Posted on behalf of Amber Dance

Gray wolves in the US Rocky Mountains are back on the endangered species list after four months unlisted.

The US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) decreed in March that the wolf population, in the western states of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, no longer needed federal oversight. Wolf control passed to the states, which made plans to open hunting season on the predators this fall. Environmental groups cried foul and sued. Last Friday, a judge sided with the environmentalists, temporarily putting wolves back on the list until the court case is finished.

As of December 2006, gray wolves in the Rockies numbered more than 1,200 (status map). While that number satisfied FWS, in 2002 the agency said the wolves should remain “endangered” until three separate populations were able to breed with each other (Yellowstone Insider). They appeared to change their minds earlier this year, taking wolves off the list even though a 2007 FWS study found no evidence of cross-breeding. The Montana judge called the FWS’s decision to de-list wolves “arbitrary and capricious” (Los Angeles Times).

Gray wolves are still considered endangered in the rest of the continental U.S., except in a region around the Great Lakes.

Image: Gary Kramer/USFWS