Wolves: They're back, say conservationist groups

ELIZABETHTOWN | That coyote that you thought looked an awful lot like a wolf may have been a wolf, after all. DNA analysis of an 85-pound canid shot by a Central New York hunter in December 2021 has verified the animal was a wolf. At that time, wolves had been removed from the federal Endangered Species list; however, in February 2022, they were reinstated following several successful lawsuits brought against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior by a group of wildlife advocates, including the Defenders of Wildlife, Wildearth Guardians, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. In a collaborative effort between the Northeast Ecological Recovery Society (NERS) and the Maine Wolf Coalition (MWC), the hunter provided tissue samples of the animal for DNA analysis, some of which were sent to the Natural Resources DNA Profiling and Forensic Centre at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. The findings, they said, concluded that the animal was effectively 100 percent wolf, with DNA from Great Lakes wolves, Northwest Territories gray wolves, and Eastern wolves, in decreasing order of DNA percentage. The complex nature and purity of the wolf DNA may be consistent with a wild wolf that dispersed from Canada where various wolf populations are known to intermingle. It has long been believed that the St. Lawrence River and surrounding area serve as a barrier to wolf dispersal. This animal is the latest of at least 10 wolves known to have been killed south of the St. Lawrence River since 1993, including wolves killed in Day, N.Y. (2001), and Sterling, N.Y. (2005). Other wolves have been killed in Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, New Brunswick and Quebec. MWC documented the first live eastern wolf in Maine via scat collected in 2019. (Link to an abstract entitled "Recent Occurrences of Wild-origin Wolves" for an in-depth discussion here: researchgate.net/publication/292708687_Recent_occurrences_of_wild-origin_wolves_Canis_spp_in_Canada_south_of_the_St_Lawrence_River_revealed_by_stable_isotope_and_genetic_analysis.) The presence of wolves in New York is to be expected, say the conservationists, given the state's proximity to documented wolf range in Canada and its abundant habitat and prey availability. There are tens of thousands of square miles of potential wolf habitat in the Northeast — much of it in New York — which makes the Northeast ideal for wolf recovery. In fact, wolves live just 60 miles from the New York border, a distance that a wolf on the move could travel in a day or two. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) has long denied the presence of wolves in the state. NYSDEC agents reportedly took tissue samples of the animal for DNA analysis, but NYSDEC has thus far not issued a statement regarding those results. The killing of this animal is just the latest in a growing collection of evidence indicating that wolves are attempting to recolonize the Northeast U.S. and Maritime Canada south of the St. Lawrence River — prompting wolf conservationists to call for action at state and federal levels to protect wolves in the Northeast. "Denying their existence, failing to conduct the necessary research to determine their status, and refusing to give them the protection they are entitled to are all contrary to state and federal law and the intent of the Endangered Species Act," noted the Northeast Ecological Recovery Society and Maine Wolf Coalition in a recent joint press release.

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Wolves: They're back, say conservationist groups

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