Wolf 253

Known to scientists as Wolf 253 of the Yellowstone Druid pack. Also called Limpy. Shot and killed in March, 2008, on the day the Bush Administration withdrew Endangered Species Act protection for the gray wolf.

A little background: The Obama Administration, under Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has sided with Bush & Co., refusing to return the gray wolf to full protection under the ESA, despite the fact that wolf numbers and genetic health have not rebounded since the near extirpation of wolves by the 1970s. Washington has turned the management of gray wolf populations in the U.S. over to the states. State wolf management plans, meanwhile, reflect the negative attitudes of ranchers with livestock, and big-game hunters who view wolves as competition for elk. States such as Idaho have launched wolf hunts, with immediate, devastating results for wolves and highly sociable wolf packs, including the killing of individual wolves that had been the focus of long-term scientific study.

Many conservation and animal protection organizations have long advocated the use of non-lethal methods to prevent wild predators from attacking livestock. These methods have proven effective in protecting livestock and fostering peaceful coexistence between wolves and humans. Although more and more progressive ranchers are successfully turning to non-lethal methods of protecting sheep and cows, the vast majority still favor traditional lethal methods, including hunting, poisoning, and trapping.

The (now-threatened) re-introduction of the gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park has made possible long-term studies showing conclusively that the presence of wolves has beneficial effects for entire ecosystems, from prey animal populations down to the flora they feed upon. As the U.S. Humane Society points out, "certain traits—such as swiftness, vigilance, or perceptual acuity—of many prey species evolved because of wolf predation as a selection pressure, and smaller carnivores such as foxes and coyotes evolved in the face of competition from wolves. Without competition from wolves, these smaller carnivores can reproduce more and survive longer; competition from (and occasional predation by) wolves was an important factor keeping smaller carnivores in check... Restoring wolves to much of their historic range will depend heavily upon the protection of vast expanses of public land to meet the wolf's habitat requirements and to allow for movement of wolves among separate populations."

Again, from HSUS: "The removal or reduction of federal protections for the gray wolf now appears to be premature, for three reasons. First, gray wolf populations are insufficiently recovered. Second, a vocal minority of the U.S. public continues to express irrational negative attitudes toward the wolf, demonstrating their unwillingness to tolerate this native carnivore. And third, the state plans include provisions for liberal sport hunting and trapping of wolves, and fail to mandate protections adequate to ensure the survival of wolves."

In Sweden, meanwhile, despite the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation's objection that wolf populations there have not recovered adequately since wolf hunting was banned 45 years ago, the Swedish government has concluded that there are too many wolves on its territory. During the month of January, an estimated 10,000 hunters combed the country in search of the 27 wolves mandated to be killed.

That works out to more than 370 hunters per wolf, perhaps suggesting an answer to the question: have humans learned to live with wildlife yet?