BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A new tally of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies shows the population held steady across the region in 2009. That ends more than a decade of expansion for the predators but also shows their resilience in the face of new hunting seasons in Montana and Idaho.
Biologists say preliminary results show the region’s total wolf population will be similar to last year’s minimum of 1,650 wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
That’s despite the killing of more than 500 wolves in 2009, primarily by hunters and government wildlife agents responding to livestock attacks.
The latest population estimate was released Thursday, in court documents filed in defense of the federal government’s decision last year to remove Montana and Idaho wolves from the endangered species list.
Wolves in Wyoming were left on the list. That decision has been challenged in a separate case that will be the subject a federal court hearing on Friday in Cheyenne.
