A few weeks ago, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, introduced a bill to remove the Mexican gray wolf from the endangered species list.
The wolf has been on the list since 1976, but Gosar says the wolf population has grown to the point where ranchers’ livestock populations are in danger.
Wolf advocates say that de-listing wolves will lead to unrestricted hunting of the animals, potentially leading to their extinction.
If that were to happen, it wouldn’t be the first time. It wasn’t that long ago that wolves were practically eradicated from the American West, and they only live here now because the federal government intervened to bring them back.
Wolves are as hated as they are beloved, and the story of those extremes is the centerpiece of Howl, a new audio documentary from Boise Public Radio.
The Show spoke with the host of the series, Heath Druzin. He said he was partly inspired by a hike in Yellowstone, home to many of America’s wolfpacks.
Druzin was walking along an isolated trail when a mother wolf appeared and briefly locked eyes with him. They both froze. After a moment, she ran off to join her pack. Druzin switched on his tape recorder.
-
In the Sonoran Sky Islands region, one organization is working to bring back native species. But it’s running up against a lengthening border wall. -
A decision from the United Nations’ cultural preservation body, UNESCO, calls for a mission to the Sonora desert nature reserve to assess the impacts of the border wall. -
The wolves nearly went extinct before they were reintroduced to Arizona and New Mexico in 1998. Now, there are roughly 300 Mexican gray wolves in the region. -
Sonora’s cattle ranchers’ union says the border will reopen to live cattle after a “technical problem” is resolved. -
The Mexican state south of Arizona is seeing a growing number of cases of the New World screwworm parasite as the border reopens for live cattle imports to the United States.
