ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE

PROTECTION STATUS: Delisted

YEAR PLACED ON LIST: Endangered 1974; downlisted to threatened 2003; endangered status reinstated 2005; delisted 2008; restored to endangered status 2008; Idaho and Montana populations delisted 2009; deslisted 2020

CRITICAL HABITAT: None

RECOVERY PLAN: 1987

RANGE: Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and portions of Utah, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado

THREATS: Federal predator control, poaching, trapping, and livestock grazing

POPULATION TREND: Gray wolf populations were eliminated from Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming by the 1930s. Thanks to federal protection, they began to successfully recolonize northwest Montana in the early 1980s. By the end of 2010, estimates of wolf numbers were 739 wolves in the Central Idaho Recovery Area, 501 in the Greater Yellowstone Recovery Area, and 374 in the Northwest Montana Recovery Area, for a total minimum estimate of 1,614 wolves in the three recovery areas.

Photo courtesy of USFWS