Hybridizing Law: A Policy for Hybridization Under the Endangered Species Act

• Date: 01 July 2017

7-2017 NEWS & ANALYSIS 47 ELR 10615

Hybridizing Law:

A Policy for

Hybridization

Under the

Endangered

Species Act

by John A. Erwin

John (Alex) Erwin is completing both a J.D. at the James E.

Rogers College of Law and a Ph.D. from the Genetics Graduate

Interdisciplinary Department at the University of Arizona.

Summary

For centuries, hybridization was a poorly understood

process thought to be a threat to endangered species.

With the advent of genomic technologies, those views

are starting to change; hybridization is now recog-

nized as vital for the formation and continued persis-

tence of many species. However, our current system of

protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)

fails to take many of the modern nuances of evolu-

tionary biology into consideration. Despite calls for

an explicit “hybrid policy” since the early 1990s, the

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine

Fisheries Service have instead chosen to apply a case-

by-case approach with no guidance or overarching

policy. With the new technologies, many species we

are currently protecting could technically be unsuit-

able for protection based on a rigid interpretation of

the ESA. A dened hybrid policy must be adopted,

taking into consideration the twin aims of protecting

genetic lineages and protecting ecosystems.

“This animal is not an endangered species. is

animal is a hybrid and should be delisted

immediately.”1 “ey absolutely invented a

species and called it endangered.”2 ese were just a couple

of t he plethora of rebukes directed at the U.S. Fish a nd

Wildlife Service (F WS) condemning the continued pro-

tection of the red wolf (Canis lupus) in light of recent nd-

ings. For decades, the taxonomic status of red wolves has

been up in the air: is it a distinct species, a subspecies of

gray wolves or coyotes, a recent hybrid population bet ween

gray wolves or coyotes, or some mix of all of these dif-

ferent hypotheses?3 A 2016 genomic st udy seems to have

answered this quest ion once a nd for all: the red wolf is a

population of hybrids formed, primarily since the 1800s,

from gray wolves and coyotes.4

e red wolf has been one of the agship species for

protection under the Enda ngered Species Act (ESA), yet,

as the aforementioned quotes hint, under the current

implementation of the ESA, hybrids are not aorded pro-

tection. Is this just “a case of well-intentioned biologists

going back se veral dec ades, tr ying to bring back a spec ies

they believed existed,”5 sugge sting the red wolf does not

deserve continued prote cted status? Or, in spite of their

hybrid status, do es there exist signica nt biological jus-

tication to continue protecting red wolves, and ot her

hybrids? ese are t he questions our polic ymakers and

wildli fe managers a re forced to answer, despite a decided

lack of leg al gu idance.

When the Human Genome Project was completed in

2003, few could imagine the widespread proliferation of

these sequencing technologies just a decade later.6 at

rst genome cost $2.7 billion dolla rs a nd nearly 15 years

to complete; today, a genome can be sequenced for under

$2,000 in days to weeks.7 ese drastic reductions in cost

have driven all the major elds in biolog y to new heights,

perhaps none more so tha n wildlife conservation.8 Conser-

vation genetics t raditionally utilized just a few genes, yet,

1. Quote from Gary Mowad, a former Deputy Chief of Law Enforcement for

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), found in William LaJeunesse,

    , F

N, Sept. 22, 2016, http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/09/22/feds-mull-

whether-to-remove-red-wolf-from-endangered-species-list.html.

2. Quote from Scott Grin from the group Citizens Science, found in

LaJeunesse, supra note 1.

3. Steven M. Chambers et al., 

Wolves From Morphological and Genetic Analyses, 77 N. A. F 1 (2012).

4. Bridgett M. vonHoldt et al., Whole-Genome Sequence Analysis Shows at



, 2 S. A e1501714 (2016).

5. Quote from Gary Mowad, found in LaJeunesse, supra note 1.

6. National Human Genome Research Institute,     

Human Genome, https://www.genome.gov/sequencingcosts/ (last updated

July 6, 2016).

7. Id.

8. Fred Allendorf et al.,  , 11

N R. G 697 (2010).

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