Montana’s general wolf hunting season opens Sunday and runs through March 15. The archery season is underway now and closes Saturday. Trapping runs from Dec. 15 to Feb. 28.
Written by Erin Madison Tribune staff writer Sep. 12, 2013
Hunters will have a longer season this year to pursue wolves and will be able to take more wolves compared to last year.
Montana’s general rifle season for wolves opens Sunday and runs through March 15. This year’s season is about a month and a half longer than last year’s. The archery season for wolves opened Sept. 7 and goes through Saturday. Trapping will begin Dec. 15 and run through Feb. 28.
This year, wolf hunters and trappers will be able to take a total of five wolves, whether through hunting or trapping. Last year, trappers were limited to three wolves. Hunters were limited to one wolf until a bill passed midway through the Legislative session boosting that number to three.
With a higher bag limit and longer season, George Pauley, wildlife management section supervisor for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, expects more wolves to be harvested this year than last year.
“The population is larger than we want it to be,” he said.
[Well, same to you, buddy.]
Last year hunters and trappers took a total of 225 wolves in Montana.
• Montana wolf specialists counted 625 wolves, in 147 verified packs, and 37 breeding pairs in the state at the end of 2012. The count dropped about four percent from the previous year and marked the first time since 2004 that the minimum count declined.
• Last season the total hunting and trapping harvest was of 225 wolves. Hunters took 128 wolves and trappers 97.
• A total of 108 wolves were removed through agency control efforts in 2012 to prevent further livestock loss and by private citizens who caught wolves chasing or attacking livestock, up from 64 in 2011.
A history of wolf hunts in Montana
• 2009: During Montana’s first regulated wolf hunt, hunters harvested 72 wolves during the fall hunting season. As hunters approached the overall harvest quota of 75 wolves, FWP closed the hunt about two weeks before the season was scheduled to end.
• 2010: The hunting season was blocked by a federal court ruling in August 2010 that returned wolves to the federal endangered species list. In April 2011, the U.S. Congress enacted a new federal law delisting wolves in Montana and Idaho, and in portions of Washington, Oregon and Utah.
• 2011-12: The wolf hunting season ended with a total harvest of 166 wolves, 75 percent of the overall quota of 220 wolves. The season was initially set to end Dec. 31, but was extended to Feb. 15.
• 2012-13: This was the first time wolf trapping was allowed in the state. There was no statewide quota.
2012 wolf season details
• 128 wolves hunted, 97 trapped, 225 total
• 123 resident and three nonresident hunters harvested wolves
• 124 hunters took one wolf
• Two hunters took two wolves
• No hunter took three wolves
• 62 trappers took one wolf
• 13 trappers took two wolves
• Three trappers took three wolves
• One wolf was taken with archery equipment
• 18,889 wolf licenses were issued (18,642 resident and 247 nonresident)
• 2,414 trappers completed a wolf trapper education course
• 48 percent of wolves were harvested on federal land, 37 percent on private land and 3 percent on state land
• 117 females and 108 males were taken
• The largest harvested wolf weighed 120 pounds
The story continues here: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20130912/LIFESTYLE05/309120003/Wolf-hunt-Montana-s-longer-season-starts-Sunday-bag-limit-now-five
Exposing the Big Game 
Why are the actual wolf numbers never updated and when will the feds step in to stop this inane slaughter of this noble being? We need to organize an event to protest this atrocious murder of our nation’s wolves. Please let’s bring attention to this ..first their numbers are wrong as usual and secondly this is just a fricking free for all killing…This must be brought to a screeching halt ..Sen Jon Tester will be hearing from me ! and I am not happy! This is sadistic and crazy stuff …God have mercy on our beautiful wolves …citizens protest this massive killing program.
Thanks for contacting Tester and letting him know how you feel.
I can’t take much more of this.
I know the feeling.
I know the feeling, too.
