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Walker Calls For Resuming Wolf Hunting In Wisconsin

DNR Survey Shows Record High Numbers Of Wolves After 2014 Endangered Species Listing

By
Anders Illum (CC-BY-NC-ND)

Gov. Scott Walker says he’s hopeful a federal judge will allow hunters to begin thinning a growing wolf population in Wisconsin.

A Department of Natural Resources winter survey found nearly 900 wolves concentrated in northern and west-central Wisconsin. That record-high number is an increase of 16 percent compared to last year. Walker expressed frustration that Wisconsin’s annual wolf hunt, begun in 2012, is on hold because a federal judge relisted the gray wolf as an endangered species in late 2014.

“We had a successful harvest set up with a wolf hunt, that’s why we further modified it. So, we’ve showed we can do a good job of monitoring our harvest,” Walker said. “We just need the federal judge to give us that opportunity again.”

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Wisconsin hunters killed 528 wolves during three consecutive hunting and trapping seasons before the relisting.