CHEYENNE, WYO. (AP)
Gray wolves killed a
record number of livestock in Wyoming last year, and wildlife managers
responded by killing a record number of wolves that were responsible, according
to a new federal report.
The report released
by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that wolves killed 243 livestock,
including 154 cattle, 88 sheep and one horse, in 2016. In 2015, 134 livestock
deaths attributed to wolves were recorded.
Last year's livestock
losses in Wyoming exceeded the previous record of 222 in 2009.
As a result, wildlife managers last year killed
113 wolves that were confirmed to be attacking livestock. In 2015, they killed
54 wolves.
Previously,
the most wolves killed in Wyoming in any year for killing livestock was 63 in
2007.
Scott Becker, wolf program coordinator in
Wyoming for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said managers can only speculate on
why conflicts between wolves and livestock increased so much last year.
"I
don't think we'll ever know with any certainty why one year is bad and another
year not quite so bad," Becker said. "It's just the dynamic nature of
managing wolves, and as managers we try to do our best to minimize that chronic
loss of livestock if at all possible."
Jim
Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association,
said the problem is too many wolves are allowed to populate areas where cattle
and sheep graze.
"Even
though Wildlife Service was responsive to livestock losses, their approach has
been that they wouldn't remove any wolves anywhere in the state until there had
actually been losses," Magagna said.
Andrea
Santarsiere, senior attorney of the Center for Biological Diversity based in
Victor, Idaho, blames ranchers for not using nonlethal methods, such as portable
electric fencing, to keep wolves away from livestock.
"And
so when you have native predators on the landscape and non-native livestock on
the landscape it's not surprising that the predators are going to view them as
prey," Santarsiere said.
At
least 377 wolves were counted in the state in 2016, according to the federal
report.
Unlike
Wyoming, neighboring Montana and Idaho are no longer subject to federal
monitoring and are not part of the Fish and Wildlife Service report this year.
Both states are still monitoring their wolf populations but are working on
different and less expensive ways of counting wolves.
Montana
estimates its wolf population at 477 in 2016, while Idaho does not have a count
for 2016. Idaho's last wolf count was 786 in 2015.
Wyoming
has had a complicated history with wolves, which were reintroduced to
Yellowstone National Park in the 1990s after they had been hunted and trapped
out of existence throughout most of the continental U.S. last century.
Wolves
were a protected species in the state until 2012, when they were delisted and
handed over to the state to manage. A federal judge in 2014 reinstated federal
protections for the wolves in Wyoming, but that ruling was overturned by a
federal appeals court last March, allowing Wyoming to regain management.
When
wolves in Wyoming were under federal control, they enjoyed protection
throughout the state.
Under
Wyoming's management, wolves remain protected in Yellowstone and Grand Teton
national parks and the National Elk Refuge. Areas adjacent to the parks will be
subject to a tightly regulated hunting season, which is expected to be approved
soon by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission. In the remainder of the state,
wolves can be killed throughout the year without a need for a license, except
on the Wind River Indian Reservation, which oversees management of wolves on
its land.
Ken
Mills, large carnivore biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department,
said Wyoming's wolf management plan seeks a reduced but stable population of
wolves.
"Usually
the fewer wolves you have the less conflicts you have," Mills said.
"It's not 100 percent but that is certainly the goal of the state."