Ironically, animal rights activists make the same category error as the beefy rednecks who hunt wolves from helicopters: mistaking the part for the whole. Just as wolves are "enemies" or "game" only from the perspective of myopic ranchers or testosterone pumped gun nuts, so they are "people" with rights only from the perspective of ecological ignoramuses. What they are, of course, are predators at the top of a complex food chain, upon which the entire ecosystem depends for its stability and diversity. We can study, but never know, the full complexity of such ecosystems, since they are dynamic, rather than static.

And because we have already damaged them and fragmented these ecosystems so much, they need to be managed with intelligence, patience, and humility. And--yes--this can sometimes require culling (i.e. killing) excess wolves. as much to protect the wolf population itself from starvation, as to maintain the population of their prey. The first rule in intelligent conservation biology is to acknowledge complexity--to let go of attachment to fixed ideas, and be ready to learn from mistakes. Both "sport" hunters and animal rights fanatics fail on both accounts.