OT: Colorado may reintroduce Wolverines
The State of Colorado is looking into reintroducing Wolverines into their state. Since the estimate is down to only 400 in the contiguous US, let's hope this goes forward.
Colorado Legislators Want to Reintroduce Wolverines (msn.com)
Deion liked what he saw eh?
A wolverine strolling by carrying a goat's head in its mouth
Did he get your goat?
https://x.com/CPW_NE/status/1765158524454089048?s=20
Colorado parks and wildlife got jokes.
MGoBlog no longer has media embed button, though, for some reason.
I noticed this too - the normal embed string doesn't work either
Hmmm ... I work at CPW in the NE Region. Going to have to figure out who is running our twitter and send them an award.
Kordell Stewart came to Ann Arbor and killed almost 111,000 Wolverines in Michigan so Colorado owes us.
#toosoon
That was my freshman year. Still too soon.
I was there as well... I had great aspirations for that team. All water under the 2003 National Championship!
2003? Someone tell Chris Perry, John Navarre, et al about their missing rings. Are we awarding ourselves Alabama-style retroactive titles for seasons that no one else considers remotely championship worthy? I am in favor of this, by the way.
^^^corrected^^^
Carry on
Leaving it the way it was and taking the potential beating would be the MGoMan thing to do...
^^^corrected the correction and now as is^^^
However the In-N-Out "secret sauce rules" of the board still remain a challenge to navigate.
Just having fun H2V. We all know what you meant.
Really, this was avenged in 1997. First home game that year was Colorado. I still remember the electricity in the crowd that day. You could tell it was going to be a special year. Much like 2023 (although I didn’t attend any games but the board was excited… )
^^^TRUTH^^^
It was a revenge game against one of MANY ranked opponents in 97.
Strength of schedule and not having to rely on this illegal play against Missouri...
Why you have to be as drunk as Scott Frost to think Michigan loses a Husker head to head match up.
The ubiquitous silence subsequently in the Big House I'll never forget.
Please include a trigger warning with this!
That ball went 75 yds in the air, so Milton ain’t that special
Seems futile to me, because they'd be there if it was right for them. They'll end up migrating elsewhere.
Habitat fragmentation is a thing.
Habitat fragmentation is a HUGE thing.
In fact it's one of the biggest factors to the mass extinction we're 100% responsible for.
Mother Nature is responsible for the other five mass extinctions.
Once supervolcanoes go boom that will fuels a 7th mass extinctions.
Meh. It's like, Thanos blipped half of all living creatures, even though obviously within a few generations populations would just go back to where they were before the snap. Not a reason not to destroy a civilization to get the purple stone, torture your adopted daughters for the location of the yellow stone, go to war with the Avengers, and still do it anyway.
I’m so glad I don’t understand a damn thing in this post.
Akshully you may have it wrong - the Colorado people want to introduce the wolverines to each other. Kinda like a meet and great so they can hook up and have baby wolverines.
Wolves naturally come down from Wyoming to Colorado quite frequently but are illegally poached by Colorado ranchers. They call it "shoot, shovel, shut up."
Ranchers and hunters used the same term to poach wolves when they were protected in the Northern Rocky Mountain states, and still do in Idaho and Montana during non-hunting season. Been reading some people advocating this in areas of Oregon and Washington State where wolves are protected.
That isn't how this works at all. They were here in Colorado and they were hunted to extinction.
Moose didn't really belong here and were introduced and now they are doing almost too well. They didn't end up migrating elsewhere.
Elk were nearly extirpated, were reintroduced and haven't migrated elsewhere. Now Colorado has the largest elk herd in North America.
Lynx were reintroduced a few years ago and are doing well. Oddly they haven't all migrated elsewhere.
Wolves have now been reintroduced and they don't appear to be migrating elsewhere.
Been following your department's wolf reintroduction and tracking. You guys provide excellent detailed updates. Looks like the overall reintroduction is going well, and will help with the biodiversity.
I think it's going ok although it is still way too political and our agency is often too slow in responding to critics (similar to a certain athletic department). It probably would have been better for CPW if it hadn't been pushed through the ballot as wolves had already taken up residence in North Park. Spending this amount of political capital for something that was happening naturally has led to conflicts I think we would rather stay out of but, if we're going to be mandated to make it happen, we seem to be doing pretty well with it.
