POSTED BY GEORGE PRENTICE
Nearly 300 wolves were killed in Idaho last year – due in large part to hunters and trappers who killed nearly a third of the state’s wolf population.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a report this week, indicating that by the end of 2011, there were approximately 746 wolves in Idaho. A spokesman for Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game told the Associated Press that the state’s wolf population could be down to as few as 577.
“Thanks to Idaho’s hunters and trappers, we’ve made good progress in getting the wolf population under control and into better balance with prey species,” Jim Unsworth of Fish and Game told the Associated Press.
According to federal authorities, in 2011, 166 “problem” wolves were lethally removed by agency control, including 63 wolves in Idaho, 64 in Montana, 36 in Wyoming and another two in Oregon.
“The reduction of these conflicts is another crucial element in our ability to sustain the wolf’s recovery in the Northern Rocky Mountains,” said Steve Guertin, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regional director of the Mountain-Prairie Region.