The primary threat to gray wolf populations is their endangered species conservation protection being stripped away by state and federal government agencies. Removal of species protections will allow policies for liberalized wolf-killing: including permitted, public hunting, trapping, hounding, and snow-mobile pursuit by day and night (Treves, 2021). Removal of protected species policies regarding wolves will result in dramatically increased death as shown in studies conducted by Treves et al. (2021) they estimate an increase of an additional 98-105 state wolf deaths on top of hunting deaths that result in a population reduction of 27-33%. This loss in wolf populations would exceed sustainable levels of hunting and most likely cause state wolf populations to plunge back into endangered territory. While the ESA can be beneficial for overarching regulations on wolves, state management plans may be more beneficial.

The human-caused threat to wolf populations has been labelled as human “intolerance” and is characterized by a small portion of the local human population actively hunting and killing wolves. Human intolerance has even been cited by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) as a key reason that certain habitats are unsuitable for wolves (Bruskotter, 2014). Stating that “humans be allowed to hunt and trap wolves” (78 Fed. Reg. 35,685) in an effort to increase human tolerance for wolf populations. However, as Bruskotter et al. describe, there is little to no evidence actually backing this statement, even stating that studies attempting to show a relationship between the lethal control of wolf populations and human populations failed.

Photo: Impact of Human intolerance on wolf recovery (Linnell et al. 2001).

Both Treves et al. and Bruskotter attribute this careless regard for the conservation status of wolves to the negative perception of wolves they have garnered as bloodthirsty predators alongside “a history of political scapegoating of wolves”. Additional factors that contribute to the decline of wolf populations such as habitat fragmentation and competition with other mammals, such as coyotes. Wolf populations have even managed to survive and thrive near human-dense environments in the past. However, human intolerance remains an overbearing obstacle in the face of wolf conservation.