Even though the Montana wolf hunting season is longer and more Draconian, maybe the interests will wane after the novelty of a couple of seasons as it apparently has in MN. But I would not count on any change in attitudes by the FWP-MT or the redneck anti-wolf, yokel, nimrods who populate the state. I live in Montana and Great Falls, very redneck-yokel-nimrod ignorant lies-myths-folklore regarding wolves. Sometimes, 99% of the time really, my gym is pure redneck anti-wolf or right minded and leaning their way. So, what I am afraid of is that FWP-MT will not get their blood lust regarding wolves satisfied and will ask the state legislature for more or different killing procedures. What is next? Poisoning? Year around season? Aerial gunning? FWP-MT and other bat shi– crazy western (WY-ID) and Midwestern bat sh– crazy anti-wolf states have a mindset of “we gotta get the wolf numbers down” without any logical, scientific, or date based reason to do so, such as stock predation or elk predation. By the way, anyone who thinks this is not largely, mostly a right minded/politically right problem we are facing, they are naive, and a polite word for what I really think. MT-WY-ID right minded at the national voting level and extremely so at the state legislative level. WI-MI-WI are blue at the national level but not at the state legislative level as evidenced by the control “sportsmen” and rancher/farmers have. And look at the pattern of reactions to wolves, the bluer the state, the friendlier although in the beginning the same anti-wolf crowd starts screaming (ranchers and sportsmen and yokel-rednecks). Last year at the state legislative level in Montana, the republicans put forth about 56 anti-wildlife bills and the democrats put forth 7 pro-wildlife bills.
Even though the Montana wolf hunting season is longer and more Draconian, maybe the interests will wane after the novelty of a couple of seasons as it apparently has in MN. But I would not count on any change in attitudes by the FWP-MT or the redneck anti-wolf, yokel, nimrods who populate the state. I live in Montana and Great Falls, very redneck-yokel-nimrod ignorant lies-myths-folklore regarding wolves. Sometimes, 99% of the time really, my gym is pure redneck anti-wolf or right minded and leaning their way. So, what I am afraid of is that FWP-MT will not get their blood lust regarding wolves satisfied and will ask the state legislature for more or different killing procedures. What is next? Poisoning? Year around season? Aerial gunning? FWP-MT and other bat shi– crazy western (WY-ID) and Midwestern bat sh– crazy anti-wolf states have a mindset of “we gotta get the wolf numbers down” without any logical, scientific, or data based reason to do so, such as stock predation or elk predation. By the way, anyone who thinks this is not largely, mostly a right minded/politically right problem we are facing, they are naive, and a polite word for what I really think. MT-WY-ID are right minded at the national voting level and extremely so at the state legislative level. WI-MI-WI are blue at the national level but not at the state legislative level as evidenced by the control “sportsmen” and rancher/farmers have. And look at the pattern of reactions to wolves, the bluer the state, the friendlier although in the beginning the same anti-wolf crowd starts screaming (ranchers and sportsmen and yokel-rednecks).
Roger Hewitt Great Falls MT
On Thu, 12 Sep 2013 18:04:45 +0000
Disrupt !
The public trust doctrine states all wildlife is owned by all of us .. Not just hunters and ag
Boycott .!
Did you guys watch c-span today? The same wolf hating, pro KXL Senators were on saying exactly what I said they would say. “It’s a matter of national security”. That is why the federal gov’t is rubber stamping the wolf de-listing and allowing the genocide to continue! Nobody in DC gives a flying f**k about trappers or rednecks in general, yeah they do the dirty deeds we detest, but the problem is greed at the top of the food chain in DC and on Wall St. It is bloodlust in the woods at the bottom of the human food chain, the sub-human hunters and even more sub- human trappers and bow hunters. But make no mistake, this is wolf blood for oil!
The puppeteers are Enbridge, the oil companies here and in Canada! Wolves are dying in Alberta from drinking water from the Tar Sands operation, too.
This is freakin’ huge and no media dare cover it. Why? Fake claims of national security and if they cover it, they have to admit it exists!
Not only do we need massive protests all over North America, they can’t be centralized. People are broke, they can’t afford gas to drive to DC.
So everyone, starting now, go out and get some poster board and Demand all wolves be relisted now! Put a pretty wolf cub photo on the poster and put some pro-wolf webpages on it as well as the phone number for the Whitehouse, plus your local politicians contact info.
Under the wolf pup put a caption “I lost my mamma today!’ ” I really miss her and I am cold and hungry and all alone”. Please stop the wolf hunts NOW! Plaster all of North America with these posters! Wolves and their pups are counting on you! Form local groups and contact CELDF.org about how to grant personhood to wild wolves and other endangered species. Or any other ideas they might have. Buy you can start a grassroots movement in your home town today! All you need is a few pretty wolf cub photos and poster boards and magic markers. Or do it with matte photo paper on your computer. Write back and tell us all what you did, exchange ideas. Put you sadness and outrage to work for wolves! Make sure you bring tape for the storefronts and tacks for poles. Go for it! 🙂
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