Wolves can now by shot on sight in 85 percent of Wyoming, after a federal court of appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled last month that the animal no longer warrants endangered species protection in the state, says the Casper Star Tribune.
Wolves were returned to the endangered species list in 2014 after briefly being taken off before environmentalists sued, charging that the Wyoming wildlife management plan was inadequate. The appeals court ultimately determined that the state plan was adequate.
An estimated 100 wolves and 10 breeding pairs live in Wyoming outside Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Reservation. “The feds killed about 115 wolves in 2016 because of livestock depredations … In 2015, the service killed about 54 wolves,” says the Tribune. The state plans on opening up trophy hunting, but doesn’t expect the allotted numbers to be high, since so many wolves are already killed each year due to livestock conflicts.
“Wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone in 1995. They have been off the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho since 2011,” says the Tribune.