DNR to fine-tune wolf, turkey estimates
By Paul A. Smith of the Journal Sentinel
Even with additional mortality from hunting, trapping and depredation control efforts, Wisconsin’s wolf population is about the same as this time last year, according to a preliminary estimate from the Department of Natural Resources.
The state’s wolf population was estimated at between 809 and 831 animals in 216 packs over the winter of 2012-’13. The previous winter’s estimate was 815 to 880 wolves in 213 packs.
The estimate was announced Friday in Wausau at the annual meeting of state wildlife officials, volunteer wolf trackers and other stakeholders.
The estimate is derived from aerial counts, ground observations of radio-collared wolves and tracking surveys. The work is conducted in winter when wolves are easiest to track and count, but also at a time when the population is near its annual low.
Wolf populations typically double in late spring after pups are born and then decline through late winter because of various sources of mortality.
“The population estimates from the last two years overlap, so we’re considering it about even, perhaps a little bit down,” said Dave MacFarland, DNR carnivore staff specialist. “The estimate this year tells us we had conservative measures in place last year, which was a goal.”
From 1993 to 2012, wolves in Wisconsin had shown annual increases in both number of individuals and packs.
But in January 2012 the federal government removed the wolf from protections of the Endangered Species Act and states in the Great Lakes region resumed management of the species.
The Wisconsin Legislature passed Act 169 in April 2012, authorizing the first regulated wolf hunting and trapping season in state history.
With state management restored, the DNR announced its desire to reduce the wolf population to a “biologically and socially acceptable level.”
The DNR established a nontribal harvest quota of 116 wolves in the state. Hunters and trappers killed 117 in a season that lasted slightly more than two months.
In addition to the wolves taken by hunters and trappers, 124 wolves were confirmed killed through other means in 2012, according to DNR records.
The other sources of mortality include 57 killed by federal wildlife agents, 22 hit by vehicles, 18 killed by landowners and nine killed illegally.
The DNR has begun a years-long process to update the state’s wolf management plan. The plan will include a wolf population goal.
State wildlife managers will meet with its wolf advisory committee Tuesday in Wausau to begin setting wolf harvest quotas for the 2013 hunting and trapping season.
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