Published 8:26 am Tuesday, July 21, 2026
By Brad Carlson
Idaho wolf population drops | Capital Press
Idaho wildlife officials say the state’s wolf population was 1,129 in May 2025, down about 8.6% from a year earlier. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Contributed)
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game estimates the state had 1,129 wolves in May 2025, down about 8.6% from a year earlier.
The population was estimated at 1,235 in May 2024 and 1,333 in 2023.
May estimates include recently born litters. The total wolf population typically drops subsequently due to hunting and trapping and natural causes before the next breeding cycle.
Fish and Game estimates of the state’s wolf population reflect genetic and age information taken from wolves harvested in recent and previous years, and computer modeling. The estimate is about a year behind to account for annual biological cycles, harvest seasons and sample gathering and analysis timetables. The department in 2024 shifted to the genetics-based method, which staff have said is more reliable as the population decreases compared to the camera-based method used from 2019 to 2023.
The state’s 2023-28 wolf plan calls for managing the statewide population to fluctuate around an average of 500, in alignment with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2009 rule on delisting northern Rocky Mountain wolves from Endangered Species Act protections. IDFG has managed wolves in Idaho as a big game animal since final delisting in 2011.
The Idaho wolf plan also calls for setting clear guidelines to minimize wolf-livestock conflicts and to address predation that reduces elk and deer populations below management objectives.
Since the Idaho wolf population peaked at around 1,650 in 2020, the department “has aggressively promoted harvest and promoted tools to address depredation,” said Cory Mosby, Fish and Game natural resources program coordinator. “We have maintained this high harvest, and it is that sustained harvest that is causing the wolf population to decline.”
Idaho wolf harvest for the July 1-June 30 fiscal year totaled 487 in 2021, 441 in 2022, 420 in 2023, 283 in 2024 and 316 last year. The totals reflect hunting, trapping, and control actions by Fish and Game and USDA Wildlife Services.
“We think harvest was a bit higher this year because the very mild conditions allowed access for hunters and trappers well into winter,” Mosby said. Favorable conditions also allowed trappers to keep equipment functional and on the landscape longer.
A federal district court judge in Boise in March 2024 issued an injunction that bans recreational trapping and snaring of wolves in grizzly bear habitat when the bears are outside their dens.
The injunction — which impacts the state’s northern panhandle and the Clearwater, Salmon and Upper Snake river regions — reduced the wolf trapping season by just over 50%, Mosby said.
Fish and Game officials have expressed concern that the wolf population will increase in areas affected by the injunction.
Harvest in the past year in those areas increased slightly, helped by mild conditions, Mosby said.
“These are biological systems, and sometimes it takes multiple years to play out,” he said.