In spite of the 75% drop in population levels on the Prince of Wales island in the Alaska Panhandle over the past decades, the US Fish and Wildlife Services considers the Alexander Archipelago wolf is not endangered.

USFWS announced on Tuesday that the Southeast Alaska's Alexander Archipelago wolf does not need protection under ESA or Endangered Species Act despite of the substantial decline in its population between the year 1994 and 2014, from a total of 356 to only 89 individuals occupying the Prince of Wales island, The Christian Science Monitor reported.

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Some of the potential factors that affect wolves indirectly according to the agency include climate-related events, wolf hunting, timber harvest, as well as road development, Daily Monitor reported.

While changes of climate as well as timber clearing can reduce the population of deer, which is the main food source of wolves, still the wolf hunting is the major stressor with direct mortality. Road development, on the other hand, is somehow considered as an arbitrary stressor but USFWS stated that it provides both trappers and hunters easier access to wolf populations.

Based on some reports, because of the extensive logging, the number of Alexander wolf has decreased from 300 to 50 only a few years, particularly in the Prince of Wales Island, Daily Monitor reported. Logging has eliminated the deer population in the surrounding wood of Prince of Wales Island, which is worst for the wolf population; deer is the wolf's major resource of food.

With the limitations on logging, social groups are aiming that both wolf and deer populations would improve. Their endeavor of making the Alaskan wolf to be out of the list of endangered species, government is insisting they are not in danger of becoming eliminated.

Furthermore, the USFWS is predicting the total population of Alexander Archipelago wolves to be between 850 to 2,700 individuals. Around 62% of these live in British Columbia and the 38% occupies the Southeastern Alaska, The Christian Science Monitor reported.

However, Alexander Archipelago's advocates for wolf protection under the ESA are saying that the USFWS's broad range estimates when it comes to the population levels only prove their little knowledge about the wolves' real status.