 Two wolves from the center were released, then shot within months. The whole program has effectively been on hold for almost five years. Just last week the Fish and Wildlife Service announced it wouldn’t release any wolves this year — without any real explanation. while federal and state wildlife debate what to do. (The states involved, Arizona and New Mexico, seem to also be locked in a battle over who can be more inhospitable to wolves.) So far the program has released 92 wolves into the wild on the Arizona-New Mexico border. But since 2006, they’ve only released one–despite continued illegal hunting of the wolves. Since 1998, there have been 75 documented wolf deaths. People who presumably don’t like the federal intrusion of wolves introduced to cattle country shot 32 endangered Mexican gray wolves. Twelve were hit by cars. Only 10 were confirmed natural causes; the rest are under investigation.
Keep reading Half as Many Mexican Wolves in NY Suburb as in Wild
 The Mexican Gray Wolf is down to maybe about 40 animals in the wild after yet another illegal shooting, but Defenders of Wildlife is starting a tour to try to see the animals with local Arizona tribes.
Keep reading Arizona Tribe Offers Tours to See the Endangered Mexican Gray Wolves Ranchers Are Poaching
 The coyote that’s been living discreetly in Central Park for the last month is now on wildlife officials‘ hitlist. Fearing rabies, the Department of Environmental Conservation is trying to trap the coyote and euthanize it, wildlife rehabilitators familiar with the case say. That’s too bad because local rehabbers have offered an alternative: They’re willing to put the coyote in the standard 10-day quarantine, then find a suitable release site outside the city.
In the past, the DEC has trapped coyotes and at least made an effort to release them. (Hal, the 2006 coyote, died from stress, rat poison and heartworm, according to the necropsy.) What’s different this time is there is widespread rabies in the raccoon population in upper Manhattan, especially the north woods of Central Park, where the coyote trots after spending the day sleeping in the isolated Hallett Nature Preserve near 57th Street and 6th Avenue.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLZdBVZhOrA&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01]These animals aren’t exactly making a reappearance in Manhattan after being vanquished for centuries. They are a slightly different species than ever lived here before; they aren’t really coyotes, which live out west, but coywolves–a hybrid of versatile, small western coyotes and the gray wolves that were hunted out of the east. Jon Way, a biologist at Eastern Coyote Research, is pushing for them to be classified as a native species since they weren’t introduced by humans and are the natural product of canines evolving to survive in the habitat altered by humans.
Coywolves are now established across the eastern U.S.,
Keep reading Central Park Coyote Faces Death Despite Offer of Reprieve
 Coywolf Hill,This is the kind of distant, lousy glimpse of the Central Park Coywolf you’ll get after much effort.In other words, he’s not bothering anyone. To see much better pictures, check out Urban Hawks.
Last night I got to see a coywolf in Central Park. I went at dusk to see the coyote Bruce Yolton has been tracking at urbanhawks. After an hour of walking in the slush around the pond near 57th Street, I got to see him or her for a few minutes. So, it’s not as if he’s marauding joggers or stealing hot dogs from vendors. But the big question is whether somebody’s going to panic and demand his capture. Or really, knowing New York, when.
As Yolton has pointed out on Urban Hawks, his excellent photoblog of NYC wildlife, the coyote seems to be sleeping during the day in the Hallett Nature Sanctuary, the only part of the park off limits to people and dogs, which is surrounded by water and fence. Once again, I didn’t have to be a good enough spotter to see the coyote in the dark, just good enough to see Yolton with his massive lens and tripod. The coyote lurked by the pond edge, then headed back up the sanctuary’s hill, where he could have been seen by anybody on 57th Street. Then he gave us the slip. He’s been spotted in the north end of the park, too.
This coywolf, or perhaps others, have been spotted in Manhattan all
Keep reading Central Park’s Elusive Coywolf
Wildlife photographer Bruce Yolton, who runs the Urban Hawks blog, shot a video Monday night of a coyote (well, really a coywolf) playing hockey with an empty bottle on the pond near the southeast corner of Central Park. That’s right, the coyote coyote who was up at Columbia University earlier this month maybe went further south in the park, right on the edge of midtown and the Plaza Hotel. You can see the coyote lick the bottle, as if hoping for a last drop of food. And he’s close enough to the street that you can see emergency lights flashing on the ice.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLZdBVZhOrA&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01]
Yolton is known for stalking the park at all hours and getting incredible wildlife shots–often keeping them secret for months so he doesn’t attract crowds that disturb wildlife. He’d reported in early February that a coyote was in the park. He thinks this coyote may have discovered the peninsula that sticks out into the pond and is a preserve.
Often when a species is off wandering on its own, it’s a young male looking for new territory. In March 2006 another young male coyote made a media spectacle of himself in Central Park; one year old Hal was finally caught, then died in captivity from a combination of stress, heartworm and rat poison. Let’s hope this one quietly makes it back to the Bronx.
Where to See Wolves and Coywolves
How You Can See Wild Animals Even in New York City
To see more
Keep reading Coyote Filmed Playing Ice Hockey With Bottle in Central Park
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