Rocky Mountain gray wolf killings prompt lawsuit

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Renewed killing of gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains prompted an environmental lawsuit on Monday, two months after the U.S. government declared these animals no longer needed protection.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Missoula, Montana, asks for reinstated protection for gray wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. government announced on February 21 it was ending protection for this group of gray wolves, and that decision became effective on March 28.

Since then, conservation groups said in the suit, dozens of gray wolves have been killed in the three states.

"Wolves have not yet recovered," said Louisa Willcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which was among those groups seeking renewed federal protection for the species.

"Biologically, you need several thousand wolves in connected populations between Yellowstone (national park in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho) and Canada to achieve what scientists and geneticists believe is true recovery," Willcox said by telephone. "This plan calls recovery good at 300 animals."

The government defended its stance. "We believe it was time to de-list the Rocky Mountain population of the gray wolf, and we stand by that," said Sharon Rose of the Denver office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Rose declined further comment, saying she had not seen the lawsuit.

Once plentiful in the 48 contiguous U.S. states, gray wolves were eradicated from the northern Rocky Mountain region and southwestern Canada by the 1930s. The species was listed as endangered in 1973; 66 wolves were re-introduced to the area in 1995.