BILLINGS – Montana’s general hunting season opens Sunday with 100,000 hunters expected to spread across public and private lands stalking elk, deer and a new species this year — wolves.
This year’s gray wolf hunt is the first since the predators were removed from the endangered species list in the spring.
But for much of the state, the novelty won’t last long: The season for most of southern Montana is expected to stay open a day or two at most, and could start shutting down within hours.
The wolf quota for that area was nearly filled in an early season backcountry hunt allowed in a small area outside Yellowstone National Park. Just three wolves remain in the area’s quota, with more than 100 of the predators offering potential targets.
All three are expected to be shot on opening day, said Carolyn Sime, lead wolf biologist for Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks. Because hunters have up to 12 hours to call in their kill, there’s a strong possibility the quota could be topped.
“Surely there’s going to be more than three packs all those hunters run into. I just can’t imagine them not killing a lot more than three,” said Scott Sallee, an outfitter in the Yellowstone area who shot one of the nine killed near Yellowstone. Two of Sallee’s elk hunting clients also got wolves.
“I wouldn’t feel bad at all if 50 hunters went out and shot a wolf on opening day. I just don’t want the anti-hunters coming out and saying we’re going to annihilate the population,” Sallee said. “It’s the perception that’s going to be the problem.”
In the broader scheme of the two decade effort to restore wolves in the Northern Rockies, killing three, or even 50, is considered of little consequence to the broader population.
At the end of 2008, there were an estimated 1,650 wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Because the animals breed so prolifically, biologists say up to 30 percent, or almost 500 wolves, could be shot before the population would begin to decline.
Still, this year’s hunt is under heightened scrutiny because it is unprecedented.
Environmentalists already are stirred up over the nine wolves killed near Yellowstone. And with ranchers agitating for even more hunting as a way to strike back against wolf attacks on livestock, Montana’s wildlife agency is stuck in the middle.
“Because it’s wolves and because it’s the first season, we’re going to do our job extra carefully,” said Sime.
It will take 24 hours to shut down the season in south-central and southeastern Montana, where 18 packs now live. Given that lag, Sime said her agency could start the process after just one kill if a wolf is shot soon enough after opening.
Hunting is big business in Montana, bringing an estimated $250 million annually into the state’s economy. One of every ten state residents are expected to be out in the field opening day.
More than 12,000 Montana hunters bought wolf tags this year. Based on what’s been seen with wolf hunts in Alaska and Canada, the expectation is that most will be shot by elk or deer hunters who come across a pack unexpectedly.
The statewide hunting quota is 75 wolves, split across three hunting zones. Wildlife commissioners said this month that if the quota in one area is topped, they can shift the numbers between zones and stay within the 75 wolf limit.
If that means more wolves dying in the Yellowstone area, it’s certain to draw quick criticism from environmentalists.
Park administrators have supported the hunt, although in a June letter Yellowstone Superintendent Suzanne Lewis said she “urges caution to ensure the harvest does not jeopardize wolf recovery.”
At the other end of the debate, livestock owners are growing frustrated over continuing attacks on sheep and cattle.
Seventy-seven cattle and 157 sheep were killed in Montana for the year through late September. Federal wildlife agents — operating outside of Montana’s public hunt — killed 67 wolves in response to the attacks.
State officials had hoped public hunting would replace those “wolf control” actions, which are carried out by U.S. Department of Agriculture personnel and contractors. That will no longer be an option once the quota is filled.
The wolf season in neighboring Idaho, which opened September 1, resulted in 76 of the predators taken through Friday. The state’s quota is 220 out of 850 wolves, or about 26 percent.
Wolves remain on the endangered list in Wyoming, where federal officials say the animals remain at risk because of a state law considered hostile to the animals.