MADISON, Wis. (WSAU) — The second Wisconsin wolf hunt is over and Department of Natural Resources officials are starting to over the data collected this year.
Wildlife management director Tom Hauge says the DNR’s goal is learning more about the wolf population and managing it. “We’ve got a great wolf resource in the state of Wisconsin, it’s a healthy population, we want to keep it healthy into the future. Anything we can learn through the harvesting process, that’s what we’re trying to do.” Every wolf harvested in the state has a number of samples taken in order for biologists to chart where its been, how old it is, and what condition the animal is in.
Hauge adds that the department is still feeling out the wolf hunt and hasn’t come to any set standards of how it’s supposed to go. “If this is normal we don’t yet quite know it. We’ve only had two seasons. Contrast that with 50, 60 years of deer hunting experience where we all know what to expect.” Hauge says the current methods of registration are working well though. “People who were successful called us within 24 hours of a harvest, which allowed us to keep near real time track of the harvest and to be able to take actions to start and shut it down when we needed to.”
A total of 251 wolves were allotted to non-tribal hunters this year and the hunt finished up on Monday.