Is the gray wolf actually endangered?

When are we done protecting the gray wolf?

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When European settlers first came to America they were set on “civilizing” the land. This meant a lot of rash, sweeping changes — one of which was to eradicate a familiar target: the gray wolf. Bounties were placed on the animal across the US. By the 1930s, the once plentiful wolf population was decimated.

Decades later, restorations efforts have led to an extensive recovery of the animal. The Fish and Wildlife Service thinks we’ve done enough, but conservationists say our work is far from done. Check out the video above to learn more.

You can read the Vox article on this topic here:
https://www.vox.com/2019/7/13/20690727/endangered-species-list-2019-gray-wolves

You can find the Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal to delist the gray wolf here:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/03/15/2019-04420/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-removing-the-gray-wolf-canis-lupus

And the response letter from scientists and scholars can be found here:
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/gray_wolves/pdfs/Open-letter-to-FWS-regarding-proposed-wolf-delisting-May-2019.pdf

Studies on what removing protections can mean:
https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12081
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10871200802647108

For more information on wolves we didn’t have time to get to in the video, check out the links below:
More on the reintroduction of Wolves into Yellowstone: https://www.yellowstonepark.com/park/yellowstone-wolves-reintroduction

How wolves change the ecosystem: https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem

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