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DNR Board Updated on Wolf Management in Wisconsin
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 06/24/2009

The state's natural resources board is being told that Wisconsin's gray wolf population is now estimated at between 626 and 662 wolves, about a 14 percent increase over year-ago estimates. During the panel's monthly meeting on Tuesday, the board also heard information on the goals and outline for a new wolf management plan that is due in 2010.

In the event that a public wolf harvest were to be authorized at some point in the future, the update included an initial hunting and trapping season framework suggested by the department and the Wolf Science Committee, a state group of biologists and researchers from a number of governmental agencies and universities. The Wolf Science Committee also suggested that any Wisconsin harvest plan be considered from a regional viewpoint, taking into consideration wolf populations and territories in neighboring Minnesota and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, as those states are in various stages of considering a harvest season. Wisconsin's current wolf population was established by wolves dispersing on their own from those states.

The annual winter wolf count relies on aerial tracking of radio-collared wolves and snow track surveys by DNR and volunteer trackers. Also included are wolf sightings by members of the public. The agency has conducted these counts since the winter of 1979-1980 when there were 25 wolves in the state.

Adrian Wydeven, a DNR conservation biologist and wolf specialist, indicated that although the wolf population growth had slowed down in recent years, it did increase somewhat this past winter. State wolf populations increased over 20 percent annually during the 1990s, but since 2000 growth rates have slowed to 10-12 percent annually. He also noted that to adequately protect the wolf population should a wolf harvest season be implemented, the science team felt an increase in the current management goal would have to be considered. The revised goal would be part of a new management plan.

A total of 162 wolf packs were detected in Wisconsin. A pack consists of at least two adult wolves each. Biologists found 23 packs distributed across central Wisconsin and 139 packs in northern Wisconsin.

Gray wolves were removed from the federal list of endangered species in March 2007. But due to a court challenge, wolves were placed back on the endangered species list on September 29, 2008. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service addressed these technicalities and republished the wolf delisting rule. As of last month, wolves were again removed from the federal list of threatened and endangered species in Wisconsin and the remainder of Western Great Lakes area. This means state and tribal wildlife mangers can again trap and euthanize wolves that prey on livestock.


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