With its enchanting eyes, powerful jaws, acute senses and haunting howls, the gray wolf (Canis lupus) — the largest member of the dog family — is a wilderness icon. Once the most widespread mammal on the planet, gray wolves roamed across large swaths of North America, Europe and Asia. However, as human settlements grew, these livestock-killing canids became “vermin” and were hunted to near-extinction in many parts of their range. By the mid-20th century, wolves were extirpated from the contiguous U.S. Their remarkable comeback since the 1980s, thanks in part to their reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park, has sparked joy, controversy and conflicts. The latest saga is playing out in California, where there’s a lot of potential for conflict: It’s the most populous U.S. state with nearly 40 million people. Some 7 million cattle graze on 57 million acres of rangeland, half of which are privately owned. California’s wolves, which naturally dispersed south from Oregon, are now further expanding their territories, with more frequent encounters — and conflict — with humans . “Almost every pack does overlap to some degree with an agricultural area with livestock,” said Axel Hunnicutt, a biologist who coordinates the wolf program for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). Almost every group has killed livestock. “That’s one thing that unites all of the packs in California, unfortunately,” he added. Gray wolves are the largest members of the dog family and are widespread across North America, Europe and Asia. Image by Raed Mansour via Wikimedia…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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