Delisting gray wolf endangers other species.

• Position: Your Life

The Federal government's proposal to discontinue protection for the gray wolf (Canis lupus) across the U.S. could have the unintended consequence of endangering other species, indicate researchers in the journal Conservation Letters.

As written, scientists assert, the proposed rule would set a precedent allowing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare habitat unsuitable for an endangered animal because a threat exists on the land--the exact opposite of the service's mandate to impose regulations that reduce threats against imperiled species.

FWS has "conflated threats with habitat suitability" by stating that U.S. land currently unoccupied by wolves--most of the country that historically served as wolf habitat--now is unsuitable because humans living in those regions will not tolerate the animals. This claim runs counter to existing research, which the service did not cite in its explanation of the rule.

"The Fish and Wildlife Service is supposed to detail what the threats are and, if they're substantial enough, they're supposed to list a species and put in place policies to mitigate the threats," says naturalist and lead author Jeremy Bruskotter. "Here, they're saying that they recognize the threat of human intolerance and, instead of mitigating the threat, they're just going to say the land is unsuitable."

Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973, expanding on previous legislation...