Gray wolf may lose endangered species listing

Critics promise suits
Several environmental groups are promising lawsuits to halt delisting. Anticipating court delays, the Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing a backup plan that would keep wolves on the endangered list but loosen restrictions on when they could be killed to protect game animals such as elk — the wolves’ natural prey.

Federal wildlife officials offer a paradoxical reasoning for their bid to remove the animal from the endangered list. To survive in the Rockies, they say, wolves must be hunted and killed.

By reclassifying them as “big-game,” wolves could emerge from centuries of persecution and find a niche along other regularly hunted predators such as mountain lions and black bears. Those predators, too, were once at risk of disappearing but rebounded after their status changed from predators that could be shot on sight to big-game animals with limits on how many can be hunted.

Similarly, if wolves are removed from the endangered list, proponents argue, states could tailor the number of wolf hunting permits around target population levels.

Wolves thrive in habitat
But some wolf experts say managing wolves is not so simple. David Mech, a University of Minnesota researcher considered one of the world’s leading experts on wolf behavior, predicted populations in the Northern Rockies could hold steady or keep expanding, even with hunting permitted, if the wily animals prove too smart for hunters.

Since reintroduction, wolf numbers have increased 20 percent to 30 percent a year as the animals thrived in a habitat flush with elk, moose and other prey. Even where entire packs were taken out to curb livestock kills, new packs have quickly filled the gap.

Petrich’s tale offers testimony to that resiliency. The seven he killed — plus another taken out by a fellow rancher and two more shot by federal wildlife agents — were all from a single pack. Each time, the pack’s numbers quickly rebounded and the killing of livestock resumed, according to federal data.

Although his wolf kills have earned praise from fellow ranchers, Petrich shrugs off the attention, saying he shot the wolves out of necessity, to protect his ranch and his family.

“This is something we’re going to have to keep doing,” he said. “I didn’t ask for this. ... We’re just going to have to cope with it however we can.”

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