Have Wolves Recovered Like Bald Eagles?

While announcing the final delisting of wolves in the Lower 48 from Endangered Species Act protection, the US Fish and Wildlife Service stated, “Recovery of the gray wolf under the ESA is one of our nation’s great conservation successes, with the wolf joining species such as the bald eagle… that have been brought back from the brink with the help of the ESA.” Comparing the wolf’s incomplete recovery and limited protection with the bald eagle’s greater recovery and ongoing protection is either a careless mistake or deliberate misinformation. Here’s a factual comparison.

The Killing of Bald Eagles

Our country may have had as many as 100,000 nesting bald eagles in 1782 when we adopted the bird as our national symbol. 

But, not everyone was a fan. Shortly after the bald eagle became our national symbol, Benjamin Franklin wrote, ”For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly.”

Franklin wasn’t alone. Many other Americans falsely accused the bird of preying regularly on chickens, lambs, and domestic livestock, even though bald eagles mainly eat fish and carrion. Bald eagles were labeled a threat and the killing began. This killing coupled with a loss of nesting habitat due to human development led to a decline in their numbers. By the early 1900s, bald eagles were flying toward extinction in the Lower 48.

The Killing of Wolves

Wolves were once more abundant in the Lower 48 than bald eagles. Some historians reckon that one to two million wolves roamed North America when colonists first arrived. Researchers estimate that gray wolves once inhabited 41 of the lower 48 states.

Colonists arriving from Europe brought wolf hatred with them and gave it a deadly American twist. Historian Jon T. Coleman found that colonists created wolf fantasies that were the opposite of reality. They pictured wolves preying on humans, but actually humans preyed on wolves. They described wolves surrounding humans, inducing panic with hideous howls. In reality, humans surrounded and panicked wolves. This savage wolf that only existed in minds fed with lies and fantasies prompted vicious treatment of real wolves—treatment worse than that which bald eagles suffered.

Those lies and fantasies went on to be institutionalized in the early 1900s by the US Biological Survey—the first government wolf-killers—in order to generate funding for predator-eradication. They and their prodigy, Wildlife Services, almost cleared the Lower 48 of wolves. By the time wolves were protected under the Endangered Species Act, only 1000 or so survived in Minnesota along with about 40 on Michigan’s Isle Royale, according to the USFWS delisting document.

Photo by Rick Lamplugh

The Protecting of Bald Eagles

The bald eagle first gained federal protection in 1940 under what later became the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. The bird later acquired additional protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. With ample protection, populations stabilized or increased. 

But bald eagles soon faced another threat: the widespread use of the pesticide DDT after World War II. DDT accumulated in bald eagles and caused them to lay eggs with weakened shells. As damaged eggs failed to hatch, the bald eagle population plummeted. 

Concern for the bald eagle resulted in its protection in 1967 under the predecessor to today’s Endangered Species Act. A few years later, the eagle became one of the original species protected by the ESA.

With ESA protection and a ban by the Environmental Protection Agency on the general use of DDT, bald eagle populations rebounded and the bird was officially delisted from the ESA in 2007.

However, and this is a BIG however, bald eagles continue to be protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act as well as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Both federal laws prohibit molesting, disturbing, selling, or killing eagles or harming their nests or eggs.

The Protecting of Wolves

Gray wolves in the Lower 48 were protected under the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, the Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1969, and then the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

In 2011, wolves lost endangered species protection in Montana and Idaho, the eastern third of Washington and Oregon, and a small part of Utah via a congressional rider attached by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont) to a must-pass budget bill. Eventually delisted in Wyoming, wolves are regularly killed in all of these states.

With gray wolves now delisted from ESA protection in the Lower 48 the killing of these essential predators will expand to Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Dispersing wolves can also be shot as they leave their packs in search of mates and territory.

Photo by Rick Lamplugh

Compared to Bald Eagles, Wolves Are NOT Recovered or Protected

The USFWS once monitored the number of bald eagle breeding pairs in the lower 48. Their records show a steady increase from 487 in 1963 to 9,789 breeding pairs in 2006, the year before the delisting from the ESA. Simple math shows that number of breeding pairs represents a minimum population of at least 20,000 bald eagles at time of delisting.

Unlike that accurate monitoring of bald eagle numbers, the USFWS estimates that the “recovered” gray wolf population is now “more than 6,000” in the Lower 48. That’s less than one-third the size of the bald eagle population at the time the bird was delisted.

According to the USFWS, at the time of delisting from the ESA, bald eagles could be found in every one of the lower 48 states and the District of Columbia. 

But at the time of delisting wolves, the USFWS notes that “the vast majority of wolves in the lower 48” exist in eight states. This is just a fraction of the 48 states the bald eagle could be found in when delisted or the 41 states wolves roamed in when colonists arrived.

The USFWS misleads us by favorably comparing the recovery of wolves with that of bald eagles. There is no comparison. According to USFWS statistics, recovery of wolves is far from complete when compared to the recovery of bald eagles.

Worse yet, once delisted from the ESA, there is no backup federal legislation for wolves as there is with bald eagles, which are still protected under two federal laws. 

With No ESA protection, hated and misunderstood wolves will certainly be disturbed, molested, and killed throughout the Lower 48, minimizing their “recovery” even further.

You Can Help Keep Wolves Protected

On January 4, 2021 wolves will be officially delisted and their recovery will be in the hands of individual states. 

Here’s a site to visit to tell the governors of states with wolves to act in a way that helps wolves recover. 

Photo Credit: Collage photo of wolf at top of post  CCO public domain via Pixabay

Rick Lamplugh writes and photographs to protect wildlife and wild lands.

His bestselling In the Temple of Wolves; its sequel, Deep into Yellowstone; and its prequel, The Wilds of Aging are available signed. His books are also available unsigned or as eBook or audiobook on Amazon.

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