Wolf Management

Wildlife Services investigated fewer instances of wolves killing livestock and found fewer depredations, too.

The Idaho Fish and Game Department unanimously approved a plan that would cull Idaho’s wolf population by almost two thirds.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game presented a new statewide wolf management plan Thursday.

Colorado officials say that three wolves recently shot and killed in Wyoming may be a part of the North Park wolf pack. The pack made headlines last winter after giving birth to Colorado’s first known litter of pups in 80 years.

The decades-long debate continues regarding whether wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains should be federally protected. According to several conservation groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) was supposed to decide whether wolves in the Northern Rockies should have endangered species protections or not by May 2022, due to a petition the groups filed. The groups are now suing the agency to force a decision.

The Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board says its new approach to culling wolves is more targeted to areas with high risk to livestock and wildlife.

“[The wolves] didn’t consume anything,” Rancher Frank Shirts said in a press release from the IRRC. “The sheep just suffocated in the pileup and died. We work to make things good for those sheep every day, so it’s a shame to lose them.”

As the sun was setting on last year’s legislative session, Idaho passed a law that could shrink the number of wolves in the state by 90%. Now, wolf conservation groups are fighting back.

A coalition of six wildlife advocacy groups are asking the United States Forest Service to protect wolves from new laws in Idaho and Montana allowing up to 90% of wolves to be killed.

Four wildlife advocacy groups have petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore endangered species protection for gray wolves in the northern Rockies.