BILLINGS, Mont. - A federal judge said gray wolf hunts can go on for the first time in decades in the Northern Rockies, just months after the animals were removed from the endangered species list.
US District Judge Donald Molloy denied a request by environmentalists and animal welfare groups to stop the hunts in Idaho and Montana, saying plans to kill more than 20 percent of the estimated 1,350 wolves in the two states would not cause long-term harm to the species.
The wolf population could sustain a hunting harvest in excess of 30 percent and still bounce back, Molloy said in his ruling issued late Tuesday.
The ruling left unresolved the broader question of whether wolves should be returned to the endangered list.
However, Molloy said the US Fish and Wildlife Service appeared to have violated the Endangered Species Act when it carved Wyoming out of its decision to lift protections in May for wolves elsewhere in the region.
That suggests environmentalists could prevail in their ongoing lawsuit seeking to restore protections for the predator.
“The service has distinguished a natural population of wolves based on a political line, not the best available science,’’ Molloy wrote in his ruling.