The state will par back this fall’s wolf hunting season to prop up a disease-ridden population. The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission voted unanimously to cut the wolf mortality limit on July 14. That means 22 wolf hunting tags will be doled out — half of last year’s 44 tags.
It’s the lowest the state has allotted since Wyoming wolves first lost protection under the Endangered Species Act in 2012. Last year, hunters harvested 31 wolves, according to the state.
The state regulates hunting of the apex predator between Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park and the Wind River Reservation, otherwise called the “trophy game zone.”
“The goals of our wolf management plan are to maintain a viable, we’d often call it a ‘healthy,’ wolf population in Northwest Wyoming,” Ken Mills, Game and Fish’s wolf biologist, told KHOL in June.
Mills said his department confirmed an outbreak of canine distemper this winter. The measles-like virus leaves wolves vulnerable and is especially fatal to pups. That led the state-managed wolf population to plunge to 132, down from its objective of 160 and the lowest number since 2005. Only a third of pups are thought to have survived the disease.
In most parts of the state, that season starts Sept. 15 and ends by the new year.
In about 100 state-collected public comments, 30% of which came from Wyoming, most requested a further reduction in hunting, even a one-or-two-year pause on hunting to let the animals recover from distemper.
In response to comments, the commission asked Mills during its meeting about protecting Yellowstone’s oldest pack, Mollie’s Pack, and what would happen with a hunting two-year moratorium.
Mills said the state treats packs and breeding pairs equally.
“The population would increase over the objective by over 20 wolves if we did not hunt 20 wolves,” Mills told the commission.
