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The gray wolves have been getting busy.
In 2014, there were 77 wolves in Oregon. Now, there are 110, a 36% increase, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife's annual wolf report, which was released yesterday.
The number is quite a jump from the 1930s, during the heyday of bounty pay-outs in exchange for killing wolves. The last bounty was paid out in 1947, and Oregon had few, if any, wolves until the late 1990s.
In November of 2015, wolves were doing so well they were taken off the endangered species list, leaving them unprotected against hunters.
But in late December, the Oregon conservation groups Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands and the Center for Biological Diversity sued the Fish and Wildlife Commission for the decision.
The wolves have not been put back on the list. And they likely won't be.
The wolf population "is not now (and is not likely in the foreseeable future to be) in danger of extinction in any significant portion of its range in Oregon or in danger of becoming endangered," according to the report, which shows the wolf population has been steadily growing since 2009.
On February 24, House Bill 4040, which backs up the Fish and Wildlife Commission's decision to delist gray wolves from the endangered species list was passed out of committee, according to the AP. The bill also prohibits the commission from putting the species on the list unless certain criteria are met.
The report also reveals that seven wolves died last year. Three were illegally shot and one died from ingesting something poisonous to animals.
Unsurprisingly, the report also said that "public interest in Oregon wolf management remained high," with their wolf website pages receiving 178,000 views.
In other news, there seems to be a decrease in wolf t-shirt sales, despite the growing wolf population.
Willamette Week