Endangered predators thrive in West

USA Today ^ | Tom Kenworthy

[presidio9]

HELENA, Mont. — Eight years after federal biologist Ed Bangs began reintroducing gray wolves into the northern Rockies, the wolf may be taken off the federal endangered species list within a year.

Within two years, if all goes according to plan, the grizzly bear population that lives in and near Yellowstone National Park also will be taken off the list.

And far to the south, National Park Service biologists Elaine Leslie and Chad Olson are eagerly awaiting a critical step in the effort to bring California condors back to the Grand Canyon area. Sometime in October, the first chick hatched in the wild in northern Arizona since the condors were reintroduced in 1996 is expected to take to the air.

Under the Endangered Species Act, types of animals in some regions can be removed from the list of protected species even though federal protections for those animals remain in other areas. Grizzlies, for example, remain threatened in other parts of the country.

Still, the approaching milestones represent rare, clear-cut victories for the law under which the government protects and nurtures plants and animals facing extinction.

Since passage of the act in 1973, the law has frequently been criticized as costly, heavy-handed and a jobs and development killer. Fifteen species have been declared sufficiently numerous to be taken off the list. Only one was a mammal living on U.S. soil: a population of white-tailed deer.

Steven Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, calls the progress achieved with the grizzly, the gray wolf and the California condor "a remarkable success story" and "a tribute to the American people's commitment to wildlife conservation."

But federal biologists aren't donning the party hats quite yet. When it comes to the wolf, the grizzly and the condor, nothing is ever simple or easy. Some important challenges remain.

Wolves: Good for business

Since 1995, when the first wolves were transplanted from Canada to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho, the species has thrived beyond many expectations. Over two years, federal biologists brought in 66 wolves.

Today, there are more than 550 wolves in the two regions. More than 100 others, immigrants that made their way from Canada without the government's help and their offspring, live in northwestern Montana.

"They've just flourished," Bangs says. And in Yellowstone at least, they've become a major tourist attraction.

[presidio9]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls the
progress achieved with the gray wolf and others
"a remarkable success story."
By U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP

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[MizSterious]

Ah, wolves, bears, condors...I thought it was going to be another article about L.A. Times reporters.

[camas]

the person(s) that let the d#mn grizzles go in montana should be charged with murder or at least manslaughter.

yes a person was killed by one last year.

[sticker]

In Tennessee they are restocking rattlesnakes, no I am not talking about the ones in the legislature. Wolves, condors and bears I can understand, but rattlesnakes.

[ClearCase_guy]

Perhaps the day will come when some Government Ecologist will request that a particular microbe be returned to its natural habitat. Yes, "free the smallpox!" could become a rallying cry for the Greens.

[presidio9]

Yes, "free the smallpox!" could become a rallying cry for the Greens.

If it's not, they are hypocrites.

[Ditter]

I agree. Restoring grizzley bears to Yellowstone Park is insane. GB's do not like living near humans. They will avoid humans if at all possible. The more remote the country the better GBs like it.

[ndafill]

Feed the grizzlies. By hand. And learn a lesson.
That's the problem with introduction to many areas of wildlife; the people that don't understand that it is wild.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

An obvious reason for returning vicious, man-killing animals and reptiles like wolves, grizzlies and rattlesnakes, to our national parks is to keep people out of the national parks.

As usual, the enviro-nutcases carry out their marching orders, unaware of the real mission.

DiCaprio to Hanks in 'Catch Me If You Can' -- "Just tell me what you want me to see."

[theFIRMbss]

>An obvious reason for returning vicious, man-killing animals and reptiles like wolves, grizzlies and rattlesnakes, to our national parks is to keep people out of the national parks.

The world "wild" applies to the words "you" and "me" ...

While take a walk thru an African park one day,
I saw a sign say, "The animals have the right of way"

Wild life, whatever happened to,
Wild life, the animals in the zoo?

We're breathing a lot,
a lot of political nonsense in the air.

You're making it hard for the people who live in there.
You're moving so fast, but, baby, you know not where.

Wild life, (wild life), what's gonna happen to
Wild life, (wild life), the animals in the zoo?

You'd better stop, there's animals ev'rywhere,
And man is the top, an animal too,
And, man, you just got to care.

Wild life, what's gonna happen to,
Wild life, the animals in the zoo?

You're breathing a lot of polical nonsense in the air.

Wild life, (wild life), what's gonna happen to
(what's gonna happen to) (what's gonna happen to)
Wild life, (wild life), the animals in the zoo?
(what's gonna happen to) (what's gonna happen to)
Wild life, what ever happened to?
What ever happened to?

[Paul McCartney -- Wild Life]