CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – Wyoming will hold a wolf hunt for the first time in four years this fall now that a federal court has lifted endangered species protection for wolves in the state, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department said Wednesday.
Planning is now underway for the hunt in northwestern Wyoming, which will probably be similar to the state’s last wolf hunting seasons in 2012 and 2013, officials said.
In 2013, the department allowed hunters to kill as many as 26 wolves in an area outside Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and northwest of the Wind River Indian Reservation.
Hunters who were among the 2,153 who purchased licenses that year got 23 wolves. Another wolf killed that was killed illegally also counted toward the 2013 quota.
The upcoming wolf hunting season will not “change in terms of quotas very much. People shouldn’t expect that that’s going to change because they were removing a lot of wolves while they were under federal control,” said game and fish spokesman Renny MacKay.