the complexity and politics of saving a species.

A New York Times article on disappearance of U.S. Caribou illustrates the complexity and politics of saving a species.  U.S. caribou face multiple threats including predation by wolves. In Canada, thousands of wolves have been killed to save threatened caribou herds.  But development, road-building, and snowmobiling are also important threats to U.S. caribou.  Robbins describes how the USFWS proposed to set aside some 375,000 acres of critical habitat for caribou but opposition cut the set aside area to only 30,000 acres. Robbins reports that the conservative Pacific Legal Corporation (representing Idaho snowmobilers) has petitioned to have the U.S. caribou delisted from endangered species status because of the existence of similar caribou in Canada.  Efforts to preserve and expand the U.S. caribou are being made by the Kootenai Native American tribe who question why the caribou are not supported like other charismatic species such as wolves and grizzlies. Similarly, a letter to Science Magazine (Sept. 30, 2016) by Gilbert Proulx and Roger Powell criticized the Alberta Canada to kill wolves, grizzlies and other predators and to fence caribou in order to protect them. They point out that oil and gas activity will be allowed within the fenced enclosure and that other threats to caribou such as habitat loss and fragmentation will continue to occur.  These examples show that when there are multiple threats to species, wildlife predators such as wolves, grizzlies etc. receive the focus of attention rather than human causes such as human developments and their associated activities.The Robbins article is available at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/science/endangered-caribou-idaho-british-columbia.html
​