The Bush Administration has proposed a “License to Kill” plan that would allow hunters to shoot gray wolves, a recovering endangered species that was nearly hunted to extinction. Supporters of this measure claim that wolves have been causing unacceptable losses to big game herds.
Aerial gunning would be implemented in Wyoming and Idaho, and the reclassification of wolves as “predatory animals” would allow them to be hunted and trapped by anyone at any time. The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) fully supports this measure, claiming that population control would have little overall effect on wolf recovery.
The FWS proposal published in February stated, “wolf populations can rapidly recover from severe disruptions, such as very high levels of human-caused mortality or disease. After severe declines, wolf populations can more than double in just two years if mortality is reduced.”
Yet despite these findings, it has taken 12 years for the gray wolves to reach their current population.
The combined efforts of many conservation organizations reintroduced wolves into the wild in the Midwest. The proposal under consideration would allow for any wolves outside of Yellowstone or Grand Teton national parks to be fair game for hunters and trappers. The FWS said that the 1,300 wolves roaming Yellowstone, Idaho, and Montana are around four times the number needed to consider de-listing.
“The fact that we are talking about de-listing means that some sort of success has been attained with recovery,” Kyle Dell, assistant professor of political science, said. “What you typically see happening is an endangered species coming up against a narrow concentrated economic interest. This conflict is not a classical battle, though. It’s people’s sporting interests at risk.”
Currently, wolves are allowed to be killed if they are proven to be the primary cause of depletion in game herds. According to Environmental News Agency, the FWS wants to make it easier to kill wolves to protect big game herds by altering the definition of “unacceptable impacts.” The new definition of the term, “one of the major causes of the population or herd not meeting established state or tribal management goals,” would expand the range of instances when wolf killing would be acceptable.
“Due to the bias in our state wildlife agencies, most wildlife is ignored or even hurt by state management priorities which favor a select few species that hunters and anglers desire,” George Weurthner, an ecologist who worked on wolf recovery, said to New West Network. “Nearly all wildlife management is focused on enhancing populations of deer, elk, moose, and other ‘game’ species.”
“The State of Wyoming would designate wolves as a ‘Trophy Game Species,'” Wyoming governor, Dave Freudenthal, said in a letter to regional FWS Director, Mitch King, according to the Environmental New Service.
Conservation organizations like the Defenders of Wildlife are leading campaigns to keep the gray wolves listed as a protected species. The Defenders have set up funds to compensate ranchers who lose livestock to wolf predation, and strongly advocate non-lethal methods of protecting livestock herds.
Further information can be found at the Defenders’ homepage, savewolves.org.