Gray Wolves (Canis Lupus) of the Western Great Lakes Region are no longer listed as an endangered or threatened species the US Fish & Wildlife Service announced on January 29. The proposed delisting of the northern Rocky Mountain Gray Wolf is next up on the chopping block. The Gray Wolf has been listed as endangered since the 1970's when only a few hundred wolves were left living in Minnesota. Good move or bad? My initial reaction is concern. True, the Gray Wolf recovery program has been successful in repopulation efforts with the numbers now approximately at 4,000 in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin..but has public thinking changed enough to keep a new generation of hunters from slaughter? With delisting, local enforcement will be by state or Native American tribe. There will be a mandatory 5 year monitoring once the wolves are off the endangered list, with the option of relisting if numbers again become too low...but I still have to wonder. Alaskan wildlife officials have resumed aerial gunning attacks on wolves to maximize moose and caribou for hunters. Dozens of unsolved wolf killings have occured in Idaho. Where and when will it stop?~The wolf has undeservedly retained the reputation of being a threat to both beast and man. The idea of wolves as human killers dates back to medieval Europe and is deeply ingrained. Parents in areas with wolves have been known to speak out at public meetings fearing for the lives of their children. Only 16 attacks in North America have been documented during the 20th century and all involved animals that were either rabid or habituated to humans. The idea that wolves are imbued with "surplus killing reflex" is misinformation that fuels the "thrill kill" myth surrounding wolves. The Massachusetts Bay Colony offered the first bounty on wolves in North America in 1630, the hunt was on, and the next centuries saw the wolf population greatly decreased. This mindset continued well into the 20th century with Theodore Roosevelt calling them beasts of "waste and desolation". ~Today, elk hunters (elk hunting is a multi-million dollar activity) are one group that would like to see the wolf population controlled. Many put the blame on wolves for decimating the elk herd in Yellowstone National Park, but grizzly bears, mountain lions and a prolonged drought along with increased elk hunt quotas allowed since 1996 have all taken their toll. Human hatred of wolves essentially began with the domestication of livestock. Ranchers are another politically vocal group against wolf repopulation. Decades ago government hunters known as "wolfers" poisoned, shot and trapped wolves at the request of ranchers, but the fact is that wolf kill accounts for only a small portion of livestock loss. According to the United States Department of Agriculture there were 104 million head of cattle raised in 2005 with 4,400 lost to wolf kill... for which ranchers are compensated with state and private funds. In comparison 22,000 cattle were lost to killing by domestic dogs. The "bogey man" image continues. In 2005, a black bear attack was attributed to wolves by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police when the mangled body of Kenton Carnegie was found at Points North Landing, a mining camp in a remote area of Saskatchewan. Wolf biologist Paul Paquet of the World Wildlife Fund came on the scene and correctly assessed the situation as not the result of a wolf attack. ~Humans have the largest and most extreme range on Earth than of any other mammal. Historically speaking, guess who is second? The wolf. It seems to me that wolves are able to live with humans, but can we give wolves the space and freedom they need to survive? Wolves are necessary to the ecosystem that we, as humans, are a part of. As the Lakota say "Mitakuye Oyasin"...all my relations. What we do to all of Earth's creations, we do to ourselves. I hope we can learn the lesson before it's too late. Aho!~To comment on the proposal to delist the northern Rocky Mountain wolves email: NRMGrayWolf@fws.gov For more information go to: http://www.governmentguide.com/govsite.adp?bread=*Main&url=http%3A//www.governmentguide.com/ams/clickThruRedirect.adp%3F55076483%2C16920155%2Chttp%3A//midwest.fws.gov/wolf/index.htm
