A U.S. appeals court in the District of Columbia has ruled that gray wolves will no longer be considered endangered species in Wyoming, years after protections for the animals were lifted in other states, says The Billings Gazette.
“Members of Congress from Wyoming, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin have been pushing for federal legislation to remove gray wolves from the endangered list in their states before spring, when most cows and sheep give birth and are vulnerable to wolf attacks,” says the Gazette.
After nearly being hunted to extinction, the gray wolf population hovers around 5,500, with 400 in Wyoming.
In 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided that the animal was no longer threatened in Wyoming, and state officials called for removing it from the Endangered Species list, promising to maintain a population of at least 100 wolves in Wyoming.
“But U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in 2014 that the state’s promise was unenforceable and rejected its wolf management plan,” says the Gazette. The latest decision reverses Jackson’s ruling.