Data from Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington on wolf abundance, hunting mortality, government removals, and livestock depredation indicate that killing a single wolf saved roughly 7% of a cow, implying about 14 wolves must be killed to prevent one cow loss. Hunting seasons in Montana and Idaho produced only slight reductions in predation and did not substantially lower livestock losses or calls for government removal of problematic wolves. Montana's wolf population is estimated at about 1,100 and Idaho's at over 1,200, complicating efforts to balance livestock protection and conservation goals.
When Montana and Idaho held their first regulated wolf hunts in 2009, one of their stated goals was to reduce pressure on ranchers. Rebounding wolf populations were killing livestock. Fewer wolves, the thinking went, should mean fewer killed cows and sheep. The same logic is being used today in wolf management plans and is now also being discussed in Europe, which recently voted to downgrade the protected status of wolves in the European Union.
A new study though, finds that wolf hunting in the Western U.S. has had little impact on the loss of livestock. Nor has it reduced the number of times federal or state wildlife officials have been called to cull problematic wolves. "We've often just fallen under this assumption that if wolves are the problem and we kill some of them, the problem isn't as bad," said Leandra Merz, an assistant professor at San Diego State University and one of the study's co-authors.
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