These are not the best of times for Alaska's wolves and bears. A well-studied family of wolves in Denali National Park recently lost two senior females when they wandered outside park borders and were killed by
trappers; a similar fate may befall the injured alpha male.

Egged on by conservation groups, a trio of Democratic senators -- Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), and Carl Levin (Mich.) -- sent a letter last week to Interior Secretary Gale Norton calling the Denali wolf situation a "biological emergency" and asking her to take action. Norton has yet to respond. In addition, it seems that some 80 brown bears and 600 wolves will be shot in Alaska this season.

Their crime? Well, they eat the moose and caribou that human hunters want to shoot. Shot for eating things humans want to shoot!

There's a joke in there somewhere.  Amid the tears.