North American Wolves Lose Protection and Recovery Efforts Are Abandoned

by Julie Kluck in B5L5, Blog, Coexisting with Wildlife, ESA on September 22, 2021

Photo of a red wolf.

The most abundant wolf species in North America is the gray wolf. There has been a significant amount of media attention focused on the plight of this iconic species, and with good reason. However, two other wolf species also call North America home – the Mexican wolf and the red wolf. These two species are often overlooked, both in media and in the public eye, even though they are critically endangered. North America’s three wolf species inhabit different ranges and each play a particular role in their ecosystems. Unfortunately, all three need protection, and historically, the United States has done a poor job of providing individual state and federal protections for wolves.

Gray Wolves Nearly Driven to Extinction

Photo of a gray wolf.
Gray wolf.
Throughout the 19th and 20th century hunting and trapping nearly eliminated gray wolves from the United States. Only small populations survived in Minnesota and in Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park. It was not until the 1960s that gray wolves started to receive state protections, but true recovery efforts started once they were listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1973.

Although estimates vary, there are now approximately 16,000 – 18,000 gray wolves currently in the United States. Even though gray wolf numbers have steadily increased, the species still only inhabits approximately 10% of its historic range. Because of this fact, many conservationists and scientists still classify the gray wolf as an endangered species when compared to other previously listed endangered species who recovered to 50-75% of their historic ranges, despite the fact that gray wolves were delisted from protections under the Endangered Species Act in January 2021.

After the delisting, gray wolf management returned to the states, some of which are hostile towards the species. Montana passed a slew of new wolf hunting and trapping regulations including, but not limited to, allowing the use of neck snares, expanding the wolf trapping season by 30 days, incentivizing wolf trapping by providing bounties, and allowing hunters to kill an unlimited number of gray wolves.1 Idaho may be the most extreme; it passed a law that will allow the killing of 90% of its gray wolf population.2 Among other cruel provisions, Idaho’s new law will also allow year-round wolf trapping, the hiring of private contractors to kill wolves, and the use of snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles to hunt, chase, and kill wolves.

Recovery Efforts Abandoned for the Mexican Wolf

Photo of a Mexican wolf.
Mexican wolf.
The Mexican wolf is a subspecies of the gray wolf, and lives along the United States – Mexico border inhabiting the U.S. states of Arizona and New Mexico. There are only approximately 186 wild Mexican wolves remaining in the U.S., warranting critically endangered status. Historically, Mexican wolves ranged throughout the southwest United States and throughout Mexico, but due to the extermination program led in the 1800s and 1900s, like the gray wolf, the Mexican wolf was nearly eliminated from the landscape. Although placed under Endangered Species Act protections in 1976, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services did not reintroduce Mexican wolves into the southwest United States until the late 1990s. Slowly the wild population of Mexican wolves started to make a recovery, and at one point was considered successful. However, over the last decade the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services seems to have abandoned enforcing species protection for the Mexican wolf, even though their recovery program is required by law. Unfortunately, the Mexican wolf population is continuing to decline due to a variety of factors such as hunting, human/wildlife conflict, and inadequate legal protections.

Only around 18 Red Wolves Remain in the Wild

Photo of a red wolf.
Red wolf.
The red wolf is the only wolf species endemic to the United States. Red wolves inhabited a range in the southeastern and southcentral states of the U.S. Following a similar plight as the gray and Mexican wolf, the red wolf was listed under the Endangered Species Act at the law’s inception. In order to develop a successful recovery program, remaining red wolves were captured from the wild to start a captive breeding program. In the late 1980s, the first red wolves were reintroduced into the wild and released on the Albemarle Peninsula, in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina. Initially, the recovery was successful and red wolf numbers increased to more than 100. However, within the last eight years, as with the Mexican wolf, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has abandoned enforcing the species’ protection and recovery program. This resulted in the red wolf population dropping to only around 18 wolves, making it a critically endangered species.

Take Action for North American Wolves!

After human persecution brought them to the brink of extinction, the three wolf species in North America have barely begun to recover before their federal protections were removed or their recovery programs were abandoned. Wolves are still functionally extinct in the vast majority of places where they used to live and federal protections are essential to help all three species return to where they used to roam. The United States must do more to provide much needed protections for one of North America’s iconic animals.

Take action for gray wolves by signing our petition urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore Endangered Species Act protections to the species. And, please keep an eye out for actions you can take to support the recovery of Mexican and red wolves.

Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Julie

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