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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.
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.
How You Can Help
Help protect the incredible, vulnerable wildlife of the West! Be a guardian for the wild by joining the conversation, learning about current issues, and making your voice heard. Together, we're a powerful force for nature.
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Read more >Stand up for what’s right
Given the current political climate, accountability may seem like a thing of the past. But the truth is, breaking the law has consequences. After a long and opaque process, the saga of Craig Thiessen, a rancher from Kansas who was grazing cattle on the Gila National Forest and intentionally killed a juvenile endangered Mexican gray wolf (“Advocates want rancher’s forest permit pulled,” June 24), came to the only just conclusion: In late November, the U.S. Forest Service revoked his public lands grazing permit.
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A lawsuit filed this week in Missoula says the federal government is illegally killing Montana’s native wildlife. The plaintiffs want a court to put a stop to it pending a full environmental review. The suit was filed Tuesday in Missoula District Court by the environmental group WildEarth Guardians.
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