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Email: timberwolfinfonetwork@gmail.com
Email: timberwolfinfonetwork@gmail.com

MT: Hunters take home 222 wolves as season comes to an end

Written by Erin Madison
Tribune staff writer

Today marks the last day of wolf season, the first season in which Montana allowed wolf trapping as well as hunting.

As of Wednesday, a total of 222 wolves had been harvested this season, 131 through hunting and 91 through trapping.

Last year, 166 wolves were hunted, falling short of the quota of 220 wolves.

This year’s wolf season was expanded to allow trapping and there was no statewide quota.

“This year, with the addition of trapping, we met last year’s quota,” said Ty Smucker, wolf management specialist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Great Falls.

About two weeks ago, the Montana Legislature approved a bill that further expanded this year’s wolf hunt and went into effect immediately.

That bill allows hunters to purchase up to three wolf licenses, rather than the one they were previously allowed and lowered the price of a nonresident wolf license from $350 to $50.

The new law also allows wolf hunters to use their license after 24-hours of purchase, instead of the previous five-day wait; authorizes the use of electronic calls; and removes the requirement for wolf hunters to wear hunter-orange clothing after the general deer and elk hunting seasons have ended.

Despite those changes, nothing changed dramatically in the last two weeks of the wolf season, Smucker said.

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