The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Monday that coyotes will not be listed as endangered due to looking similar to the endangered Mexican wolf.
Conservation groups in December filed a petition to protect coyotes within the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area. They argued wolves are killed at “high levels” when mistaken for the more common canine, though were unable to cite how often.
The groups argued a Department of Justice policy effectively provides protection from persecution for those who kill an endangered wolf and claim they misidentified it.
The wildlife service determined coyotes don’t resemble wolves enough to meet the criteria for joining them on the endangered species list for that reason alone.
Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator Brady McGree disputed the petition in a statement, saying such mistaken identity “accounts for only a small portion” of wolf killings.
He added that listing coyotes would have created more harm than good — increasing the burden on law enforcement while doing little for wolf recovery.
The Mexican gray wolf population hit a new high this year, increasing 23% since the last count, though there’s still a long way to go until the species can be considered self-sufficient.
