Yellowstone Superintendent Calls for Stricter Rules on Wolf Hunting in Montana

Yellowstone National Park Supervisor Cameron Sholly submitted a letter to the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission on June 26 as part of the period for public comment for proposed changes Montana’s wolf hunting and trapping regulations. In the letter, which was obtained by Wyo fileSholly asked commissioners to consider changes to state wolf hunting regulations in the management unit that borders the national park. Citing “high wolf mortality in a very small percentage of [Wolf Management Unit] 313,” Sholly said hunters, poachers and trappers in the area were taking too great a toll on Yellowstone’s wolves.

Sholly’s main request is that the commissioners split WMU 313 into two separate units, with the current quota of six wolves split between the two units. Wyo file reports that one of the state’s wildlife commissioners, Susan Kirby Brooke, has formally filed a similar proposal to split WMU 313 and distribute the six-wolf quota.

Sholly noted in his letter that 13 gray wolves known to be in the park were killed by humans during the 2023-24 wolf hunting season. Six were legally hunted by hunters in WMU 313; two were hunted outside WMU 313 but near the park boundary; one radio-collared wolf was poached in WMU 313 in February; and two radio-collared wolves reportedly died (one inside the park boundary and one adjacent to it) from gunshot wounds likely sustained in WMU 313. The other two wolves were legally hunted by hunters in Idaho and Wyoming.

“These losses represented approximately 10 percent of the Yellowstone wolf population in the winter of 2023/2024,” Sholly wrote, saying it led to the “dissolution” of three of the park’s known wolf packs.

“Recently published research has documented the significant impact of human-caused mortality on natural social dynamics,” Sholly wrote. “Yellowstone wolf harvest has been shown to negatively impact pack persistence and pup production.”

Sholly said that ironically, wolf hunting can sometimes lead to more wolves on the landscape. He pointed to an alpha female wolf that had been legally trapped in WMU 313 for a long time during the 2021-22 season. He said that in her absence, three other females gave birth to 18 pups in 2023.

“In other words,” Sholly wrote, “the state’s approach is increasing wolf reproduction.”

The area that Montana wildlife managers define as WMU 313 borders the northern edge of Yellowstone National Park, and it has been a source of ongoing controversy since the 2021-2022 hunting season, when Montana hunters kill 15 wolves that roamed the northern boundary of the park. In the aftermath of that controversial season, MFWP established a quota of six wolves for WMU 313, making it unique from the rest of the state, which is subject to Regional quotas for wolf hunting and wolf trapping.

“Since the 2022 change, hunting has been concentrated near the Yellowstone Park border near Gardiner and has resulted in the hunting of multiple wolves from one or two packs that reside primarily in Yellowstone Park,” Brooke wrote in the proposalShe also notes that there have been no livestock attacks in or around WMU 313 for several years, and that hunting in Region 3 complies with the legal obligation to reduce wolf populations.

According to the Wildlife Commissioners, they have not formally responded to Sholly’s letter. Wyo file. However, it could guide the commission’s discussions as it finalizes regulations for the 2024-25 hunting season. MFWP is accepting public comments on those proposed regulations and Brooke’s amendment until July 25.

In a broader sense, these types of recommendations and adjustments come up every time wolf management is up in the air, says Greg Lemon, MFWP Communications and Education Manager Outdoor living.

“That’s a concern that the Commission has heard every time they’ve done wolf regulation,” Lemon said. “Wolves tend to be controversial, and the Commission has historically done a lot of balancing to adjust the regulation and figure out the way forward. The mandate that we and the Commission have is to manage wildlife within state lines. That’s the science that we’re focused on.”