Report: U.S. gray wolf numbers highest in decades
The howl of the wolf is spreading with new information that a minimum of 5,600 gray wolves now live in the U.S. outside of Alaska, the International Wolf Center reports.
Recent state counts of gray wolves everywhere from the Upper Midwest through the West and Southwest show that populations are faring well in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, and New Mexico and increasing in several of these states.
The Upper Midwest hosts some 3,700 wolves while a minimum of 1,800 inhabit the West.
After years of effort, even the numbers of Mexican wolves, a local race of the gray wolf, have increased to over 100 in the past year.
The only exception to the growing wolf population trend is in North Carolina, where the critically-endangered population of red wolves has dropped by more than 10% over the past two years.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists gray wolves as endangered except in Minnesota, where they are classed as threatened. In Idaho and Montana they are state managed and subject to public hunting and trapping.
http://www.elyecho.com/articles/2015/04/27/report-us-gray-wolf-numbers-highest-decades
