Wisconsin Ag Connection - State Wolf Population Surpasses 800

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State Wolf Population Surpasses 800
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 04/19/2011

As the rising number of wolves in the Badger State has been making headlines during much of the past week, we now learn there are more of the protected animals than previously thought. According to state natural resources officials, Wisconsin's gray wolf population has grown to be about 825 animals in over 200 packs.

The figures were released during a wolf stakeholders' conference in Milwaukee last Friday--just one day after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced they have decided to remove them from the federal list of endangered species list in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan.

As Wisconsin Ag Connection reported last week, the federal program that compensates farmers when their livestock is killed or attacked by wolves maybe cut in the current budget proposal being considered by Congress. The DNR says farmers have been depending on that program more heavily since it became illegal to shoot the animals under their federal protections.

The agency says wolf attacks caused problems on 47 farms last year, where they killed 47 calves, 16 adult cows, six sheep and six farmed deer on Wisconsin farms.

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