By JIM MANN/The Daily Inter Lake
Unless the wolf hunt picks up substantially over the next few days, it appears Montana will fall well short of its statewide quota when the extended season closes Wednesday, Feb. 15.
So far, 156 wolves have been harvested, just over 70 percent of the 220-animal quota. In Northwest Montana’s Region One, 61 wolves have been harvested in six wolf hunting districts with a total quota of 73.
Two of those districts have closed with quotas met, one is three shy of the quota, one is four short, one is two short and the final missed the quota by one.
Only two other districts in the state — in south-cental and southeast Montana — reached designated quotas.
While some hunters pressed for higher quotas prior to the season, the practical experience of this season suggests that wouldn’t be achievable, said Kent Laudon, Region One wolf biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Even in the Bitterroot Valley’s District 210, where there’s a quota of 36 — higher than any other district in the state — only 21 animals have been harvested, despite incentives offered by merchants for wolf license holders to stick with the hunt.
Laudon analyzed the results between 2009, the first year the state had a regulated wolf hunt, and 2011. He found that the harvest rate and the number of animals harvested were about the same in Northwest Montana during the five-week general big game season. The difference this year was that the season was extended to Feb. 15.
The rate of harvest dropped off significantly after the general hunting season, just as it did in 2009 with Idaho’s extended season.
“Their harvest rate really slowed, and we expected that,” Laudon said. “You have less folks that are interested in it.”
Montana practically met its statewide quota of 75 wolves in 2009, with 73 wolves being harvested.
The results of this year’s hunt and population trends will be examined closely by the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission this spring, Laudon said.
Wolf packs could become more evasive in future hunting seasons.
“It’s still a guess, but just from my own experiences it seems that wolves respond to negative experiences,” said Laudon, who has spent years tracking, trapping and monitoring packs with radio-collared wolves.
Some packs had multiple encounters with hunters while others had none.
“Some packs maybe didn’t learn very much, some packs learned a lot and then you have the new ones that come in every year,” he said.
“Elk are the same way. They are herd animals that seem to benefit from the experience of the older and more dominant animals in the herd. That’s probably more akin to the pack. The young and dumb ones can still benefit from the older and wiser.”