Wolves have occupied the shadows of land and lore for thousands of years, and the battle over whether to hunt them or protect them has come to light in their few modern American habitats. Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and Minnesota have become legal and political battlegrounds between advocates and adversaries of gray wolves. Many ranchers and hunters consider the wolf a blight upon livestock and game, and see wolf hunting as a solution. The environmentalists and the socially concerned who oppose this approach see the wolf as a natural, historical, and spiritual treasure. Wolves help shape our culture, balance the natural environment, and they can contribute directly and indirectly to the economy. Wolves have been successfully reintroduced to a few areas within the United States, but with their range and number still greatly diminished, allowing them to be hunted could erase them from all but memory. The United States gray wolf is beneficial to the environment, the economy, and the American psyche, so its small population should be protected rather than hunted.

Wolves are protectors, hunters, villains, and idols in the history and lore of many American cultures. Native American tribes including the Blackfeet respected wolves. Some Native American hunters and warriors wore wolf skins, hoping to inherit the wolf’s skills and strength. They saw the wolf as their brother (Swinburne 10). In ancient Germanic lore, warriors known as Ulfhethnar also wore wolf skins, and the father god fed two wolves from his table (Simek 106, 338). Well-known European stories are often negative towards wolves. Little Red Riding Hood, an old German fairy tale, continues to teach today’s children that wolves are to be feared.

When Europeans came to America, they brought their tales and their attitudes about wolves. To this day, the bond between the wolf and American culture is shown by surnames like Wolff, Wolfchild, and Wulf. Our perceptions, both positive and negative, of wolves are so vivid and lasting that they point out how important wolves are to our culture. American museums hold all manner of mementos of our past, and we often look upon these reminders with a longing to bring back their place in our society. The wolf is a living part of our history and our modern culture, not a relic. We should ensure it continues to have a place in the United States.

In the places where we have fostered the wolves’ return after nearly wiping them out, some hunters see the wolves as competitors for big game, but the yearly numbers of elk taken by human hunters dispute this. A 2010 survey from Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game shows that hunters took 14,064 elk in 1965; 15,550 elk in 1985; and 21,470 elk in 2005 (Idaho 6). Wolves were reintroduced in Idaho in 1995, a fact that isn’t revealed by the number of elk taken by human hunters. Other factors can influence the number of big game available to hunters. Since it is all too common for deer to be hit by vehicles when they wander onto roadways, it’s surprising that hunters don’t complain more loudly about this loss of game than about the negligible loss to wolves.

Although the loss of big game to wolves is relatively small, the gain in balance wolves bring to the natural environment is huge. Since most healthy deer and elk can outrun wolves, wolves are more likely to target sick, injured, young, or old prey that can’t run as fast or fight back as hard (Grooms 93). During the years of harsh winters or drought, this thinning of the weak from the herds leaves more food for the healthier animals that will strengthen their herds. This is a benefit to human hunters. It also leaves more vegetation for other species, which can contribute in their unique ways to the same ecosystems. A Smithsonian Magazine article provides an example of this. In Yellowstone National Park, unchecked elk herds had been decimating the vegetation, including new forest growth until 2005, when wolves started hunting them. The wolves brought balance back to the system. Because of this, there were an increased number of trees for beavers, which thrived and created habitat for other species (Clifford 3). Ecosystems are like rows of dominoes waiting to fall into place, with each species representing a domino. Wolves must be in the lineup in healthy numbers for all of the parts of their native ecosystems to fall into place.

When the ecosystem is disrupted by man or when food becomes scarce, wolves may be forced to hunt outside of their current normal ranges. According to a Reuters article, there were 2.2 million head of cattle in the state of Idaho in 2010. Of this number, wolves killed 148 (Zuckerman). This converts to less than one percent. A United States Department of Agriculture report shows that the number of heads of cattle in mainland United States killed by wolves in 2010 was 8,100. Dogs killed 21,800, and vultures killed 11,900 (U.S.D.A.). Birds killed more cattle than wolves killed, and even a common family pet is two and a half times more lethal to cattle than wolves are. That dogs kill cattle has not incited a call for dog-hunting season, and this should be the same for wolves, who are not only less harmful to United States ranchers, but who are more important to the environment and far less in number.

The scarcity of wolves and the chance to glimpse them in their native habitat is one reason many eco-tourists visit places like Yellowstone National Park (Grooms 15). The increased tourism brings income from food and lodging to surrounding towns.

Those towns along with additional homesteading, farming, and urbanization have consumed or interrupted a large part of the wolf’s original range, which included nearly all of the United States, north to south and east to west (Grooms 44). The current range of the United States gray wolf is limited to portions of eleven mostly northern states (U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Gray Wolf Population). Gray wolves were driven from their great early range to near extinction even in northern states by the 1900s. Settlers, farmers, and developers saw them not only as useless, but problematic enough to be entirely eliminated. They offered bounties for dead wolves. Open season on wolves ended in 1974, with the wolf being protected by the Endangered Species Act (U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Gray Wolf Recovery). This protection along with reintroduction efforts have brought the total contiguous United States gray wolf population number to 6,110 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Gray Wolf Population). The protection did not eliminate the hatred many hunters and ranchers direct toward wolves. Wolves were removed from the endangered species list in 2009, and by 2010, the state of Idaho planned to reduce its number of wolves “from 1,000 to no fewer than 150” through wolf hunting seasons (Zuckerman).

That small number, representative of the plans of other states, combined with interrupted wolf range and habits, is a recipe for their extinction. Whether we project villainy or nobility onto the image of the wolf, we need more than just their image for our conscience and our environment. We must put down our guns and ensure the protection of this living treasure.