Debate over Grey Wolf Status

Earlier this year, two district court—one in Montana and one in DC—overturned the Service's delisting of two grey wolf populations:  the Great Lakes and Northern Rocky Mountains DPSs.  This article discusses the ongoing scientific debate among conservation biologists over the status of the Great Lakes population.  Although one recent study contends that many individuals in that population are actually hybridized and therefore should not count towards the population's recovery goals, critics contend that the study's genetic sample size is too small, resulting in the mislabeling of "authentic" wolves as hybrids.