Dec. 30–Minnesota’s second-ever wolf season was closed Saturday, more than a month early, after hunters killed a total of 237 wolves — 17 more than the target harvest set by the Department of Natural Resources.
The season was to run until Jan. 31, or until the 220-wolf target harvest was reached. Officials aren’t concerned that the quota was exceeded.
“They are not absolute numbers, just targets,” Dan Stark, DNR wolf specialist, said recently. “A few wolves over or under [the targets] isn’t critical.”
The east-central wolf zone was closed Saturday after hunters had registered nine wolves; the target harvest there was 10. The northwest and northeast wolf zones were closed earlier. Hunters and trappers in the northwest killed 103 wolves; the target there was 89. And they killed 37 in the northeast, where the target had been 33 wolves.
The wolf season is split into two, an early hunting-only season that coincides with the firearms deer season, and a late hunting and trapping season. Hunters killed 88 wolves in the early season and 149 wolves in the late season .
Last year was the inaugural season after wolves were taken off the endangered species list. Hunters and trappers killed 413 animals last year; the target harvest was 400. The DNR lowered the goal this year in response to a new population survey showing about 2,211 wolves in the state as of last winter — a 24 percent decline from 2008, but a figure that didn’t include this year’s surviving pups.
The DNR issued 3,300 wolf licenses this season, about half as many as in 2012.