http://www.madison.com/captimes/news/stories/62542.php

As wolves return, kill tally rises

By Anita Weier December 3, 2003

As the number of wolves has grown in Wisconsin, the tally of farm animals and dogs killed by wolves also has risen.

From 1976 through 1989, when there were 15 to 31 wolves in the state, five cases of wolf attacks on domestic animals occurred, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

Last winter, there were an estimated 335 wolves in Wisconsin. And so far this year, there have been 22 cases of attacks on domestic animals - 14 of those on farm livestock and eight on dogs. A total of 19 cattle (mostly calves), 23 sheep, one farm deer and five dogs were killed.

All 17 wolves that were trapped at depredation sites were euthanized.

Bob Manwell, a spokesman for the DNR, said that the most humane way to euthanize the animals in a field condition is often by a gunshot to the head. The animals are then taken to a National Wildlife Health Laboratory in Madison for research purposes.

The total financial damage from 1984 through this point in 2003 has been $187,860 in livestock and $118,952 in dogs, according to a report that Signe Holtz, director of the DNR's Bureau of Endangered Resources, presented to the Natural Resources Board this morning.

Federal funding for the USDA-Wildlife Services Wisconsin Wolf Damage Control Program increased to $400,000 this year. Wildlife Services now has the ability to respond quickly and stay on a site for a longer period of time than in the past, when the program was only funded at $5,000 to $10,000 per year, the DNR report said.

Reimbursements also have been speeded because forms are now given directly to animal owners as soon as specialists with USDA Wildlife Services determine that wolves attacked, the report said. In 2002, the average time for claimants to receive reimbursement was 25 days after filing.

Factors affecting wolf management in the last year have included a federal downlisting of the gray wolf from an endangered to a threatened species on April 1. That gave the DNR the authority to kill depredating wolves. The DNR also has held hearings regarding a proposal to remove the gray wolf from the Wisconsin threatened species list to a protected wild animal status. That matter is expected to come to the Natural Resources Board in late winter or in the spring.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has begun the process of removing the gray wolf from the federal threatened species list. That action would return complete authority to the state of Wisconsin to manage wolves. The DNR will eventually be able to give more authority to landowners for controlling problem wolves on their land, the report said.

"It will not be open season," Manwell stressed.

The gray wolf, also known as the timber wolf, is a native species that was wiped out in Wisconsin by the late 1950s after decades of bounty hunting. Since the animal became protected in the 1970s, wolves have returned to the state from Minnesota and have thrived.

E-mail: aweier@madison.com

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