Wildlife on the Brink: Gray Wolf

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Canis lupus

STATUS: Endangered in the lower 48

HABITAT: Broadly defined, wherever sufficient prey occurs

LIFE HISTORY: Highly social; live in packs of typically four to eight related individuals, led by a dominant pair, male and female, who mate. Packs defend territories that range from 50 square miles to 1,000 square miles.

THREATS: Persistent intolerance among humans to wolves' presence

FORMER RANGE: Entire continental U.S. and Alaska

CURRENT POPULATION: About 3,800 in the lower 48 states; estimated 600 in Rocky Mountain West

Wolves are the ancestors of every breed of domestic dog from pugs to poodles, but for decades, they were treated as anything but man's best friend. When human settlers pushed out the wolves' traditional prey, wolves turned to hunting livestock—and humans started hunting wolves.

A federal agent shot the last wolf in Yellowstone Park in 1930, and soon wolves were nearly extinct in the lower 48 states. In 1995, 22 years after the gray wolf was listed as an endangered species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service launched an ambitious program to reintroduce wolves to Yellowstone Park. The 66 reintroduced wolves bred and prospered, and in 2003, the western population's status was changed from endangered to threatened.

Recently, NRDC and other conservationists intervened in a lawsuit to defend the Yellowstone wolf from the state of Wyoming's wolf "management" plan, which would classify wolves as predators under state law. If the wolf were eventually taken off the endangered species list, the plan would allow gray wolves to be shot on sight outside of Park boundaries.

Photo: gray wolf © Gary Kramer, USFWS