A fifth wolf was shot and killed in Wolf Management Unit 313 earlier this month, the unit located just north of Yellowstone National Park, where the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission had set a quota of three wolves. in place for this season,partly to avoid further disruption to the national park packs.

Last Tuesday, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said the fifth wolf was found dead Nov. 1, tightly covered inside the unit, from a gunshot wound it likely suffered when four other wolves had been killed in Unit 313 the same day. October 25. The wolf had a tracking collar that showed a mortality signal the first week of November, telling authorities of its death and location, reports the Daily Montanan.

FWP said he thought the fifth wolf had been “unknowingly injured” when the other four wolves – two females and two males – were killed on the morning of October 25. At the start of this day, no wolves had been killed in WMU 313, but after this morning, FWP has published its opinion that the unit would turn off the flush 24 hours later.

FWP said that, based on a visit to the site where the fifth wolf was found and other information, it did not believe the wolf was killed illegally and that the person who shot it did not know not that she had. Failure to attempt to recover an animal knowingly injured during a hunt is a violation of Montana law.

But the five wolves killed this year in Unit 313 came from a single pack in Yellowstone National Park, the 8 Mile Pack, heightening concerns about pack fragmentation after 13 Yellowstone wolves were killed . killed last winter. And in the ad, at least one wolf advocacy group says the wolf’s death is another sign that the FWP is more interested in allowing wolves to be killed than protecting them, even in a region where luck to see a wolf is a highly sought after tourist. attraction.

Yellowstone National Park may propose more changes for next year

In August, the Fish and Wildlife Commission agreed to adopt an amendment to Wolf Regulation 2023-24 from Region 3 Commissioner Susan Kirby Brooke, which divides WMU 313 into two units – WMU 313 and 316 – which would each have a quota of three wolves.

The two had previously been separated but were combined into one unit with a quota of six wolves for the past two seasons, but commissioners and members of the public who spoke at the meeting said part The reason behind the change was that the 313 was an easier unit. to hunt while the wolves head towards the Valley of Paradise. And Gardiner business owners said they didn’t like seeing so many wolves killed so close to town.

“A lot of these people are bringing tourism businesses into these areas, and it hurts their business to have so many wolves removed from a small area,” Commissioner Brooke explained at the meeting.

Two separate reports released in late summer, found support from visitors to Yellowstone National Park thousands of local jobs and spending more than $600 million in nearby communities, much of it to see the park’s wildlife, including wolves, and thermal features.

Another supporter of the change was Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly, who wrote to the commission this summer to say that 13 Yellowstone wolves were killed last winter, including eight in Montana and six in unit 313. The 13 wolves represented approximately 10% of Yellowstone’s winter wolf population, the letter said, and came from three different packs that had since fractured or disbanded.

Brooke said in an interview late last week that some people in Gardiner had already contacted her — “rightfully upset” — about the five wolves being killed and so early in the season. Last season, the quota of six wolves was not reached until December 25.

“It looks like several hunters went out together and hunted wolves, which is their right,” Brooke said. “And it’s unfortunate, I think, because there’s been so much work to try to mitigate the impact on just one package and maybe expand it a little bit more. And you know, it didn’t work.

She explained that quotas are a “goal” rather than a fixed number that cannot be exceeded, and that it is possible for quotas to be exceeded in a single day because many hunters in the field are unaware that others killed an animal.

“My goal was to try to soften the blow to one pack, and that could have happened even if we had had the quota of six and the old 313. It still could have happened that way,” Brooke said.

Yellowstone National Park spokesperson Morgan Warthin said all five wolves killed in Unit 313 were members of the 8 Mile Pack — two females and three males. A female and a male were fitted with tracking collars — one of which was the fifth wolf found dead — and those two were both about a year and a half old and had been shot in the same area, Warthin said. Wolves typically become breeding pairs between 3 and 5 years old, she explained.

Warthin said the 8 Mile Pack started the fall with 25 members. She added that in addition to the five killed in Unit 313, three others are missing because observers have only seen 17 of them so far.

Sholly, the park superintendent, said he appreciated that the commission split last year’s Unit 313 into two units with three-wolf quotas, but “it didn’t work.” He told the Daily Montanan last week that the park would likely suggest that next year’s regulations include issuing tags to 313 wolf hunters to ensure a limited number of Yellowstone wolves are killed.

“I’m sure this won’t please many people, but what’s the point of the quota when you exceed it every year in different configurations?” » said Sholly. “So I’m hoping for constructive conversations around solutions and how we work together to determine the right configuration outcome.”

He also suggested perhaps having a conversation with the commission about a combined quota for units 313 and 316, so that if five wolves were removed in 313, only one would be allowed to be killed in 316. He said that he wanted the park and commission to continue finding ways to protect Yellowstone’s main wolf population.

But he said that in the past three years, about 30 wolves from the northern packs have been killed, and he wants to make sure the focus is on the cumulative effects of those deaths on the overall wolf population.

“What is the point of taking any number of 30 wolves out of just a few packs in the Northern Range? he said. “I think it’s an important thing to focus on.”

Reward offered for information on the fifth wolf

Marc Cooke, vice president of the wolf advocacy group Wolves of the Rockies, said the organization offers a $5,000 reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of the hunter who shot the fifth wolf in Unit 313 although the FWP determined nothing illegal had occurred.

“This is another stupid explanation from Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks attempting to cover up their incompetence and anti-wolf stance,” the group said in a Nov. 6 social media post.

Cooke said he believes some outfitters and hunters are vehemently anti-wolf and seek to kill the animals in an area that is easy to hunt despite quotas and restrictions. He said the FWP, under the Gianforte administration, had been “complacent” because the administration viewed wolves as a threat to game like elk and livestock like sheep and cattle. Sholly reiterated last week that there have been fewer than 10 livestock depredations caused by wolves in Park County in the past decade.

“If you shoot an animal and don’t locate it, how is that ethical?” If you shoot an animal just to kill it and satisfy your irrational hatred for these animals and your bloodlust for these animals, that’s poaching,” Cooke said. “The department, frankly, if you look at all of its actions over the last 15 years, it has done little or nothing.”

FWP spokesman Greg Lemon said the fifth wolf would not count toward the quota because the quota includes legally captured wolves, and even if the wolf’s death was human-caused, it does not count. not in the catch quota.

Like Brooke, he also said it was possible for hunters to exceed a quota in a specific unit.

“No laws are being broken because the quotas are our signal to close hunting in the district. Quotas are not necessarily a bag limit in and of themselves,” Lemon said, adding that some other furbearers, for example, have 48-hour closure notification periods where hunting or trapping can also take place a day. once a quota is reached.

When asked if FWP had any discussions among employees or with the commission about the five wolves killed in 313 over the past week, he said no.

The commission is will meet Tuesday morning disconnect Regulations on wolf trapping for the seasonand while no amendments have been proposed regarding Unit 313, Brooke and Cooke said they expect to hear from the public about both trapping regulations and hunting-related deaths in the Unit 313.

So far this seasonSince the beginning of September, 69 wolves have been killed in Montana. In the separate unit of Unit 313, WMU 316, only one wolf is believed to have been killed so far.