For Shame: 50 wolves taken so far in Minnesota's new hunting season

• Article by: STAFF REPORTS
• Updated: November 5, 2012

One of three geographical hunting zones will close to hunters late Monday.

Thirteen deer hunters gathered at this camp Friday, Nov., 2012, near Tower, Minn., where two of the hunters had drawn permits to shoot a wolf in addition to having a license to shoot a deer.

Photo: David Joles, Star Tribune
Star Tribune

Fifty wolves were killed over the weekend in Minnesota's controversial inaugural wolf-hunting season, which opened on Saturday, and one of three geographical hunting zones will close late Monday.

Thirty-two of the 50 wolves -- the tally as of the end of the day Sunday -- were killed Saturday and the rest on Sunday, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

A total of 3,600 licenses were issued for the 16-day early wolf season. There is a 400-wolf quota -- 200 in the early season that runs concurrently with the firearms deer season and 200 in a second hunting-and-trapping season that will open Nov. 24.

Twenty wolves have been killed in the DNR's Northwest Zone, where the target is 133, eight in the East Central Zone, where the target is nine -- that zone will be closed to wolf hunters at the end of the day Monday -- and 22 in the Northeast Zone, where the target is 58.

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