The number of wolves killed in Wyoming by the federal government continues to drop, sinking about 75% in the past four years, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture official. The decrease has corresponded with fewer reports of wolves causing conflicts with people and livestock.

In federal fiscal year 2020 — which ran from October 2019 through September — 31 wolves were killed in conflict management by the department’s Wildlife Services division. It’s a slight drop from the 2019 take of 37 wolves, but a significant drop from the 2017 total of 111 wolves, Wyoming Wildlife Services State Director Mike Foster recently reported.

“I don’t know the reason why we were not getting as many complaints [about wolves],” Foster said during a Nov. 5 meeting of the Wyoming Animal Damage Management Board (AMBD). “Whether that’s associated to a public hunting season, I don’t know.”

It was in October 2017 — right around the end of the federal government’s 2017 fiscal year — that wolf hunting in Wyoming resumed after a several-year hiatus.

At least 311 wolves inhabited Wyoming at the end of 2019, according to last year’s annual Gray Wolf Monitoring and Management annual report. The wolf population in the state remained above minimum delisting criteria, marking the 18th consecutive year Wyoming has exceeded the numerical, distributional and temporal delisting criteria established by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In 2019, wolves were confirmed to have killed 70 head of livestock (42 cattle, 27 sheep and one donkey) in the state, while killing one dog in Yellowstone National Park and injuring 11 cattle and a donkey.

Wildlife Services billed the ADMB about $52,000 for wolf conflict management work during the federal fiscal year. It also billed the Wyoming Game and Fish Department another $22,455 for work involving other predators, like mountain lions, bears and wolves.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department increased its quota on wolves for the 2020 hunting season by 50% in the portion of northwest Wyoming classified as a trophy game zone. The department is allowing hunters to take as many as 51 wolves, up from 34 the year before. Wolves can be killed without limits or permits in the rest of the state, known as the predator zone.

A total of 96 wolf mortalities were documented in Wyoming in 2019, with three in Yellowstone, one on the Wind River Reservation and 92 in the rest of the state. About 92% of mortalities were caused by humans. Meanwhile, 84 wolves were captured and telemetry collared for monitoring and research last year.