Federal biologists tracked a wolf from Idaho to Cody where it has “paired” with a Wyoming mate, providing new information in the debate over whether federal protection of wolves should end.

The question of whether state wolf plans for Idaho, Montana and Wyoming will ensure genetic diversity that would allow the species to persist is one the federal government has faced as it attempts to turn control of the animals over to local game and fish agencies.

Lawsuits and court rulings against plans to end federal endangered species protection of the animal have raised the genetic viability question.

But if populations in the three states are connected — something the latest news might confirm — the genetic question may diminish in importance. The exchange of DNA among the populations would enhance the genetic diversity of a population, an important factor in whether it persists in the long run.

Biologists have known for some time that a yearling male known as wolf B-271 wandered from the Steele Mountain Pack in Idaho in 2006 and into Wyoming wolf territory. It spent part of last summer in Yellowstone National Park, and in January biologists caught him west of Cody and fitted him with a new radio collar.

On Friday, Wyoming Wolf Recovery Leader Mike Jimenez, of Jackson, reported that B-271 had “paired with a radio-collared female wolf,” in the Sunlight Basin west of Cody.

Whether the pairing will be successful remains to be seen. Wolves give birth in early spring.

The incident was not surprising to Jimenez. Wolves are “classic long-distance dispersers,” he said in his report. They routinely travel hundreds of miles across unsuitable habitat.

“Long-distance dispersals are common and provide further evidence that genetic connectivity is not a long-term wolf conservation issue in the northern Rocky Mountains,” his report said.

How conservation groups and state agencies interpret the news is uncertain. Federal protection allowed the budding DNA interchange, according to one view. The other view would be that B-271’s journey illustrates that there is no worry about genetic diversity.

Genetic connectivity and diversity is one of the key reasons a federal judge rejected Wyoming’s wolf management plan and why wolves will remain under federal control in the Equality State, even as Idaho and Montana are receiving permission to manage wolves.

In the Wyoming Legislature this winter, lawmakers grappled with genetics but rejected any changes to a law that classifies wolves as predators in most of the state. Predator status allows wolves to be killed at any time by any means.

The federal judge who rejected Wyoming’s wolf plan did so because of worries regarding genetic dispersal, not predator status, state Game and Fish Department officials told lawmakers earlier this year. But predator status limits the ability of wolves to disperse.

One lawmaker asked why a wolf should be allowed to roam Wheatland cornfields — considered unsuitable habitat — just because “he was on his way to a mosh-pit genetic connectivity event.”

Wolves were transplanted to Yellowstone and Idaho in 1995 under the Endangered Species Act with the goal of re-establishing them in the three states.