Overview

The dramatic rise and fall of the Western gray wolf in the past 50 years stands as a parable of the triumphs and betrayals endemic to wildlife conservation in America. In Apex Predators in Peril, investigative journalist Joe J. Hayes charts the Western gray wolf's tortuous history under the Endangered Species Act - from the brink of annihilation to fiercely contested restoration efforts to the devastating impacts of its premature delisting across much of the lower 48 states. Once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, gray wolves were wiped out across most of their range in the 19th and 20th centuries, victims of aggressive predator control programs. When they gained federal ESA protections in the 1970s, wolf populations clinging to survival began a slow revival. But recovery proved fractious - no sooner had protections allowed wolf numbers to rebound when political pressures pushed to declare victory and strip safeguards before populations were viable. From the Northern Rockies, where state management sent packs into free fall after delisting, to the Southwest's isolated Mexican gray wolves still struggling decades after reintroduction, Hayes investigates how anti-predator interests were allowed to undermine science-based policy and humane ethics. The resulting mismanaged carnage betrayed both the ESA's conservation mandate and our evolved understanding of predators' ecological value. Apex Predators in Peril sounds the alarm over the Western gray wolf's uncertain future, and calls for balanced governance that aligns conservation with the principles of ethical hunting, biodiversity, and ecosystem vitality. It is a sobering examination of the forces determining whether coexistence with North America's most controversial apex predator is possible.

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