Gray Wolves May Lose Endangered Status, But Not Without a Fight

Critics of the proposal to delist gray wolves argue that the decision is premature. They say stripping wolves of their federal protections could hurt the animals' chance of recolonizing other parts of their historic range, such as Colorado and Utah.

(Image credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

WASHINGTON — In passionate and at times tearful testimony at the U.S. Department of the Interior Monday night (Sept. 30), Americans who say they have admired, studied, defended and even kissed gray wolves offered a plea to federal officials: Don't take the animals off the endangered species list.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to lift federal protections for all gray wolves in the continental United States, except for a struggling population of a subspecies, Mexican wolves, found in the Southwest. The agency argues the threat of extinction has been eliminated; wolves' numbers have bounced back to healthy levels and have even surged beyond recovery goals.

But critics, including several biologists, say the move is premature. They are concerned that the proposal would result in more aggressive management tactics and hunting policies, and could hurt the species' chances of recolonizing other parts of their historic range. Some scientists wonder if the battle raging over wolves stems from greater confusion about how to define recovery and deal with threatened wildlife in the United States — especially species as storied and controversial as the wolf. [See Amazing Photos of Gray Wolves]

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"No animal engenders more polarizing emotion amongst Americans than does the wolf," Dan Ashe, head of the Fish and Wildlife Service, told reporters in a firm defense of the proposal ahead of the agency's public hearing. "We see powerful emotions on both sides of this debate. But I think, regardless of our positions, I think we all can recognize recovery of the wolf is one of the greatest conservation success stories in the history of our nation."

Before the arrival of European settlers, wolves once occupied nearly all of the lower 48 states, expect for a swathe of the Southeast, but their numbers plummeted due to hunting. Wolves killed livestock and game, and bounties were awarded for their carcasses. By the mid-20th century, the gray wolves in the continental United States were confined to a sliver of northern Minnesota and Michigan's Isle Royale.

In the decades that followed, recovery and reintroduction programs — including the iconic release of wolves in Yellowstone National Park — helped to establish breeding populations below the Canadian border. Today, there are more than 5,000 gray wolves in the nation, primarily in the western Great Lakes states of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the northern Rocky Mountain states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, as well as eastern Oregon and Washington. [Photos: The Wonders of Yellowstone National Park]

In this map made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the striped orange areas show where gray wolves (Canis lupus) currently live in the lower 48. The yellow regions show the areas where wolves have been deemed recovered and their management handed over to state officials. Under the federal delisting proposal, a subspecies of gray wolf, the Mexican wolf, would retain protections in the dark blue part of Arizona and New Mexico. The striped gray region in the eastern states shows where the gray wolf has been "listed in error." A recent study suggested that wolves once found in that region are actually a separate species, Canis lycaon; they are now only found in eastern Canada.

A more sympathetic view of wolves was on display during the dozens of two-minute public testimonies presented Monday night. One woman choked up as she pondered the kind of world her 2-year-old granddaughter would inherit: "I never want to have to tell her that wolves have gone the way of the Mexican grizzly bear, no longer in existence in the Southwest, because humans have killed every last one of them."

Advocates fought to keep gray wolves protected as endangered species in those areas, but after several legal battles and eventually congressional intervention, conservation and management efforts were handed over to state officials by 2012. Now states like Wisconsin and Montana have established wolf-hunting seasons, in part reasoning that hunting would improve tolerance for the controversial species. But surveys have shown that tensions over wolves remain high.

A recent study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison showed that the state's first wolf hunt last year did not increase tolerance toward the animals. In 2009, 51 percent of those living in wolf country said they would be more tolerant of wolves if they could hunt them, but a follow-up survey in 2013 found that 81 percent of residents across Wisconsin said their opinion on wolves had not changed.

Cristina Eisenberg, an ecology researcher at Oregon State University, added that "wolves travel up to a thousand miles to find a mate and establish new territory." Eisenberg, who is working on a book about conservation policy for large carnivores, told LiveScience that delisting wolves on a nationwide basis means that states like Colorado and Utah are unlikely to have a wolf population in the future.

"Using Yellowstone, central Idaho, the desert Southwest as sources, we had hoped not only to prevent the extinction, but to restore them throughout a significant portion of their range," Clark added. "Fast forward to today, with wolves struggling to gain a toehold in the Northwest and still non-existent in states with significant areas of unoccupied habitat like California, Utah and Colorado, the federal government seems ready to give up before the job is finished."

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Megan has been writing for Live Science and Space.com since 2012. Her interests range from archaeology to space exploration, and she has a bachelor's degree in English and art history from New York University. Megan spent two years as a reporter on the national desk at NewsCore. She has watched dinosaur auctions, witnessed rocket launches, licked ancient pottery sherds in Cyprus and flown in zero gravity. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.