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Downey said the killings are \u201cvery upsetting,\u201d especially because the wolves in that area are protected under the Endangered Species Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cUnfortunately, we\u2019re always surprised when we hear stories like this, but it has happened before,\u201d Downey told SFGATE.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She added that although the agents were out to remove coyotes, the conservation center doesn\u2019t believe that killing predators is an effective way to preserve livestock.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cScience shows us that non-lethal deterrents are much better at protecting livestock and protecting wolves and coyotes as well,\u201d Downey said. \u201cSo this, in our minds, was not a science-based decision anyway, to send out to kill coyotes. But it is very important because we look to these federal agents as being the experts on what they\u2019re shooting at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amaroq Weiss, a senior wolf advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, said she is also skeptical about how the federal agency operates.<\/p>\n
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Weiss said one of her main concerns about last year\u2019s killings is that wildlife staff are expected to be able to clearly tell the difference in size between coyotes and wolves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have to be trained to know the difference in species appearance. Wolves are almost twice the size of coyotes. Out here in the Western U.S., coyotes weigh on average, maybe 25 to 45 pounds or so and a full adult size wolf is going to weigh closer to 80 to maybe 110 pounds,\u201d Weiss told SFGATE. \u201cWeight alone is a staggering difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also said wolves are noticeably larger than coyotes, with broader foreheads and snouts, shorter, more triangular ears and bigger paws. One of the wolves also had a radio collar, a GPS tracking device from wildlife officials, she said, which should\u2019ve made it easier to spot, especially with its shorter fur coat in the summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Weiss said she is concerned about why the ongoing investigation is taking so long, and hopes the USDA Wildlife Services agents involved are not currently in the field working with wildlife.<\/p>\n
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\u201cInformation isn\u2019t being released, it makes no sense. The usual reason when wolves are illegally killed is that an investigation is taking a long time because the authorities investigating don\u2019t know who the perpetrator is,\u201d Weiss said. \u201c… That\u2019s not the case in this.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the end of 2025, wildlife officials counted at least 230 wolves in Oregon, according to the report, which also shows deaths rose to 42 that year, up from 26 in 2024. Of those, 39 were caused by humans, including vehicle collisions, authorized killings tied to livestock conflicts, law enforcement cases and other government actions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE: A\u00a0wolf from the Snake River Pack passes by a remote camera in eastern Wallowa County, Ore., Dec.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,243150,245031,201],"class_list":["post-609977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-sfgnews","tag-sfgparks","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}