Outdoors - Outdoors Idaho

POSTED: Monday, Oct. 26, 2009

Wolf hunters near limit in two harvest zones in Idaho

Midway through the state's first-ever wolf season, hunters have taken more than a third of the state's 220 harvest limit.

Dave Slagel of Kuna didn't plan to go wolf hunting. But he ended up among the 79 hunters who have killed a wolf in Idaho.

While archery hunting for elk in September, a pack of wolves was hanging around Slagel's camp in central Idaho. After several encounters, Slagel and his hunting partners eventually killed a large, black male wolf with a rifle.

"It was a lifetime experience," he said. "I doubt I will ever get another one."

While the long-awaited and controversial wolf season, which opened in September, has provided hunters like Slagel with some exciting moments, it has been relatively low-key.

There have been no court orders halting the hunt, no mass protests or widespread confrontations between hunters and wolf advocates.

"For the every-day, run-of-the-mill hunter or the average person on the street, (the wolf season) doesn't seem to be a big deal," said Jon Rachael, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's wildlife manager.

So far, Fish and Game has sold more than 24,000 wolf tags, the majority of which cost $11.50.

The season is scheduled to continue until Jan. 1, except in the Lolo and Sawtooth zones, which will close March 31 unless the limit is reached.

The Upper Snake and McCall-Weiser zones are close to reaching their harvest limits.

KILLS PICKING UP

The wolf season got off to a slow start as hunters started trickling into the woods in September for archery hunts and early-season and backcountry rifle hunts.

Rachael said the number of wolf kills increased after Idaho's general deer season - the most popular among hunters - opened Oct. 10.

Before the start of general deer season, hunters had killed about 30 wolves. Forty-nine have been killed since then.

Most general-season elk hunts started in mid to late October, but Rachael said Fish and Game has not seen another spike in wolf kills.

WOLVES NOT THE PRIORITY FOR MOST HUNTERS

Rachael said most people are opportunistic wolf hunters, and there's a "minority of hunters who are adamantly after wolves."

A few factors could determine how many wolves are killed during the remainder of the season.

Wolf harvest in the Panhandle Zone has been relatively light so far, which could change next month because deer hunters in north Idaho typically put most of their effort into November when the white-tailed deer go into breeding season.

Another factor will be snow, which drives deer and elk onto lower-elevation winter ranges with wolves in tow.

Snow also makes it easier to track wolves.

WILL IDAHO REACH 220?

It remains to be seen how many hunters will pursue wolves after other big game seasons end.

Wolf advocate Lynne Stone, the executive director of the Boulder White Clouds Council, opposes the hunt but thinks most parts of the state will reach harvest limits.

"(Hunters) who don't get them in deer and elk seasons will get them in winter," she said.

But Roger Blackner, a board member for Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, doesn't expect many hunters to go after wolves this winter. He bought a wolf tag but, like Slagel, will only hunt wolves if he encounters them while hunting other game.

"Idaho doesn't really have wolf hunters," Blackner said. "It has deer and elk hunters."

Becky Schwanke, a wolf biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, is skeptical Idaho will reach its 220 harvest limit, but she was impressed by how many have been killed so far. "That's amazing," she said. "I would have been surprised if it went over 40."

Schwanke manages a hunting unit that encompasses 23,000 square miles in the heart of Alaska's wolf country, and hunters kill about 23 per year there.

From her experience in Alaska, Schwanke doesn't expect Idaho's hunt to have a dramatic effect on the wolf population.

"They're unbelievably resilient," she said. "Hopefully, everyone realizes just because you have a wolf season and a bunch of people walking around with guns, you're not going to annihilate wolves."

Roger Phillips: 373-6615