The United States Department of Agriculture – Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said in the 2008 Wolf Activity Report of Idaho Wildlife Services, that hunting of wolves after delisting would not be effective at managing wolf numbers.
With another delisting of wolves in sight, and the IDFG poised to use sport harvest to help control wolf numbers, many wolf advocacy groups have expressed concern about the State’s wolf population being drastically reduced in short order. However, a review of the last 5 years of data on wolf take by the Idaho WS program indicates that of 200 wolves taken, only 32 (16%) were taken by shooting from the ground using conventional hunting methods, as compared to 69 (~35%) taken by trapping. Furthermore, almost half of the wolves taken by WS were taken by aerial hunting (99, ~50%). WS employs highly skilled and trained field personnel, and these employees have access to telemetry equipment as well as databases that track the most up-to-date wolf sightings. Yet despite these advantages (advantages that sportsmen will not have), only a small fraction of the wolves taken by WS are taken using the conventional methods likely to be employed by sport hunters.
Hunting from the ground is not the most effective way to take wolves, and after the public is allowed to begin hunting wolves, it would seem likely that wolves will become even more difficult to hunt as they become more wary of humans. Winter harvest levels of 28-47% are sustainable in wolf populations (Mech 2001), but based on WS experience and information regarding wolf harvest in Alaska (where most wolves are taken by trapping and snaring, rather than hunting), we believe it is highly unlikely that hunting alone could be used to accomplish that level of removal in Idaho.
Back in January of this year, I wrote that Idaho’s wolf hunting rules would be ineffective in dealing with wolf populations and growth patterns. We can clearly see that with the resources made available to Idaho Wildlife Services, they admit conventional means of hunting wolves will have little affect on reducing or even maintaining populations. So, what will Idaho Department of Fish Game do? Do they have any plans to deal with this?
Wolf advocate groups contend that hunting wolves will bring them back to extinction. The only way that is going to happen is if once again all protections and means of management were lifted to allow anyone the use of anything to kill wolves.
In this report, officials state that after a time when hunters have had a chance to beat around the woods shooting at wolves, the canines, being an intelligent and highly adaptable animal, will steer clear of humans making the task of killing wolves that much more difficult.
All this talk of concern for how we are going to set up rules for hunting is probably premature as delisting will once again be delayed through lawsuits. By that time, it is really anybody’s guess as to how many wolves there will be and how much further damage they have laid on ungulate populations, private livestock and other wildlife.
The other issue yet to be resolved is whether or not the Idaho wolf management plan and the rules established for hunting wolves are even legal. Some members of the Idaho legislature contend that the only legal wolf management plan the state adopted was in 2002. In that bill it clearly states that IDFG does not have authority alone to adopt wolf management plans without the approval of the legislature. It appears that this is in fact the case and thus we really don’t know what kind of rules IDFG will implement to hunt wolves.
Tom Remington
