“It's ridiculous on its face and the state of Idaho should be ashamed,” he told the paper.
Three hunters in Idaho's northern panhandle killed twelve wolf pups on a single day in April and were paid for each animal under a state-backed reimbursement programme, according to state records obtained by the Guardian and Public Domain and reported by the Times of India. The pups were likely one to three weeks old, too young for officers to sample their teeth, Idaho Fish and Game biologist Cory Mosby told the publication. The hunters were paid up to $2,000 per wolf during the season that ended in June.
The programme is funded by taxpayers, hunting licence sales and contributions from the Foundation for Wildlife Management, a non-profit organisation. The foundation reimburses the hunter, while the state's Wolf Depredation Control Board oversees the claims. A hunter must present a skull and hide, with proof of sex, for every wolf killed, and a tooth is used to estimate the animal's age. The records describe all twelve kills as stalks, in which a hunter spots an animal and creeps close enough to shoot. Two entries also state that “no weapon” was used, even though the same records describe rifle shots.
Wildlife advocates have condemned the killings and the use of public money. Brooks Fahy, director of Predator Defense, described the programme as “an abomination” and said most people, even in Idaho, would be appalled if they understood that taxpayer dollars were paying for it. He called the reimbursement arrangement a bounty and questioned what receipts could be shown for twelve pups weighing twelve pounds. “It's ridiculous on its face and the state of Idaho should be ashamed,” he told the paper.
Wolf experts told the publication that the stalking account does not fit the pattern. They argue a hunter could more easily find a den, watch the mother come and go, wait for the pups to arrive and then pull them out. Carter Niemeyer, a former federal wildlife official who spent nearly three decades in predator control, said modern trail cameras with cellular connections make that kind of observation easy. “Killing six wolves or 12 wolves total all on the same day by stalking – that doesn't happen. Never heard of it,” Niemeyer said. Doug Smith, who once led Yellowstone's wolf programme, said parents usually back off and bark from about 50 yards away, and the pups are easy to dig out. He also expressed concern about killing the whole litter, noting that wolves regroup at the den later in the year because of the pups; kill a litter and the pack can fracture or disappear.
Idaho's 2023 management plan calls for a population of about 650 wolves in spring. The state estimates the population peaked at nearly 1,600 in 2019 and still stood at more than 1,100 this year. Mosby said reaching the target would require killing more than a third of the population every year, and that permissive rules, including the year-round season, will be tightened as the population falls. Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have all taken over wolf management since the animals were reintroduced in the 1990s and have pursued aggressive tactics to reduce their numbers.
What remains unconfirmed is whether the hunters deliberately targeted a den, and how the state will respond to the discrepancies in its own records. The report relies on documents obtained by the Guardian and Public Domain; Idaho officials have not publicly addressed the specific findings. The episode places the reimbursement programme under scrutiny at a time when the state is managing wolf numbers down towards its target, and it raises questions about transparency and the use of public funds in predator control.