I have always believed that the hostility towards wolves by some people doesn't directly reflect on the species, but more on politics. If wolves reintroduced themselves naturally back into Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho like they did in the Great Lakes region, then the people who are not pro-wolf would be more accepting to coexist with them. It hadn't happened for a stable population for over 70 years, and in Colorado for nearly 90 years, though. It's sad that wolves are caught in the middle of two political sides that are using them as a leverage bag.
Wolves move around long distances into areas where there are natural resources and very little people, so I wouldn't be surprised if the population in Colorado increased down the line, but who really knows. Wyoming has made it very difficult for wolves to take territory in Colorado due to their wolf management laws (anyone can shoot a wolf at anytime with or without a permit in the southern part of the state).
I think this sums it up well:
'Wolves are really just a symbol of unresolved societal debates like the urban-rural divide or rural livelihoods or tradition or culture or federal versus state government or public versus private land,” he said.'
https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/news/wolf-myths-colorado/?fbclid=IwAR2-ul9mRvnQNamTvXBvOWPlpKI0rGI_RNnE_UXIjZCmpcQfYJEsJGgRXyo
Kevin Crooks' talking points are spot-on of my belief. I have volunteered with wolf research projects in a few different regions, and my gut feeling from experience is that the disagreement is not about wolves, it's about one side telling the other what they can and cannot do, and the other side sees wolves as an image of the side they don't want pushing them around.
Here in the Midwest you see more acceptance of wolves from the far majority because there was no mankind made reintroduction. Even in the Northern Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest the majority are in favor of wolves, but the minority who are not have a lot of power to persuade the local politicians, especially since many of the local politicians are part of the same stakeholder groups.
"He also said other studies have also shown wolves can affect the behavior of big game. In some circumstances, wolves might make hunting a bit harder by moving the elk or deer around more. Still, Crooks believes overall that robust hunting opportunities for humans can coexist with wolves."
Yellowstone and Isle Royale are perfect examples of behavioral changes. It has been a major part of vegetation growth in areas of Yellowstone, and most of Isle Royale that were overgrazed by moose. Thank you for providing the source. It was a very good read.
"Into areas where there are natural resources and very little people. "
You must be talking about Lilliput.
Could this be… Buffalo vs Wolverine? I’ll wager on the Wolverine to win.
Fun fact - the rocky mountain goat is an introduced species to the Colorado Rocky Mountains and taking over the range of the bighorn sheep, which is the endemic and much more docile species.
They are both about to face a predator that might be more lethal than mountain lions.
That's not really true. Mountain goats and bighorn sheep have different habitat preferences with mountain goats being almost entirely alpine and bighorn sheep preferring subalpine. Bighorn sheep populations have been having difficulties due to diseases carried by domestic sheep, not mountain goats.
As a Coloradan, I'm in favor of this. We have too many marmots.
Marmots? Don't you know wolverines are vegans. They eat Buckeyes.
I'm cool with the wolverines. The wolf restoration project...not so much.
It was mankind that wiped out wolves in that area due to old folks tales, so it is a good idea to bring them back. I will take the side of natural reintroduction, but if that doesn't happen, then mankind's reintroduction from a past mistake is the next best thing.
Bear population in Michigan is increasing, Deer population is exploding(2 million last I checked), and mountain lions are back in the UP.
Not just keep your cats indoors people.
I do keep my cat inside. But I'm more worried about coyotes and eagles.
The United Wolverine Union may have to look into this. Increased Wolverine production will likely cause overtime.
I've seen Moose, Bears all sorts of critters near my house. It would be cool to also see a Wolverine.
It'd be kind of weird for people in Colorado to celebrate the introduction of wolves and wolverines into my backyard in Michigan so I won't do that to them. I know the last time they voted on reintroducing wolves to colorado everyone voted no except for the capital. So basically the people who actually live in the areas these animals will be had no say which rubbed me the wrong way.
Wolverines aren't as much of a threat to livestock and pets as wolves but if I lived there I'd probably be a bit wary of having these new predators lurking.
The news media overblows the livestock problem due to wolves.
"everyone voted no except for the capital. So basically the people who actually live in the areas these animals will be had no say"
This is not correct. Five counties west of the divide voted for wolf reintroduction with both San Miguel and Pitkin over 60% in favor. They have also come over the divide and are now in Larimer County.
Pretty sure that losing a vote does not equal 'had no say.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Colorado_Proposition_114
https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Wolves/MonthlyCollaredWolfActivityAreaMap_Feb2024.pdf