Possible hitch is discovery that eastern timber wolf is a different species than Great Lakes wolves-
It would certainly be good politics if the wolf could be delisted here because the state wolf management plans and public opinion is so much more favorable than in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Good work and good folks should be rewarded, IMO.
There is a problem in that the gray wolf of the Great Lakes, canis lupis had been found to be clearly different from canis lupis lycaon (the eastern timber wolf) which is now being classified as not just a sub-species, but a separate species of wolf — canis lycaon — but I think keeping the Great Lakes wolves listed is very bad politics and an inefficient way of conserving lycaon, the latter being an almost entirely a resident of eastern Canada. We need to help our friends in Canada.
Feds make new attempt at delisting Midwest wolves. “The federal government is ready to try again to take wolves off the endangered species list in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.”
By: John Myers, Duluth News Tribune.
It should be noted that canis lycaon has been interbreeding with coyotes for many years now to produce the large northeastern “coyote,” on which Dr. Jon Way is an expert (Way posts in this forum).
The Wildlife News 