Wolf protections are once again under threat in the US.

US House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that would remove endangered species protections on Grey Wolves across much of the US. It still has to get passed by senate, and then may be vetoed by sleepy joe. However, there is always a chance that this bill gets slipped into a fuck huge bill, which is usually what's done nowadays.

Grey wolves were originally placed under protection status in 1970's. In 2020, their protection status was removed for a few years as the species' status worldwide dropped to least concern.

The protections were reinstated by a federal judge in 2022, after research from Fish & Wildlife showed that though the worldwide population was least concern, the population in the US is actually endangered.

However, that short 2 year stint did a number on wolf hunting; one 72 hour hunting stint in particular which killed more than 200 wolves in Wisconsin. In 15 months, Yellowstone lost 24 wolves to hunting (at the border of the park), the largest loss they had experienced since protections were in place. 215 wolves were killed in that same time span in Montana, although 450 wolves was the quota. Montana estimated a little over 1k wolves in their state, which means they purposely were looking to cull nearly 1/2 of their population.

Today, there is an estimated 5k wolves in over a dozen states in the continental US. Before protections, there were an estimated 300 left in the remote corner of one state.

apnews.com/national-national-general-news-07f9ffe5a93884caf0566a1ad980f921
smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/gray-wolves-headed-back-to-the-endangered-species-list-180979575/