HUNTED to the verge of extinction in North America, the grey wolf has long been disliked and misunderstood. Wolves that prey on livestock are sometimes hunted and killed, but now an ecological study suggests that compensating ranchers for lost stock is a better solution.
Wolves have been intentionally reintroduced into the western United States. With the total population at about 5000, the animals often take livestock, and individual wolves or packs may be killed by ranchers and government animal control officers.
C. Cormack Gates of the University of Calgary, Canada, and colleagues examined the effects of predation of livestock and…
