SEATTLE: Bow-and-arrow hunters already have shot 17 of Montana's once-threatened wolf population since a controversial hunt started at the beginning of September, while 60 wolves have been killed in neighbouring Idaho.

Now, big game rifle-hunting season is about to start, bringing thousands of hunters into the mountains at a time when early snowfall will make wolves much easier to spot and chase.

"The survival of [the] wolves may be at stake" ... Wendy Keefover, WildEarth Guardians. Credit:Reuters

Conservation groups went to court this week seeking an emergency injunction to block the hunts until a federal appeals court can decide whether they're legal to begin with.

''General rifle season is about to start in Montana; it just started in Idaho. About 37,000 people now have wolf-hunting permits, and they're going to be going with high-powered rifles and long-range scopes after a little more than a thousand wolves,'' Michael Garrity, executive director of Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said in an interview.