New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

wolves

Adirondack Conservation News: 5 Things You Should Know

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Forever Adirondacks Campaign Director Aaron Mair in Egypt for the COP27 climate meetingAn Adirondack environmentalist leaves UN Climate talks in Egypt more determined 

The Adirondack Council’s Forever Adirondacks Campaign Director Aaron Mair was recently in Egypt for the COP27 climate meeting. Mair said it was great to hear from Indigenous communities, but also noted that this COP meeting was highly attended by non-renewable energy concerns. But Mair came back more determined to have a positive impact on the climate change front. [Read more…] about Adirondack Conservation News: 5 Things You Should Know

Coyote or Wolf? Learn to Spot The Difference

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coyote vs wolf comparisonLast month, genetic testing confirmed that a canid killed by a hunter in Otsego County in 2021 was a wolf. The New York State Department of Conservation (DEC) has documented a few wolves and wolf hybrids over the last 20 years in New York.

In most cases, analyses indicated these animals were released from captivity, but wild wolves are present in portions of Ontario and Quebec, and it is possible for these animals to travel into New York. [Read more…] about Coyote or Wolf? Learn to Spot The Difference

Advocates Urge NY Officials Not To Remove Wolf From Endangered Species List

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wolf courtesy Oregon Department of Fish and WildlifeAdirondack Council has called upon the NYS Dept. Environmental Conservation to drop a previously announced plan to remove the gray wolf from New York’s endangered species list. [Read more…] about Advocates Urge NY Officials Not To Remove Wolf From Endangered Species List

DEC: Animal Killed By Hunter In Cooperstown Was A Wolf

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wolf courtesy Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife On September 21st, 2022, after a second independent DNA study confirmed that the wolf killed outside of Cooperstown, in Otsego County, NY, was really a wolf, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) reversed course and announced the wolf was indeed a wolf.

DEC had been calling the Cooperstown wolf a coyote since it examined the dead animal in December 2021 and conducted a DNA study in early 2022. DEC publicly called the wolf a coyote in July in many news reports, after the release of an independent DNA study by Trent University in Canada, organized by the Northeast Ecological Recovery Society (NERS).

The Trent University DNA analysis found that the Cooperstown wolf had 98% wolf genes. [Read more…] about DEC: Animal Killed By Hunter In Cooperstown Was A Wolf

38 Groups Call On DEC To Protect Wolves in New York State

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wolf courtesy Oregon Department of Fish and WildlifeThe plot continues to thicken around the killing of an 85-pound wolf near Cooperstown in December of 2021 and the response by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

Under state and federal law, a wolf that wanders into New York State is protected under the Endangered Species Act. The wolf shot near Cooperstown by a coyote hunter clearly enjoyed no such protections. [Read more…] about 38 Groups Call On DEC To Protect Wolves in New York State

Jack Sheppard: Civil War Vet, Panther Hunter, Adirondack Guide & Steamboat Operator

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Exhibit 1_Sheppard Portrait Jack Sheppard came to the Fulton Chain region of the Western Adirondacks after roaming the West as a youth and then served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

These experiences equipped Sheppard with the knowledge, skills, and social network to become a successful guide and enabled him to shift his occupation from guide to innkeeper, to builder, to businessman. He never married or raised a family, but when he left the Adirondacks in 1892 he left behind a long list of devoted friends that reads like a virtual who’s who of Adirondack history. [Read more…] about Jack Sheppard: Civil War Vet, Panther Hunter, Adirondack Guide & Steamboat Operator

Poetry: Wild Predator Attacks

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Wild Predator Attacks

What’s the chance that you will
be attacked by a wild predator?

Slim. Attacks are so rare each one
rates its own listing on Wikipedia.

If the 20th Century was an indicator,
you’ll more likely die domestically.

Black bears, wolves, and mountain lions
killed fewer Americans than lightning,

bathtub drownings, or getting crushed
underneath falling vending machines.

The most recent reported black bear
attack in the Adirondack Mountains

(2018) came when a man hospitalized
after his ATV crashed lied, reporting

how he had fought off a black bear.

Read More Poems From the New York Almanack HERE.

Coyotes: Decoding Their Yips, Barks, and Howls

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coyote howls by adelaide tyrolAs the sunset colors fade from purple to black an eerie sound breaks the forest calm. It is not the long, low, slow howling of wolves that can be heard further north, but the group yip-howl of coyotes: short howls that often rise and fall in pitch, punctuated with staccato yips, yaps, and barks. [Read more…] about Coyotes: Decoding Their Yips, Barks, and Howls