As Wolf Populations Rebound, an Angry Backlash Intensifies

[Brenda]

2. Here's what Montana and Idaho allow for wolves:

After the delisting, Montana and Idaho created wolf hunting seasons, but their initial, careful quotas have given way to widespread killing and much more liberal quotas spurred by anti-wolf sentiment. After maintaining a 10-year average population of about 1,000 wolves in Montana, last year hunters killed about a quarter of them. An individual hunter can take 20 wolves a year – 10 by trapping and 10 by shooting. In 2021, Montana’s governor, Greg Gianforte, made headlines after he hunted and killed a wolf wearing a tracking collar that had wandered out of Yellowstone National Park.

The desire to kill wolves has also given way to what some — including Ed Bangs, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist — consider a violation of the “fair chase” ethics of hunting. Wolves are being killed on private land by people with night vision and thermal imaging equipment. They are lured by bait and then shot, and both Montana and Idaho offer bounties for dead wolves — $2,000 in Idaho.