Wolf hunt ends, won’t be extended
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HELENA – Hunters in Montana had an additional month and a half to help the state reach its quota of 220 wolves, ending with harvest of 166, or 75.5 percent of the wolf quota for this season. Despite failing to reach the quota, this year was better than the 2010 season, after Rocky Mountain Gray Wolves were removed from the endangered species list. Since wolves were delisted, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is responsible for managing wolves in Montana.
“It was a success,” FWP Commission chairman Bob Ream said. “We ended with 166 of 220. Overall the quota is a ceiling not a basement; three of 18 wildlife management units hit quota. The only wildlife management unit not close to the quota was (No.) 250, with six of 18 (harvested).”
The rugged mountainous area of Wildlife Management Unit 250, combined with heavy snowpack, caused problems for hunters. Ream says the decision to not extend the hunt in WMU 250 was out of fairness for other low-quota units.
“We had three units that were low,” he said. “To do it for one and leave two is not good rationale.”
Ream says the decision to extend the season to Feb. 15 helped hunters get closer to the quota.
“From the end of the big game season in November until now, 66 more were taken,” he noted. “They dribbled in evenly.”
Another reason FWP voted against the further extension of the wolf hunt in WMU 250 was that there is a major study of predation on elk calves going on in that region. Mountain lions are the top predator of elk calves, since 10 calves were taken by mountain lions, four by black bear, and four more by wolves, according to Ream.
“It’s a combined effect,” Ream said. “None of (the predators) are worse than the other. We over-harvested elk, so that was the beginning of the decline in numbers. It’s a downward spiral; we’re trying to come out of it.”
With only two years under their belts on managing the wolf population, FWP officials are still learning as they go, Ream added. In April, FWP Commissioners will meet to make decisions on next year’s wolf harvest. Possible changes could include WMU boundaries, particularly in areas of conflict with ranches.
“(We’re going to ask) what can we do to get out of this downward spiral,” Ream said.
Currently there is no wolf hunt permitted on the Flathead Indian Reservation, but Tribal Council does have the power to introduce a hunt in the future, according to Confederated Salish and Kootenai wildlife manager Dale Becker.
He says the current hunt doesn’t impact the reservation a great deal, except on the edges.
“It flops over into the reservation,” Becker said. “There are active packs on the reservation that move back and forth.”
Over the last several years, the tribes have dealt with several complaints from ranchers and farmers’ livestock being directly affected by wolves, Becker noted.
“We investigate them through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Service,” Becker said. “It’s a branch of the USDA, which assists with depredation of wildlife impacts. We treat wolves as native wildlife.”
Becker says the reservation has a minimum of 35 wolves, based on observations at seven different groups. The number fluctuates, however, as spring breeding pairs bump up wolf numbers.
