"Federal protections for some 1,200 gray wolves in Montana and Idaho end on Thursday under unprecedented legislation passed by the U.S. Congress last month removing them from the endangered species list.

The effective date of the de-listing, which places the wolves under state wildlife control and opens them to licensed hunting, was announced on Wednesday by U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Another 4,000 wolves in the western Great Lakes region could lose their status as threatened or endangered in the future under a separate government proposal issued last month."

Laura Zuckerman reports for Reuters May 5, 2011. [2]