BILLINGS – Hunters in Montana reported taking nine wolves through the end of last week in the state’s first-ever organized wolf hunt.
Gray wolves were removed from the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho this spring after climbing back from near-extermination last century. Before their endangered listing, the animals were poisoned, shot and trapped, but never subject to a regulated hunting season.
This year’s hunt has a quota of 75 of the predators.
Montana wildlife officials say the hunts are needed to control increasingly frequent wolf attacks on livestock. But environmentalists who filed a lawsuit over the issue say the species remains at risk.
More than 10,500 wolf licenses have been sold in Montana this year, only 50 of them to nonresidents.