A fifth wolf was discovered shot and killed in Wolf Management Unit 313 earlier this month, the unit just north of Yellowstone National Park, where the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission has placed a quota of three wolves . instead for this season,partly to stop disturbing the packs in the national park.

Last Tuesday, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said the fifth wolf was found dead Nov. 1, heavily covered inside the facility from a gunshot wound it likely suffered when four other wolves were killed in unit 313 on the same day. October 25. The wolf had a tracking collar that showed a mortality signal in the first week of November, tipping off officials to its death and location, reports Daily Montanan.

FWP said believed the fifth wolf was “unknowingly injured” when the other four wolves – two females and two males – were killed in the morning of October 25. To begin the day, no wolves had been killed in WMU 313, but after that morning, FWP issued its notice that the unit will approach the hunt 24 hours later.

FWP said, based on a visit to the site where the fifth wolf was found and other information, it did not believe the wolf was illegally killed and that the person who shot it did not know they had done so. It is a violation of Montana law not to attempt to recover a knowingly injured animal while hunting.

But all five wolves killed this year in Unit 313 came from a pack in Yellowstone National Park, the 8-mile pack, raising concerns about pack fragmentation after 13 Yellowstone wolves were killed last winter. And the announcement has at least one wolf advocacy group saying the wolf’s death is another sign that FWP is more interested in allowing wolves to be killed than protecting them, even in an area where the chance of seeing a wolf is a very sought after tourist. attraction.

Yellowstone National Park may propose more changes for next year

In August, the Fish and Wildlife Commission agreed to adopt an amendment to the 2023-2024 wolf regulations from Region 3 Commissioner Susan Kirby Brooke that split WMU 313 back into two units – WMU 313 and 316 – that would each have a quota of three wolves.

The two were previously split but combined into one unit with a quota of six wolves for the past two seasons, but commissioners and members of the public who spoke at the meeting said part of the reason behind the change was that 313 is a lighter unit. to hunt as the wolves descend on Paradise Valley. And Gardiner business owners said they didn’t like seeing so many wolves killed so close to town.

“A lot of these people run tourism businesses in these areas and it hurts their business to have so many wolves out of the small area,” Commissioner Brooke explained at the meeting.

Two separate reports launched late this summer found support among visitors to Yellowstone National Park thousands of local jobs and spend more than $600 million in nearby communities, mostly coming to see the park’s wildlife, including wolves, and thermal features.

Another proponent of the change was Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly, who wrote to the commission this summer saying 13 Yellowstone wolves were killed last winter, including eight in Montana and six of them in unit 313. The 13 wolves were killed around 10. % of Yellowstone’s winter wolf population, LETTER he said and comes from three different packs that have since fractured or dissolved.

Brooke said in an interview late last week that some people in Gardiner have already contacted her — “rightfully upset” — about the five wolves killed, and so early in the season. Last season, the quota of six wolves was not met until December 25.

“It looks like several hunters went out together and harvested wolves, which is their right,” Brooke said. “And it’s unfortunate, I think, because so much work has gone into trying to soften the impact on one package and maybe spread it out a little bit more. And you know, it just didn’t work.”

She explained that quotas are a “goal” rather than a hard number that cannot be exceeded, and it is possible for quotas to be exceeded in a single day because many hunters in the field may not know others who have shot an animal.

“My angle was to try to soften the blow to one deck, and it could have happened even if I had the odds at six and had the old 313. It still could have happened that way,” Brooke said.

Yellowstone National Park spokeswoman Morgan Warthin said all five wolves killed in Unit 313 were members of the 8 Mile Pack — two females and three males. A female and a male were outfitted with tracking collars — one of which was the fifth wolf to be found dead — and the two were both about 1 1/2 years old and shot in the same area, Warthin said. Wolves usually become breeding pairs when they are around 3 to 5 years old, she said.

Warthin said the 8-mile pack started in the fall with 25 members. She said in addition to the five killed in Unit 313, three others are missing as monitors have so far seen only 17 of them.

Sholly, the park superintendent, said he appreciates that the commission last year split unit 313 back into two units with three-wolf quotas, but “that didn’t work.” He told the Daily Montanan last week that the park will likely suggest next year’s regulations include issuing tags to wolf hunters in the 313 to ensure a limited number of Yellowstone wolves are killed.

“I’m sure that won’t make a lot of people happy, but what good is the quota when every year you go through it in different configurations?” Sholly said. “So what I would hope for is some constructive conversations about solutions and how we collaborate on the right outcome in terms of the setup.”

He also suggested that he may have a conversation with the commission about having a combined quota for units 313 and 316, so if five wolves from 313 were taken, only one would be allowed to be killed in 316. He said that he wants the park and the commission. to continue to find ways to protect Yellowstone’s core wolf population.

But he said that in the past three years, about 30 wolves in northern packs have been killed, and he wants to make sure the cumulative effects of those deaths on the overall wolf population are emphasized.

“What makes us take, whatever the number is, 30 wolves from just a few packs in the northern area?” he said. “I think that’s an important thing to focus on.”

Reward offered for information on the fifth wolf

Marc Cooke, vice president of the wolf advocacy group Wolves of the Rockies, said the organization offers a $5,000 reward for information that led to the identification and arrest of the hunter who shot the fifth wolf in Unit 313, despite FWP’s determination that nothing illegal had occurred.

“This is another BS explanation from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks trying to cover up their incompetence and anti-wolf stance,” the group said in a Nov. 6 social media post.

Cooke said he believes there are some suppliers and hunters who are staunchly anti-wolf and seek to kill animals in an easy-to-hunt area despite quotas and restrictions. He said FWP, under the Gianforte administration, has been “satisfied” because the administration sees wolves as a threat to game such as elk and livestock such as sheep and cattle. Sholly reiterated last week that there have been fewer than 10 animal depredations by wolves in Park County in the past decade.

“If you shoot an animal and don’t locate it, how is that ethical? If you shoot an animal just to kill it and satisfy your irrational hatred of these animals and your bloodlust for these animals, that’s poaching,” Cooke said. “The department, frankly, if you look at all their actions over the last 15 years, they’ve done little or nothing.”

FWP spokesman Greg Lemon said the fifth wolf will not count against the quota because the quota includes legally harvested wolves, and although the wolf’s death was human-caused, it does not count toward the harvest quota.

He, like Brooke, also said it’s possible for hunters to go over a quota in a particular unit.

“There is no law to be broken because quota, that is our signal to close hunting in the district. Quotas are not necessarily a bag limit, per se,” Lemon said, adding that other furbearers, for example, have 48-hour closure notice times in which hunting or trapping can also take place once what quota was met.

Asked if FWP had discussions among staff or with the commission about the five wolves killed in 313 over the past week, he said no.

The commission is ready to meet on Tuesday morning to disconnect wolf trapping regulations for the seasonand while no changes related to unit 313 were proposed, Brooke and Cooke said they expected to hear from the public about both trapping regulations and hunting deaths in 313.

So far this seasonthat began in early September, 69 wolves were killed in Montana. In the unit separate from unit 313, WMU 316, only one wolf has been reported killed so far.