A young Oregonian asks: Should wolves be taken off the endangered species list?

I’m Eleanor Solomon, and I’m a 9th grader at Riverdale High School. I am a part-time intern at Oregon Wild, and I care deeply about wildlife. The wildlife that are struggling to survive have no hope against hunters, poachers, and just ordinary human beings, so it’s our job to stand up for them and protect them. This month, as my first post, I have decided to write about gray wolves being taken off the endangered species list.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service, or USFWS, has recently proposed that gray wolves be taken off the endangered species list in the lower 48 states. They claim that in some places the wolves’ population has increased to over what they had hoped for, and therefore should be taken off the list. However, many species on the endangered species list have exceeded their goal and have not been taken off because they still needed help.

Wolf recovery is far from finished in the US. States like Oregon, California, Colorado, and Utah have enormous wild lands in which wolves could thrive but have not yet returned to. It is estimated that between 250,000-500,000 wolves inhabited America before settlers came. Today there are around 9,000 wolves in America, 6,000 of them in Alaska, but only 64 known adult wolves in Oregon! If wolves are taken off the endangered species list, they will become the target of hunters and others who would like to see them gone from our state. 

So, why should you care?

Because their survival affects a wide variety of other wildlife.

A wolf is what is known as an apex predator. An apex predator is at the top of the food chain, and has few predators itself. It controls population down the chain, including those called mesopredators. When apex predators are hunted or killed, mesopredators can increase in numbers dramatically. Coyotes, for example, are mesopredators, and were killed by wolves before wolves were hunted so much. The absence of wolves has been part of a large increase in coyotes in the US. Because coyotes are smaller than wolves, they usually can’t control populations of other prey, such as deer, and therefore can’t take the important place of the apex predator.

One of the most famous examples of the value of an apex predator was observed in Yellowstone National Park. Wolves were killed off in Yellowstone in the 1920s and were absent for 70 years. Scientific studies from the park have shown that their absence dramatically affected the ecosystem. First, deer and elk populations began to grow. Deer and elk are grazing animals, so many of the plants, shrubs, grass, and trees began to be destroyed by them along with the wildlife that depend on them. Soon, much of the Yellowstone landscape was dramatically changed.

In 1995, wolves were reintroduced to the park. They did thin the deer and elk population, but some scientists have shown that their presence also affected the ecosystem in an unexpected way. Because of the wolves, the deer and elk were scared to stand around and eat all day in certain areas, so the vegetation began to grow back, and trees grew along the rivers and streams. Birds returned because of the increase in trees, and beavers came because they could build dams out of the trees. These dams gave habitats to fish, muskrats, otters, ducks, and reptiles. The wolves also killed coyotes, which meant more rabbits, and the rabbits tempted foxes, badgers, weasels, ravens, and hawks. Bears also benefited from the berries on the shrubs, and then further helped the ecosystem by eating the deer. It’s complicated, but when the Yellowstone ecosystem was almost gone, the reintroduction of wolves helped bring it back to life.

People who are against wolves often rely on two myths. The first is that wolves are a menace to cattle. Wolves may kill cattle, but they are actually only responsible for 0.2% of all cattle deaths. Only five of Oregon’s 1.3 million cows were lost to wolves last year. Over 55,000 died from other causes in the last year we have statistics. The second one, which I’m sure you have thought of yourself, is that wolves are a menace to humans. However, there have only been two recorded human deaths by healthy wild wolves in North America in the past 100 years. Compare that to the 108 people killed by cows in a recent 5-year period according to the CDC.

On a brighter note, A wolf called OR-7, has just had pups after searching for a mate across 3,000 miles of Oregon and California. Since the 1940’s, there has been no confirmed wolf reproduction in the Oregon Cascades, so these pups mark the first known in 70 years. This gives me hope towards the future of wolves, and that people are slowly but surely making a difference in the lives of wolves.

You can take action to stop the USFWS from delisting the wolves by:

  1. Write USFWS with www.fws.gov/duspit/contactus/htm
  2. Call USFWS at 800-344-9453
  3. Sign Oregon Wild's petition  to relist wolves!