Gray wolves are protected under the Endangered Species Act EXCEPT in the Northern Rockies which includes the states of Idaho, Montana, most of Wyoming, and parts of eastern Oregon, Washington, and northern Utah. In these areas, the wolf population continues to be managed by the states, not the federal government.
As we have seen globally and here in the U.S., keystone species such as the wolf are a vital and necessary part of an ecosystem. But they are under attack and are in need of federal protection.
In 2021, Idaho and Montana enacted laws to remove most restrictions on wolf hunting.
In a recent blog by The Humane Society of the United States, Idaho plans to reduce its wolf population by 60% primarily by promoting and incentivizing trophy hunting and trapping.
Out of a population of 95 wolves in Yellowstone National Park, 23 were killed in December of 2021.
Hunting of wolves is prohibited in national parks but unfortunately hunting can occur outside the borders of the parks or even worse hunting still occurs within the parks.
A recent study shows wolves living inside national parks suffer a high chance of social disruption and pack disintegration due to human related deaths outside of national park boundaries. National Park wolf packs have a 20% chance of losing a member each year.
This study measured the response of individual wolf packs to human-related deaths and found that the loss of a single wolf, especially a pack leader, has detrimental effects like reproduction rates on the pack as a whole. It would be like humans losing a beloved family member. We are no different.
Additionally, this study stated; “Pack size had a moderating effect on both pack persistence and reproduction, with larger packs better able to recover from the impacts of human-caused mortalities. Wolf pack size is critical to nearly every aspect of wolf life history, from hunting prey to raising pups to recovering from disease (Smith et al. 2020).”
Therefore, the larger the wolf pack, the more resilience the pack has to losing a member to human-related mortality. But as wolves are always in danger of being hunted, the size of their pack will always be threatened causing detrimental effects on their future existence.
In this study, it also mentioned wolves living in high hunting areas have higher levels of stress hormones. Living a life under constant stress of being hunted is also undermining the future viability of their survival.
Please sign and share this petition to the United States federal government asking to protect these and other threatened and endangered species from being hunted.
References:
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/gray-wolves-relisted-endangered-species-act?loggedin=true&rnd=1676569296813
- https://hslf.org/blog/2023/02/states-draft-wolf-plan-spells-disaster-wolves?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=hslf
- https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fee.2597
- https://www.westernwatersheds.org/2023/02/new-study-shows-national-park-wolves-suffer-pack-disruption-from-hunting-lethal-control-when-allowed-outside-park-boundaries/
Photo by Yannick Menard on Unsplash