Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is recommending increasing the number of wolves that can be killed by 50% next season, following the department’s latest report showing the wolf population in Montana remains steady despite increased harvest during the 2024 hunting and trapping season.
The statewide wolf population in 2024 was estimated at 1,091 animals, 12 fewer than the 2023 population estimate and slightly lower than the 10-year average of 1,138 wolves. However, biologists with FWP say they will expect to see a moderate decline in wolf numbers beginning next year following a proposal that would increase limits to 500 wolves next season, up from 334 during 2023-2024, reports the Daily Montanan.
“We are committed to following the law to reduce wolf numbers to a sustainable level, which means ensuring Montana has a healthy, state-managed population,” FWP Chief of Conservation Policy Quentin Kujala said in a press release. “We continue to see declines in the estimated number of wolves and wolf packs in Region 3 (southwest Montana), which suggests the current combination of hunting, trapping, and conflict management removals can effectively reduce wolf numbers in some areas at least.”
During the 2024-25 wolf season, which ended on March 15, the take totaled 297 wolves, including 178 by hunters and 119 by trappers. The number was the highest since 2020, when 326 wolves were killed. Harvest numbers in the state track with population density with 130 wolves taken from Region 1 (northwest); 81 from Region 2 (west central); 55 from Region 3; and 20 from Region 4 (central); 4 from Region 5 (south); and 2 from Region 7 (southeast). Five total wolves were also killed from two smaller management units directly north of Yellowstone National Park.
Currently, Montana’s total wolf limit is 334 animals, divided into region-specific quotas. Under the new regulations FWP is proposing to the Fish and Wildlife Commission at its meeting next month, the statewide limit will increase to 500, without specific regional quotas.
Hunters and trappers will be able to take 15 wolves on a single hunting and trapping license — 30 in total — as long as five are hunted and five are trapped in Regions 1 or 2.
The goal, Kujala told the Daily Montanan in an interview, is to better follow legislative directive to decrease wolf population numbers, and to target the areas where wolves are most prevalent in the state.
“We saw the impetus to be more aggressive in pursuit of wolf management in Regions 1 and 2,” Kujala said. “If you look at the population estimate for 2024, it’s relatively static, especially in those regions. We saw the chance to be more liberal with hunting regulations where we see more wolves.”
In 2021, the Montana Legislature passed a bill requiring FWP to reduce the number of wolves to a “sustainable level,” with a stated goal of preventing a decline in the state’s deer and elk populations and minimizing livestock predation.
During the 2025 Legislature, lawmakers considered a slew of bills aimed at more dramatically reducing the wolf population — by as much as half — after several years of seemingly no change in population data.
“The purpose of (the 2021) language was to start reducing wolves,” Rep. Jed Hinkle, R-Belgrade, chairman of the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks committee, said during a floor debate on a bill that would have required unlimited hunting until the wolf population was at 550 animals. “Let it be known legislative intent — we want the commission to set the quotas in the state so that these numbers can start dropping down.”
According to FWP data, Montana’s wolf population peaked in 2011 with an estimated 1,264 individual animals among 189 packs. In the 13 years since, there has been a slight decline in the number of packs in the state — 181 in the 2024 report — occupying roughly 66,000 acres, with a majority concentrated in the western portion of Montana.
Of the numerous bills introduced during the Legislature — which spurred hours upon hours of debate in committee meetings and during floor sessions — only one major bill became law.
House Bill 259, brought by Rep. Paul Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, requires the Fish and Wildlife Commission to apply different management techniques based on the population conditions in each region — with additional emphasis put on those with the highest populations. The bill also clarified that on private lands, hunters may use infrared and thermal imagery scopes outside of daylight hours.
“We made sure those changes in law are reflected in the department’s proposal,” Kujala told the Daily Montanan, adding that the discussions during the legislative session, even over bills that ultimately died during the process, helped steer the department’s new proposed regulations. “Ideas to reduce the population more definitively — unlimited quotas, year-round seasons, spring seasons — you don’t see those in the proposal, but they were pieces of the conversation.”
With the shift to a statewide quota, as opposed to stricter regional quotas, Kujala said the hope is that hunters and trappers will be able to increase the take in western Montana, without overly decreasing more eastern regions where there are fewer wolves.
“Wolves have an inherent ability to avoid harvest,” Kujala said. But, “that’s not saying there won’t be further reduction in areas we aren’t specifically targeting.”
Despite the changes to new hunting regulations skewing towards more definitive and aggressive removal of wolves, Kujala said he thinks FWP’s proposal struck a balance with wolf advocates on the other side of the contentious debate over the role of the predators in the state.
“The regulations stay out of having a spring season — where there was concern over wolf pups and dependent wolf pups,” Kujala said. The regulations also preserve areas just outside Yellowstone National Park from increased hunting — two special districts north of Yellowstone retain a three-wolf quota each — and the proposal keeps in place the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s authority to revisit the regulations each year.
The proposed change to wolf bag limits, by allowing hunters and trappers to take up to 15 wolves on a single license, is projected to cost the department roughly $43,000 in license revenue annually, according to FWP data.
The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission will review and make a final decision on the proposed furbearer and wolf trapping and hunting seasons at its Aug. 21 meeting. The commission will set wolf trapping dates and determine where they apply at its October meeting.
Depredations decrease, again
According to the 2024 FWP wolf report, the number of livestock depredation complaints due to wolves increased from 2023, but remained the second-lowest in two decades. The U.S. The Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services division confirmed that in 2024, wolves killed 35 cattle, 16 sheep, three foals and eight livestock guardian dogs statewide, with an additional 18 animals considered probable wolf kills.
The report attributes the decrease in depredations since wolves were reintroduced primarily to more aggressive wolf control actions taken in recent years.
The 25 wolves killed due to livestock control actions was significantly lower than the 23-year average of 63.
The Montana Livestock Loss Board reimburses livestock producers for losses from predation and, in 2024, paid out $86,974 to 28 livestock owners for wolf activity. Reimbursements from wolf predation was significantly lower than from grizzly bears, at $144,6171, and roughly four times greater than from mountain lion activity.
During the 2023 calendar year, Montana sold 15,813 resident wolf hunting licenses and 2,727 non-resident licenses. Sales of these licenses generated $287,363 for wolf management and monitoring in the state, among the lowest annual revenue since wolf hunting became legal in the state. In 2020, FWP decreased the price of a resident wolf hunting license from $19 to $12, with a $10 wolf hunting license offered with the purchase of a sportsman’s tag. Nonresident tags cost $50, or $20 with a sportsman’s tag.
A 2022 study by the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research found that “wolf centric ecotourism” the Yellowstone region brings in more than $82.7 million to local economies.
This spring the agency adopted its new Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, the first update in 20 years, to guide future wolf management policy and incorporate the changes in statute.
According to the department, the foundations for the management plan include: recognizing wolves as part of Montana’s wildlife heritage; approaching wolf management similar to other wildlife species; managing wolf populations across the state with flexibility; and addressing and resolving conflicts.
One of the biggest shifts in the 2025 plan is a change in a “key counting metric” for a minimum population benchmark, from 15 breeding pairs to 450 total wolves, but the department emphasizes that is not a population target.
