How are the Yellowstone wolves doing today?
They’re doing so much better than our wildest dreams. It’s really remarkable. Nobody anticipated how quickly the Yellowstone population would grab hold and really start producing animals. In the Northern Rockies area where you have the three connected populations, we have probably somewhere between 500 to 650. Right now is kind of a difficult time [to count], because the wolves have had their pups, so you don’t know how many of the pups are going to survive into the fall. What’s happening with the plans to move the wolf off the endangered species list, and into state management? In Montana and Idaho, the state game and fish departments have come up with plans that both conservationists and the federal government feel protect wolves, and at the same time are flexible enough to address conflicts. In the state of Wyoming, however, if it weren’t so serious, it would be comical, because the state Legislature is just utterly apoplectic about this issue. They refuse to change the legal status
