The state of Idaho has authorized sheriff's deputies in a tiny mountain town to kill wolves blamed for preying on pets and elk, a spokesman for the state fish and game department said on Tuesday.
The move marks the second of two wolf kills sanctioned by Idaho less than two weeks after federal protections were lifted from most wolves in the Northern Rockies and states, including Idaho and Montan
Federal protections for some 1,200 gray wolves in Montana and Idaho end on Thursday under unprecedented legislation passed by the U.S. Congress last month removing them from the endangered species list.
The effective date of the de-listing, which places the wolves under state wildlife control and opens them to licensed hunting, was announced on Wednesday by U.S.
A record number of big-game animals perished this winter in parts of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming from a harsh season of unusually heavy snows and sustained cold in the Northern Rockies, state wildlife managers say.
"Elk, deer and moose -- those animals are having a pretty tough time," said Wyoming Game and Fish biologist Doug Brimeyer.
Snow and frigid temperatures in pockets of Idaho, Montana
Wolves and grizzly bears are mostly to blame for a steep population decline in a signature elk herd in the northern range of Yellowstone National Park, government scientists said on Wednesday.
The elk population in the northern section of the park is prized by sportsmen who hunt outside Yellowstone boundaries in Montana and by the millions who pour into the park each year to see wildlife.
The hardships facing the pygmy rabbit of the western United States don't warrant protections under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Wednesday.
The pygmy rabbit is the smallest and one of only two rabbits in North America that creates its own burrows.
