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Montana’s wolf harvest picked up the moment rifle season opened, and state wildlife officials say that’s no accident. Most people who kill a wolf in Montana weren’t out looking for one.
The general big game rifle season started Saturday, Oct. 24. By Oct. 30, hunters had killed 11 wolves since the opener, more than a third of the 32 taken statewide since wolf season began in early September. By Nov. 2, the count on Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ harvest dashboard had reached 39.
“[We’ve seen] more deer and elk hunters on the ground and an uptick in wolf harvests,” Quentin Kujala, FWP’s chief of conservation policy, told Montana Free Press. “That reflects deer and elk hunters with a wolf tag running into wolves.”
Kujala said the agency’s read on wolf hunters is qualitative. FWP doesn’t survey license holders about how actively they hunt wolves, but the pattern repeats every fall: the harvest climbs when thousands of elk and deer hunters head into the mountains with a wolf license in their pocket.
Still behind most years
Even with the jump, this season is running slow. “There’s a recent uptick,” FWP spokesperson Greg Lemon said. “But we’re still well behind most years.” The state has kept wolf harvest records since 2009, its first legal wolf season.
The regional numbers show where the wolves are being taken. As of Nov. 2, Region 1 in northwest Montana led with 14 wolves against a quota of 131. Region 2, around Missoula, had 13 of 92. Region 3, in southwest Montana, had 9 of 33. Region 4 had logged one wolf of a quota of 28, and Regions 6 and 7 in eastern Montana had none, with quotas of four each.
Only one unit has closed. Wolf Management Unit 313, north of Yellowstone National Park, has a quota of a single wolf, and it was filled on the first day. Neighboring WMU 316 also has a one-wolf quota, still open.
FWP also reports no non-target captures of grizzly bears, wolverines or lynx so far, a number that will matter more once traps go out.
A smaller quota this year
The numbers come in the first season under a reduced limit. In August, the Fish and Wildlife Commission cut the statewide quota to 300 wolves, down from 458 last year, after a new population estimate showed Montana had fewer wolves than officials had previously believed. Hunters and trappers have until March 15 to reach it.
Historically, the harvest moves fastest once trapping opens and snow makes tracking easier. Trapping starts Nov. 30 in much of the state and Jan. 1 in others, including the area covered by a federal court order meant to protect grizzlies, where it runs Jan. 1 to Feb. 15. Trappers, FWP says, are almost always dedicated wolf hunters, unlike the opportunistic rifle crowd.
A mixed start for elk and deer
The rifle opener itself was uneven in southwest Montana, the state’s busiest hunting region. In the first two days, 2,200 hunters stopped at FWP check stations in Region 3, and fewer than 1 in 10 had an animal. Check stations recorded 59 deer and 146 elk. Those totals were near or above average at some stations and below at others.
Check-station counts don’t capture everything. Hunters who don’t pass a station aren’t counted, and the numbers usually improve once colder weather pushes elk to lower ground.
General big game season runs through late November, with shoulder-season hunts extending into mid-February. Hunters can follow wolf harvest by region on FWP’s dashboard, which updates as kills are reported. With 261 wolves left under the quota and more than four months on the calendar, the season is far from over.
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