FWP releases minimum wolf count for 2013

Study looks at new way to count wolves

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials report that the state’s verified wolf population remained stable last year, while livestock depredations by wolves continued to decline, dropping by about 27 percent from 2012.

A total of 627 wolves were counted in Montana at the end of 2013, compared to 625 last year, according to the federally required annual wolf conservation and management report released April 4. The minimum wolf count is the number of wolves actually verified by FWP wolf specialists. The complete report is available online at http://fwp.mt.gov.

The minimum number counted by FWP at the end of 2013 included 627 wolves. Montana’s minimum wolf packs were counted at 152, compared to 147 last year, but breeding pairs dropped to 28, compared to 37 counted last year.

Montana is divided into three areas that reflect the former gray wolf federal recovery zones. The Northwest Montana count showed a minimum of 412 wolves in 104 verified packs and 16 breeding pairs, compared to 400 wolves, 100 verified packs and 25 breeding pairs in 2012.

The recovery of the wolf in the Northern Rockies remains one of the fastest endangered species comebacks on record.

To hasten the overall pace of wolf recovery in the Northern Rockies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released 66 wolves into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in the mid-1990s. FWP began monitoring the wolf population, and managing livestock conflicts in 2004. After several court challenges wolves were successfully delisted in 2011.

“Among the best news is that confirmed wolf depredations on livestock took a significant drop in 2013,” FWP director Jeff Hagener said. “And that comes on top of fewer overall agency control actions than the previous year.”

Hagener attributed the stabilizing trend to a combination of suitable habitats being filled, smaller pack sizes, routine livestock-related removals, and hunter and trapper harvests.

“When considered as a whole, it appears those factors are continuing to curb wolf population growth,” Hagener said.

Confirmed livestock depredations in 2013 due to wolves included 50 cattle, 24 sheep, three horses and one goat. Cattle losses were the lowest recorded in the past seven years. The decline in wolf depredations continues a general downward trend that began in 2009.

“For FWP, and we hope for others, it reinforces the fact that we not only have more tools for managing wolf populations, but that we’re applying them effectively,” Hagener said. “One of our top priorities is to minimize livestock losses and we think we’re continuing to make a positive impact there.”

A total of 75 wolves were removed via lethal control, down from 108 that occurred in 2012. Of the 75 wolves removed last year for livestock depredations, eight were killed by private citizens with permits to take offending wolves or under Montana’s defense of property laws. Included among other mortalities are 10 wolves killed illegally and 10 by vehicle collisions.

“FWP’s wolf management program seeks to manage wolves just like we do other wildlife — in balance with their habitat, with other wildlife species and with the people who live here,” Hagener said.

Preliminary results for a new technique for estimating wolf numbers in Montana were announced April 4 by researchers from FWP and the University of Montana. The study was developed to produce a less expensive and more accurate population assessment that accounts for wolves not actually verified in the state’s annual wolf count.

The typical method used to document the state’s wolf population focuses on ground and aerial track counts, visual observations, den and rendezvous confirmation and radio collaring to count individual wolves as required by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

The verified count is used to fulfill Montana’s obligation to submit an annual wolf population report to federal authorities to ensure wolves are being properly managed above standards that could trigger relisting as an endangered species. Those counts must continue through Dec. 31, 2016.

In the study, statewide wolf population estimates for 2007 through 2012 were derived using a mix of statistical evaluations, observations by recreational hunters and Montana’s annual wolf counts. Results generally estimate a Montana wolf population 25-35 percent higher than the verified minimum counts submitted over the six-year period.

“Data on each of these aspects of wolf population size will give us a very solid assessment of the effects of harvest on wolf populations in Montana,” said Justin Gude, FWP’s, chief of research for the wildlife division in Helena.

The researchers determined the number of gray wolves in Montana by estimating the areas occupied by wolves in packs; the number of wolf packs by dividing the occupied area by average territory size; and the numbers of wolves by multiplying the number of estimated packs by average annual pack size.

“This new approach is not only good science,” Gude said, “it’s a practical way for Montana to obtain a more accurate range of wolf numbers that likely inhabit the state.”

Gude cautions, however, that future statistically accurate estimates will need to incorporate wolf harvest locations and how the harvest of wolves by hunters and trappers influences where wolves choose to live, their territories, and pack sizes.

The study’s results are available online at http://fwp.mt.gov.