Dylan Kitzan
NORTHWEST MONTANA — For all of you wolf hunters reading this, there is good news: Wolf Management Unit 130 is still looking to harvest one wolf from its original quota of 12. WMU 130 closed, but upon discovery of an illegal harvest, was reopened to the public nearly a month ago because illegal harvests are not counted against public opportunity.
Kent Laudon, wolf biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said that this is just the second season wolves have been hunted in Montana. In 2009, wolves were delisted from the federal Endangered Species List, marking the first regulated wolf hunt in Montana state history, but were relisted in 2010. This year, the wolves were delisted once again, however some groups are still challenging legislation permitting wolf hunting.
Because wolf hunting is relatively new in Montana, the state has had to dramatically adjust quota numbers during the two years the hunt has been open.
“We didn’t have any idea how vulnerable wolves would be out there,” Laudon said. “If we just had a lot of people out in the woods with wolf tags, would harvest rates be very stacked? Turns out, that wasn’t the case. Because it was our first season, we had a very conservative quota of 75 for the entire state. Having learned from that, the state of Montana wanted to reduce the population somewhat, so they increased that quota to 220 for this year.”
Laudon’s job is a difficult and complex one, especially when it comes to tracking those wolf numbers. So how does he keep track of wolf populations when Region One of Montana encompasses 15,000 square miles alone? Technology, of course.
“Year to year, we have known packs, some of which are radio collared and some of which aren’t,” Laudon said. “We take advantage of things we know about them and follow around those packs to keep track of numbers of pups and territories. When the territories are known, we can sort out an area and determine number of packs in each one (the average territory size in Northwest Montana is about 200 square miles).”
Laudon also uses trail cams, howling surveys and public reports, among other tools, to help track numbers and possibly radio collar new wolves.
Those numbers have skyrocketed over the better part of the last decade.
“In 2004, we had about 12 packs in Region One,” Laudon said. “Right now, I’m reporting in that same area, somewhere around 48 packs.”
With an average pack size of 6.7 wolves, 12 packs isn’t too difficult to keep track of, but when you’re dealing with 48 packs, Laudon said, you’re talking about over 300 wolves to monitor.
“Last year, I recorded 39 packs,” Laudon said. “Fourteen of those, I had pretty big counts for. The other 25, I had poor to no counts for.”
Nevertheless, the wolf hunting quotas are based on minimum counts rather than population counts, helping limit the number of wolves available for harvest.
Managing wolf numbers is critical for two reasons. First, the concern about livestock loss is ever-present and by keeping wolf counts at a manageable number, those losses are reduced. Secondly, wolf hunts help balance the predator/prey ratio in Montana, specifically in regards to whitetail deer, which is the No. 1 prey of wolves in Northwest Montana.
WMU 130 will remain open until one more wolf is harvested. WMU 130 includes the middle and south fork of the Flathead Rivers and the Swan Valley and extends north to the Continental Divide. In fact, Laudon said a wolf was recently harvested where one wolf pack straddles the divide, just one-quarter mile from the WMU 130 border, indicating time could be running out on the opportunity to snag that last wolf.
Wolf hunters are reminded that a wolf harvest must be reported within 12 hours of harvest by calling 877-397-9453, or 1-877-FWP-WILD.