Exterminate Gray Wolves

Not long ago about, 250,000-500,00 Gray Wolves (Canis Lupus) roamed North America. In the 1930’s people decided to try to exterminate them. Once they were endangered, people realized what an impact Gray Wolves have on the environment, as well as the effects they have on other animals. Gray Wolves range in color from grizzled gray or black to all-white. Gray Wolves eat ungulates, or large hoofed mammals, like elk, deer, moose and caribou, as well as beaver, rabbits and other small prey. Gray Wolves live, travel, and hunt in packs of 7 to 8 animals on average. Packs include the mother and father wolves (called the alphas), their pups, and older offspring. The alpha female and male are typically the pack leaders that track and hunt prey, choose

The majority of people wanted to exterminate Gray Wolves because they were very frightened of them, and because the wolves ate farmer’s domestic livestock. The desire to exterminate was strong until interest in environmental conservation took place in the 1960s and 1970s. As study into environmental conservation developed, scientists discovered without wolves present in Yellowstone to hunt and kill prey, the elk started to overpopulate. Overpopulation was a problem because the elk were eating all the young willow trees. Overconsumption of willow trees affected the habitat of many other animals and plants in harmful ways; therefore, the ecosystem became unbalanced. Though Gray Wolves are only one animal in the environment they have an impact on other animal populations and resources. By hunting elk, Gray Wolves keep elk herds moving, which prevents them from eating trees, like willow saplings. This helps beaver populations because willow trees are a source of food for beavers. Also, beavers build dams out of the trees to create watering holes for other animals and streams for more willows and other trees to grow

But the ESA listing meant that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) had to actively recover wolves.In 1986, biologists searching for wolves in northwest Montana found a litter of wolf pups only 10 miles below the Canadian border in Glacier National Park. They were the first confirmed wolves born in the western U.S. in decades. A few wolves were also documented in Idaho and Wyoming during the 1980s and 90s, but most were poisoned or shot.In 1993, USFWS proposed five alternative plans for wolf recovery. The options ranged from “no wolves” to the reintroduction of wolves with full endangered species status and protection. The agency received more than 160,000 comments from all 50 U.S. states, plus another 40 countries; the largest public comment responses received on any wildlife restoration action it had ever