LIFE must be confusing for the grey wolves of Montana
and Idaho. Last week those states' annual hunts were declared back on,
despite a judge's ruling in 2010 that made them illegal.
The two states allowed hunting in 2009, after the US Fish and Wildlife Service
decided the wolves there no longer needed the protection of the
Endangered Species Act. Last year a district judge overturned that
decision, halting the 2010 hunts and triggering a protracted legal battle. In the latest instalment, the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals once again ruled that the hunts can restart. Both states' hunts open this week.
Properly managed, the Idaho hunt should not be a serious threat, says Lisette Waits at the University of Idaho in Moscow, who monitors the local wolves. The Idaho population is "really healthy", she says.
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies, however, insists that those wolves are threatened by shrinking habitat.
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