Few mammals are as unloved as the wolf. Not that the feeling is universal. Some North American Indian tribes traditionally honored the predator as a worthy fellow hunter. Other societies have shown comparable reverence. How can anyone bear a grudge against the she-wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus, mythological founders of Rome? Without her, would we have had all that glorious architecture, those inspiring Michelangelo frescoes, Sophia Loren? Still, in popular culture and many a metaphor this animal is far from adored. There it is at the door in hard times, disguising itself in sheep’s clothing, tormenting the likes of Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs.

But should it be denied the right to live? Of course not, federal wildlife officials say. They pride themselves on having brought wolves — specifically, gray wolves — back from the brink of oblivion in the northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest, where kill-them-all attitudes once prevailed. By the first decades of the 20th century, the gray wolf was close to being wiped out. Then along came the federal Endangered Species Act, in 1973. Wolves were among the first species to fall under its protection.

By itself, the law did not revive moribund populations. That started to happen in the mid-1990s, when the United States Fish and Wildlife Service brought some wolves down from Canada and set them free to roam Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and, soon enough, neighboring Idaho and Montana. As chronicled by Retro Report, a weekly series exploring major news stories from the past and their lasting impact, federal officials regard their restoration effort as a spectacular success story. They had set a target of 300 interbreeding wolves for that region. There are now believed to be more than 1,600.

That number is high enough for officialdom to ponder whether the gray wolf, already no longer covered by the Endangered Species Act in several Western states, should lose its protective shield everywhere else. Considering that more than 2,200 species of animals and plants are formally deemed endangered or threatened — with a mere two dozen or so ever having been dropped from the list over the decades — such an action would surely send eyebrows soaring. More than the fate of the wolf is on the line. Federal-state relations are also at stake, especially out West, where admiration for Washington and its edicts tends to run thin.