempts to lift protections for wolves. Four wildlife advocacy groups have objected to the settlement, saying it would put the animals at risk of widespread extermination.