Montana proposes to triple wolf harvest near Yellowstone
Montana officials want to triple the number of gray wolves hunters and trappers can kill in an area bordering Yellowstone National Park, citing complaints the predators are eating too many elk wanted by hunters and outfitters.
The potential change marks the latest turn in a dispute that kicked off when endangered species protections for wolves were lifted in Montana in 2011.
Park officials and wildlife advocates argue wolves that spend much of their lives inside Yellowstone should be given special protections. But state officials, outfitters and hunters point to elk numbers that have fallen dramatically since the 1990s, when wolves were reintroduced in the park.
The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks proposal would increase the annual harvest from two wolves to six in a hunting district near Gardiner. That would stabilize the population — most recently tallied at 24 animals — and keep it from growing, according to the agency.
Yellowstone scientists and administrators have sought for years to establish a buffer zone around Yellowstone where hunting would be restricted. Even under smaller quotas, they’ve said too many wolves were being killed once they stepped into Montana.
The quota in a second area bordering the park would not change, nor would a similar quota in an area bordering Glacier National Park in the northwestern Montana. Fish Wildlife and Parks Commissioners are scheduled to consider the proposal Thursday, with a final decision in July.
Comments
The only species that needs a higher harvest rate are the subhuman wolf haters allowed to still exist.
Stop killing Wolves in or near Public Lands in the USA, currently has 1,437 signers:
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-president-of-the-united-states-u-s-fish-and-wildlife-no-killing-wolves-on-near-public-lands-federal-state-parks-blm-in-usa
(and coyotes diet: 80% rodents! https://www.auduboninternational.org/Resources/Documents/WHM%20-%20Coexisting%20with%20Coyotes.pdf and foxes, all of which consume a lot of rodents that carry diseases, even bubonic plague, to which they have immunity!)
We have lost over 52% of wildlife on the planet in the last 40 years! (Living Planet report 2014: http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/
So at this point almost all wild mammals are endangered! – except rodents, large herds of deer and wild boar.