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Gray Wolves Should Be Removed From The Endangered Species List

Proposal Argument

Gray Wolves Should be Removed from the Endangered Species List


For years now, the Gray Wolf, or Canis Lupus (Threatened), has enjoyed a prolific reintroduction process focusing on the northwestern portion of North America.   This was no easy task.   After a period of time throughout history when, next to humans, wolves were the most widespread mammal in North America (Threatened), the gray wolf attempted to endure the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries as a highly sought after game animal.   Usually ranging between 70-115 pounds and hunting in packs (Threatened), these formidable predators are able to prey upon large hoofed animals such as moose, elk, and deer, not to mention domesticated cattle or even sheep.   This fact, in addition to their highly valuable pelts, placed them in the foreground of the minds of hunters, trappers, and ranchers for over a century.   So intense was their targeting, however, that gray wolves were nearly exterminated from North America by the 1930’s (Pletscher p.459).   This prompted their placement onto the Endangered Species List in 1974, and an eventual re-introduction program in 1995 and 1996 (In Danger).   This program focused on two areas: Yellowstone National Park and Idaho’s Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.   After 22 years of being on the brink of extinction, wolf populations now number almost 1300 in the northern Rocky Mountain region alone (In Danger).   This, however, may be a blessing in disguise.

With gray wolf populations on the rise, western ranchers are becoming concerned for the well-being of their livestock, and in turn, their own livelihood.   Many of this countries’ western ranchers support themselves, and at times their extended families, exclusively through the sale of their livestock.   With each animal bringing in between $1000-$9000 at auction (Cattle), the loss of a single cow to predators could be financially devastating.   Some of the ranchers that...