By Joshua Scheer, reporter, county10.com
(Lander, Wyo.) – As of Tuesday morning, individuals in Fremont County had purchased 163 gray wolf hunting tags.
Wyoming Game & Fish Department Spokesman Eric Keszler said 1,020 tags have been sold since they were made available last Friday morning.
Park County leads the state in sales, Keszler said, with 203. Teton County is second at 168.
Tags are $18 for Wyoming residents and $180 for nonresidents. Keszler said 12 nonresident tags have been sold.
Lander Field Office Wildlife Supervisor Jason Hunter said tags would continue to be available until quotas in the trophy game management areas were met.
The trophy game areas protect wolves from hunters with the exception of Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 during the open season. One area is a “flex” area where wolves are protected and hunted as trophy game animals for part of the year, but then designated as predators for the rest of the year.
The total quota for the first year of hunting is 52.
Elsewhere in the state, wolves are considered predators and can be shot on site.
Gray wolves were delisted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an endangered species earlier this year, and federal protections are set to end on Sept. 30.
“We know there’s a few wolves around,” Hunter said of the southern Wind River Range outside of Lander. “We expect to see some harvest.”
In most of Fremont County, wolves are designated as predators. However, in the Dubois area they are classified as trophy game. That hunt area has a quota of five.
“I imagine that quota will be met fairly quickly,” Hunter said.
He doesn’t expect the next month dealing with wolf hunters will take up too much of his office’s time. However, longterm data collection as required by the delisting rule will consume time.
Hunters who harvest wolves in the trophy game area have 24 hours to report it and five days to bring it to a field office or wildlife biologist to register the take. Reports can be made to 1-800-264-1280.
Predatory wolf hunters have 10 days to report the harvest, and the department might request genetic samples taken from the animal.
Radio collars on taken wolves also must be returned to G&F.