With the recent reintroduction of 10 wolves to the Western Slope of Colorado, experts say it’s only a matter of time before they creep into the eastern part of Utah.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided against relisting the gray wolf under the Endangered Species Act, choosing instead to develop a national recovery plan, which wolf advocates don’t think will go far enough.
Colorado media outlets reported that the state had reached out to other states, including Montana, but had to go to Oregon to get its first wolves, after Idaho and Montana declined.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday took a skeptical view of an injunction issued by a federal judge last year, which prohibited wolf trapping in a broad swath of Western Montana.
The archived wolf skulls hold the genetic blueprints, disease diaries and behavioral novellas of a scientifically and culturally significant wolf population.
The number of gray wolves in Oregon, now about 200, have leveled off in recent years because most live in northeast Oregon where it’s becoming crowded for the species.
Five gray wolves captured by Colorado wildlife agents in Oregon were released into the wild on the Western Slope on Monday, fulfilling a voter-approved 2020 ballot initiative to reintroduce the animals in Colorado in the name of restoring ecological balance.