Woodland Park Zoo Join Efforts to Relist Wolves as Endangered

Posted By : The Animal Facts Editorial Team

Date: December 23, 2021 3:15 pm

A wolf is seen at the Woodland Park Zoo

Photo Credit: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo

Woodland Park Zoo have joined a charge to #RelistWolves! Dozen of zoo directors across the United States have signed a letter urging United States Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to provide federal protection for wolves.

The letter was sent by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, an excerpt from which is below.

“We are conservation organizations, and we, like you and your employees, work to save animals from extinction… That’s why we work with your employees to rescue and recover endangered and threatened animals, like polar and grizzly bears, sea turtles and even spiders and reptiles. Because each one matters. 

“Our inability to turn away is why we are writing to you today.” 

“A wildfire of animal cruelty has ignited in the Idaho and Montana legislatures. In a fervor to reduce wolf populations by as much as 90 percent, they have directed professional wildlife managers in their states to authorize methods of take designed to devastate wolf populations: baiting; electronic calling; night vision equipment; unlimited weaponry; use of vehicles; snaring; unrestricted limits; and compensation for expenses — what used to be called “bounties.” This effort is not wildlife management. It is not hunting. It is pure, unbridled cruelty. And it is threatening one of our nation’s greatest conservation success stories.” 

To provide the protection wolves require Secretary Haaland could give wolves an emergency listing, which the Endangered Species Act allows “at the discretion of the Secretary” when a species faces “a significant risk to their well-being.”

Providing this listing would give a 240 day ceasefire giving time to stop the over exploitation of wolves and create solutions based in science.

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The letter seeks to reverse an action from January 2021 in which the Trump Administration ruled that wolves should no longer receive federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Since this de-listing some states have set out to decrease their wolf populations by as much as 90 percent. This has seen this species quickly return to the patch to extinction.

A return to the Endangered Species list would mean wolves could not be hunted without a scientific permit.

Wolves play a major role in the function of ecosystems across the United States. A government led effort beginning in the 1800s sought to eliminate wolves. By 1960 only a few wolf packs remained in the United States.

Learn more about Wolves here – Wolf Fact File | The Animal Facts

Learn more about the Woodland Park Zoo on their website – Woodland Park Zoo

A wolf is seen at the Woodland Park Zoo

Photo Credit: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo