by Richard Cockle
Now that wolves have migrated back to Oregon, an argument is simmering about what to call them. Their Latin name is Canis lupus, and most people know them simply as “gray wolves.”
Oregon ranchers who object to their presence because they prey on cattle call them “Canadian gray wolves.”
Sean Stevens, spokesman for environmental group Oregon Wild, says the Canadian reference is a pejorative, “a code for wolves that don’t belong here, by people who don’t think they should be here. To a scientist, a gray wolf is just a gray wolf.”
Biologist Ed Bangs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s gray wolf recovery coordinator in Helena, Mont., avoids the name game whenever possible. “We just call them ‘Canis lupus irregardless,'” he quips.
Teklanika Nature Photography 