During the year that Wyoming’s wolf hunts were canceled by court order, in September, the total number of known wolves statewide grew to 333, according a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report released Friday.
Even
with hunting out of the equation last fall, a major increase in the
still-protected population was never anticipated, said Mike Jimenez,
Fish and Wildlife’s Northern Rocky Mountain wolf coordinator. “Just
because you’re not having a hunting season doesn’t mean the population
is going to take off or anything,” Jimenez said. “It’s a pretty small
impact. The hunting season is not a huge source of mortality.”
Even
in 2013, when wolf hunts were in place throughout the year, statewide
lobo numbers increased 10 percent to 306. The count was 277 animals at
the end of 2012, and stood at 328 at the end of 2011 — a year in which
wolves were similarly protected from hunters’ bullets and traps.
Across
the West, the wolf population grew more than 6 percent last year, from
1,691 to 1,802, according to the Fish and Wildlife’s regional report.
Each Western state released its annual report concurrently Friday.
Wolves on Idaho turf fared well, increasing in number 17 percent from 659 to 770. Montana’s wolves, by contrast, declined from 627 animals to 554 — a 12 percent reduction. Both of those Wyoming neighbors held hunts last year and figure to continue wolf hunting this fall. In wolf-hunt-free Oregon and Washington, states into which the animals have naturally moved over the past five or so years, their numbers jumped by nearly 50 percent: from 99 up to 145. “The population as a whole is continuing to grow, and it’s expanding west into Oregon and Washington,” Jimenez said. “They’re way, way above recovery goals.”
Wyoming’s
2014 regulated hunt was shot down Sept. 23, just a week before it was
scheduled to begin, when U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson of
Washington, D.C. partially sided with conservationists on a challenge
to the Cowboy State’s plan and returned management of wolves to the
federal government.
For
the first nine months of 2014, unregulated killing of wolves was
allowed in the 85 percent of Wyoming known as the “predator zone.” U.S.
Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, has since co-sponsored legislation to
overrule the judge’s decision and return jurisdiction of wolves to the
Wyoming Game and Fish Department. GovTrack.us gives the bill a 4 percent chance of passing.
Last
year 12 Wyoming wolves were legally killed by hunters in the predator
zone. Another 31 were killed in retaliation for depredating livestock.
Sixty-eight known wolves — some 20 percent of the state’s population —
died last year.
Among
the living, 104 wolves in 11 packs were classified primarily in
Yellowstone National Park. That’s nine more animals than the year
before. Another
195 wolves running in 34 packs were found roaming primarily outside of
Yellowstone and the Wind River Reservation. A pack of 10 wolves — the
St. Lawrence Pack — was classified within the reservation.
source
No comments:
Post a Comment