WildEarth Guardians

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Wild animal protection – defending wolves, coyotes, bears, and other native carnivores

Defend Native Carnivores

A grizzly bear foraging with her cubs in a lush meadow outside Yellowstone. The howling of gray wolves carrying across a darkened valley. A Canada lynx padding silently through deep powder in search of a snowshoe hare. Native carnivores are icons of our Western landscape, and they drive the health and stability of Western ecosystems.

Nevertheless, native carnivores continue to face misguided persecution at the hands (and guns) of humans. Many state wildlife agencies hold little regard for the best available science and ignore most people’s values, which strongly favor native carnivore conservation.

We watchdog federal and Western state agencies to ensure their policies and practices allow healthy populations of native carnivores to thrive. We believe there are ways to share our Western home with carnivores that do not include trapping or shooting them, and we aim to cultivate coexistence with these incredible creatures.

Defend the Endangered Species Act

The Endangered Species Act is our country’s most essential environmental law protecting plants and animals, yet some members of Congress want to weaken the law. Tell Congress you value native wildlife and want to see all imperiled species protected.

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Western Native Carnivores in Peril

Find out more about the West’s native carnivores, the threats they face, and how we work to defend them.

Black Bear

Suburban and urban growth is encroaching into black bear habitat and increasing the chance of conflict with humans, with deadly consequences for the bears.

Grizzly Bear

Federal and state wildlife agencies are doing their utmost to remove grizzlies’ Endangered Species Act protections and open trophy hunting seasons, while bears remain threatened by habitat loss, conflict, reductions in key food sources and climate change.

Gray Wolf

The gray wolf is a victim of an ongoing war waged by livestock producers, the federal wildlife killing program, Wildlife Services, and state agencies unwilling to follow the best available science.

Mexican Gray Wolf

Despite a federal “recovery” program, populations of Mexican gray wolves (lobos) are barely hanging on. Federal protections are too weak and the livestock industry is a major threat.

Canada Lynx

Emblem of the West’s high mountain regions, lynx are threatened by trapping, logging, roads, motorized recreation, and the federal government’s efforts to remove key protections.

 

Wolverine

This “badass” carnivore can scale 9,000-plus-foot mountain peaks, but climate change, trapping and habitat loss could stop it in its tracks. We held the feds accountable for failing to provide Endangered Species Act protections.

Mountain Lion

Historically persecuted due to humans’ exaggerated fears, these big cats are still sport hunters’ and trappers’ targets.

Coyote

Barbaric killing contests across the West aim to slaughter as many of these “song dogs” as possible. Coyotes are key to ecosystem health, keeping rodent populations in check.

Recent Stories From Wildlife

Help us to Oppose Montana House Bill 372

March 13, 2023

HB 372 would open the door for catastrophic consequences to our native wildlife, providing a right to “hunt, fish, trap, and harvest wild fish and wildlife.”

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Wildlife Press

A dancing bird finally gets some protection

Carlsbad Current Argus | Apr 5, 2023

What I remember most about that dark early morning of crouching on the prairie is the rhythmic sound of pounding. It was so loud I wondered if someone had put a microphone near the skinny legs of the dozen birds dancing on the turf.

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All Wildlife Op-Eds

Rusty the wolf developed a taste for livestock. So the government had him killed.

Albuquerque Journal | May 19, 2023

A leader of the pack of critically endangered Mexican gray wolves in New Mexico was killed last month by federal officials because of his recent penchant for hunting livestock, according to Fish and Wildlife Service officials.

Read more >

All Wildlife In the News

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