LAURA LUNDQUIST, Staff Writer
After a hunting area near Yellowstone National Park closed two days after a quota was filled, some
wolf advocates are arguing that timing is everything.
Last Wednesday, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks announced that the quota of four wolves had been
filled in hunting district 313 just north of Gardiner and Yellowstone National Park.
FWP reported that on Tuesday evening, a hunter killed a 3-year-old female gray wolf believed to be a
member of the park’s Canyon pack. He reported the kill on Wednesday morning.
Hunters have 24 hours to report harvesting a wolf.
FWP regulations say that when a hunting quota is reached, the hunting season will close “upon a 24-
hour notice.”
FWP issued an alert at noon on Wednesday that the wolf hunt would close in area 313 but not until a
half hour after sunset on Thursday.
FWP spokesman Ron Aasheim pointed to the “upon a 24-hour notice” clause.
“You have to be fair to the folks who are out there. We didn’t think we could close it the same day,”
Aasheim said. “Some people aren’t going to like that and we understand that.”
Some wolf advocates said they expected the hunt to close Wednesday night and were shocked when
they saw hunters out in the Jardine area northeast of Gardiner on Thursday.
Jardine resident Bill Hoppe said he saw just “a couple of people wandering around.”
But other residents reported that hunters showed up on Thursday that hadn’t been in the area the day
before.
Reports from wolf watchers were that both the Canyon and Blacktail packs had come out of the park
and were in the Jardine area. Some thought they might have been attracted by electronic wolf calls,
which are legal in Montana.
“I counted seven rigs lined up on the Jardine road, and the hunters were glassing the hill like crazy,”
said Wolves of the Rockies spokeswoman Kim Bean. “With a quota, there’s supposed to be a
mandatory closure within 24 hours. We’re (upset) with the slow closure.”
FWP biologist Abby Nelson said no wolf kills were reported after the fourth wolf was killed. But if
there had been a fifth wolf killed, it would have been legal as long as it was shot before Thursday
evening.
“When the quotas were developed, they were created with the notification time in mind,” Nelson said.
Three wolf hunting districts have quotas: the North Fork Flathead near Glacier National Park has a
limit of two wolves, and north of Yellowstone National Park, the Gardiner area has a quota of four and
the Absaroka area to the east has a quota of three.
The Absaroka area is still open with two wolves killed.
As of Monday, hunters this season had killed 109 wolves and trappers had taken 12.