How the gray wolf population has changed in the northern Rocky Mountains

 http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/mammal... 

As you can see from the figure, the wolf population grew significantly until approximately 2010 or 2011 when it peaked and started to decrease a little. Gray wolves were delisted in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming in 2009.

Perhaps the most important question is - how many wolves are enough in this region? More specifically, are there enough wolves to maintain genetic diversity, and thus avoid inbreeding depression, in the wolf population of the entire region? Based on an October 2010 paper in Molecular Ecology entitled: "A novel assessment of population structure and gene flow in grey wolf populations of the Northern Rocky Mountains of the United States" by Vonholdt, et al., the answer seems to be yes. However, the paper also emphasizes that humans must maintain connectivity between wolf populations in the region by making wise management decisions.