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Along Came the Wolves

Posted on: April 01, 2008

The hide and seek between the wolves and humans is on once again in U.S. Despite being covered by the Endangered Species Act of 1973, gray wolves were still hunted down and faced the threat of extinction but restoration efforts that started in 1995, considerably brought their number back on track.

The recovery is viewed as one of the most successful environmental stories of the country. The success is so overwhelming that the concerned departments de-listed the gray wolves from the federal protection list and have allowed the people to hunt these animals starting from this fall onwards. The ban has also been lifted partly in response to increasing numbers of livestock being killed as the predators’ population has over grown in the Northern Rocky Mountains in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah.

In Idaho, wolf packs range from the Canadian border south to Interstate 84, and from the Oregon border east to the Montana and Wyoming borders. The new legislature now allow the Idahoans to kill wolves harassing or attacking their livestock and pets but any such incident should be reported to the fish and game director within 72 hours.

Though people view wolves as threats to livestock and human well being, environmentalists say that the damage to livestock by gray wolves is much less compared to the damage by natural causes or some other predators.

“Since the late 1980s, 724 wolves have been killed legally, and roughly the same number is estimated to have been killed illegally by poachers. Despite that, the overall population has continued to grow at the rate of 24 percent a year,” writes Discovery.

Due to their highly adaptable nature, the origin of the Gray Wolf dates back to around 300,000 years ago and despite their widespread killings in the early 20th century, the species have considerably thrived back to keep their phenomenal survival record open

There are an estimated 1,500 wolves roaming in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, and federal officials Plans submitted by Idaho, Montana and Wyoming indicate the states will likely maintain between 900 and 1,250 wolves for the foreseeable future.

The solution that the concerned department has come up with is temporary in nature. Wolves will be hunted down, their number will also decline and they will be once again listed in the federal protection list. So, is the removal of ban a gift from the wild life authorities to hunters or is it they themselves cannot contain these animals well inside the target number.

Throughout history, wolves have always been perceived as villains, be that in reality, scriptures, folklores, fairy tales, or mythology of many cultures. Extinction of such an animal, therefore, means no action in any story. It also means the exclusion of wolf from the story that grandparents narrate to their grandchildren.

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