Friday, October 12, 2012

Wyoming wolves die ‘at a trickle’ - 19 so far this season

Wolves have been killed at a slow rate and in places officials say they expected since the predators lost federal protection Oct. 1. In Wyoming’s “trophy game” area —about 15 percent of the northwest part of the state — 16 wolves were harvested through Wednesday. The maximum allow-able kill is 52 in a season that runs through Dec. 31. Six wolves have been killed in Jackson Hole hunt areas. Outside the trophy hunt area, where wolves are classified as predators and can be shot at any time by any means, just three animals have been reported killed. The location of wolf kills roughly matches their population density, state officials said Wednesday. “It almost exactly reflects the number of wolves in proportion to how they occur in the trophy game and predator zones,” said Mark Bruscino, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s large carnivore supervisor. “Most of the wolf population in Wyoming is in areas where they have protections as a game animal, where harvest is controlled.” There is, however, a 10-day reporting requirement in the predator zone, so kills in most of the state could be reported slowly. In the trophy game zone, there’s a 24-hour requirement...more

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