For the second time in as many months, Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has authorized the destruction of an entire wolf pack in the state. 

Bill Jones, staff writer for the Greeneville Sun reports that a Greene County couple caught a glimpse, and snapped a shot, of one of the missing wolves from the Bays Mountain Park facility.

A Wisconsin man has been fined, and must serve community service for illegal shooting a wolf in November near Iron River, Michigan.

After a year which was marked by a number of steps backwards for America’s wolves, wolf advocates are preparing for another year of fights – and do so by asking for last minute donations.

According to the Idaho Fish and Game website, the Palouse-Hells Canyon zone closed Friday, December.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Defenders of Wildlife had initially combined to offer a $6,500 reward for information about the poaching of a wolf in Ontonagon County, Michigan – an anonymous doner has increased that reward.

According to the Bays Mountain Park website, the facility remains closed as they work to recover two wolves who escaped after a fallen tree damaged their enclosure.

A recently published study by researchers from Washington State University has shown that wolves in Idaho and Montana are now carriers of a wild strain of tapeworms – but there is no evidence the parasite can be transmitted to domestic livestock.

Another pack will be exterminated after reportedly killing two goats and four guard dogs over the last two years. Ralph Maughan reveals, on his wildly respected blog, that the ranch where the predations occured is owned by a Montana senator, perhaps explaining the over-reaction.

USAToday reporter Janice Lloyd wrote an extensive story exploring the 33% decrease in the Yellowstone National Park wolves from their peak in 2003.