Gray wolf: The predator pursued

John Hart squatted in a muddy pasture and examined the carcass in front of him. The wounds on the eviscerated calf, and the tracks all around it, left no mystery about what had happened. Soon Hart would set up traps to capture and shoot the killer: one or more gray wolves roaming the area. Though wolves have enjoyed federal protection from trapping and hunting since 1974, Hart and other federal wildlife agents killed 143 gray wolves last year alone. They have special permission to do so under the Endangered Species Act, as a controversial concession to farmers whose livestock occasionally fall prey to a protected predator. The population of gray wolves, now estimated at 3,000 in Minnesota, has grown so much that federal officials removed the animals from the endangered list on May 4. That puts management of the wolves in states' hands, and Minnesota law allows landowners to shoot wolves in the act of stalking or attacking livestock, guard animals or pets...Star-Tribune