Here are some things we know about the gray wolf in America. First, they are not always gray. The term, like an alternative name, “timber” wolf, is a handy designation to separate it from other wolf species, such as the red wolf, a critically endangered species in the southeastern U.S.
Second, the species has been around long enough to have diverged into a number of genetically distinct populations experts call “subspecies.” Let’s look at some of those.
The large Kenai Peninsula Wolf of Alaska was colored… well… we don’t really know. It’s extinct. We know the Beothuk wolf, of Newfoundland, was white. It’s also extinct. The larger Banks Island wolf of the Canadian arctic is also extinct. So is the smaller, jet black Florida black wolf, lasting until 1908. The attractively cinnamon-colored Cascade Mountains wolf is, yep, extinct. The Mississippi Valley wolf was known by several names as it was quite variable. It’s extinct. The Manitoba wolf once ranged Northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, but it, too, was exterminated. The small, dark Mogollon Mountains wolf of Arizona and New Mexico is gone, too. The rather similar Texas wolf is gone forever, as is its neighbor, the great plains wolf, so much a part of culture of the peoples who once lived there amid vast herds of bison, now also gone. Once found in parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, but now gone forever, as well, is the southern Rocky Mountain Wolf.
And, if that is not enough, the Mexican wolf, whose range crosses into New Mexico and Arizona, is endangered, while other gray wolves were pretty well wiped off the map of the 48 contiguous states and much of Canada, although still to be found in parts of Canada, Alaska, and spilling over, a little, into the Midwestern states bordering Canada just west of Lake Superior. No wonder the gray wolf was listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Clearly, this is an animal highly vulnerable to endangerment and extinction, quite different, in that respect, from the smaller, widely distributed coyote. There are approximately 19 coyote subspecies ranging through most of North and Central America, all still with us.
There is room for debate about which wolf subspecies are or are not valid, and by definition subspecies interbreed where ranges overlap. Ranges are not static. It can get confusing and I don’t want to sink into a baffling morass of technical details regarding wolf taxonomy and nomenclature for fear of detracting from the central point that we have really managed to destroy wolves throughout most of their range and totally exterminated whole populations and genetically distinct subspecies.
Wolves are integral to healthy, natural ecosystems, part of the American legacy, emblematic of wilderness values Americans claim to value. And, so not only were wolves protected in the U.S., south of Canada, where they occurred, but wolves were shipped from here in Canada to Wyoming, where their importance in restoring ecosystem biodiversity was demonstrated. Wolves began to expand their range elsewhere into places where they had been eliminated.
We had learned our lesson, right?
Nope. Not at all.
In late October, in one of its last acts before the federal election, the U.S. administration took all gray wolves but for the Mexican subspecies off the ESA list in the contiguous 48 states. All the work, and success, apparently pales in comparison to the fear and hatred so many people still harbor against these fascinating animals. Greed trumps all among livestock owners not satisfied with the damage their herds inflict on public lands. And then, there are those who just want to kill big animals for sport. I won’t make a prediction, and I don’t want to imply that we Canadians are better; we, too wage war on wolves, scapegoating them for losses of caribou that we, ourselves, failed to protect. Wolves are predators, yes, but no species seems to be more adept at killing, or find more reasons to kill, than our own. It’s a sad day for the wolf, and for those of who value nature and wildlife in both our countries.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Barry
