Biologists, business owners, advocates ramp up efforts to staunch wolf killing

With the wolf body count mounting, more people are calling either for Montana to moderate its hunting and trapping or for the federal government to step in.

As of Thursday, 11 wolves have died since the rifle season for wolves opened on Sept. 15, and the archery season opened on Sept. 5. More may have been killed over the past four days, but the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks wolf harvest status page, which is supposed to be updated daily, hadn’t been updated as of 4 p.m. Monday afternoon.

Hunters and trappers must report a wolf kill within 24 hours.

Four of the 11 wolves were killed in two hunting districts adjacent to Yellowstone National Park, three of which were in Hunting District 316 north of the park. Yellowstone Park confirms all three were female wolves, two pups and one yearling, from the Junction Butte pack. The pack had eight pups this year before September.

Because wolves sometimes wander outside the park, HD 316 and 313 used to be…

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