Wolf hunt shuts down

With seven wolves harvested over the weekend in Northwest Montana and three in Southwest Montana, the statewide wolf season officially will close Monday night.

With weekend reports bringing the total harvest to 38 wolves by Sunday, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission ordered the closure for Wolf Management Unit One, which encompasses the northern tier of the state.

The harvest quota in northern Montana was 41 wolves, and the closure was ordered to avoid a quota overrun.

“The wolf hunt was a success in WMU1,” said Jim Williams, the state’s regional wildlife manager. “Now that we are so close to both the regional and statewide quotas, FWP and the FWP Commission have acted to close the wolf hunt for this year.”

In Southwest Montana’s Wolf Management Unit Two, where there was a quota of 22, a total of 21 wolves have been harvested, prompting a Monday closure in that district, too.

Southeast Montana wolf hunting closed Oct. 26 after hunters took 13 wolves (the quota was 12).

Statewide, hunters have taken 72 wolves, just shy of the overall quota of 75, which was 15 percent of a statewide wolf population estimated at 500.

Whether the hunt will be repeated next year is uncertain. A lawsuit to return the predator to the endangered list is pending before Judge Donald Molloy U.S. District Court in Missoula.

For more on this story, read Tuesday's Daily Inter Lake.