Legalized wolf hunting in the western US has had only a minimal impact on preventing livestock loss, a new study led by the University of Michigan suggests.
The research, published in Science Advances, compared data from Montana and Idaho, two states where public wolf hunts have been permitted, with Oregon and Washington, where hunting remains illegal.
“Hunting, on the whole, is not removing negative impacts associated with wolves. It does have some effect on rates of livestock loss, but the effect is not particularly consistent, widespread or strong,” Neil Carter, senior author of the study, told University of Michigan News.
Montana and Idaho launched their first regulated wolf hunts in 2009. At the time, officials hoped that cutting wolf populations would ease conflicts with ranchers who were losing cattle and sheep to predation. The assumption was that fewer wolves would mean fewer livestock deaths.
But the data doesn’t seem to support this theory. Researchers reviewed trends in wolf numbers, government removals, and livestock depredation between 2005 and 2021. Their analysis showed that eliminating one wolf amounted to protecting only about 7% of a single cow.
Put another way, about 14 wolves would have to be killed to save one cow. Current wolf populations are estimated at about 1,100 in Montana and more than 1,200 in Idaho.
The study also revealed that state and federal wildlife agencies are not called on any less often to remove wolves, even where public hunts take place. In 2024, Montana hunters and trappers killed 297 wolves, while ranchers still reported losing 62 livestock animals to wolves, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Wolf hunting itself has been subject to ongoing legal disputes. In 2020, the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared that gray wolves had recovered enough to be delisted from the Endangered Species Act, but a court reversed that decision in 2022.
However, the researchers are not aiming to have their findings be used in the wolf hunting debate. “This paper isn’t about whether or not we should be hunting,” Leandra Merz, a co-author of the study told NPR. “We’re talking about finding a management tool that will help ranchers manage livestock predation.”
