Despite changes in regulations that opened the door for a greater take of gray wolves, the population remains steady.
“I think the best way to describe Idaho’s population right now is that it’s fairly stable, and it’s fluctuating around 1,250,” Idaho Department of Fish and Game Director Ed Schriever told lawmakers on the Natural Resources Interim Committee, as reported by the Associated Press. “Part of the year it’s below that; part of the year it’s above that. But the population is fluctuating around 1,250.”
Environmentalists claimed liberalizing the wolf hunting and trapping season would reduce overall wolf numbers by 90 percent.
The 1,250 figure is more than 700 percent above minimum recovery levels originally established during the wolf introduction in the mid-1990s.
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation maintains that state agencies are best to manage wolves just as they manage elk, bears, deer, mountain lions and other wildlife so all populations, predator and prey alike, thrive.
(Photo source: Idaho Department of Fish and Game)