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Twenty wolves have been taken in the first eight days of the Wisconsin wolf hunting and trapping season, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Department of Natural Resources.

Eleven wolves have been killed by hunters using firearms; the others were taken by trappers. Thirteen of the animals were males.

The wolf hunting and trapping season began Oct. 15 and is scheduled to run through Feb. 28 or until harvest quotas are reached, whichever comes first.

The wolves were harvested in the following counties: Bayfield (three wolves), Vilas (three), Oneida (two), Price (two), Barron, Clark, Eau Claire, Florence, Iron, Jackson, Lincoln, Oconto, Rusk and Taylor.

The agency also reported 713 wolf hunting and trapping licenses had been sold to residents and six to nonresidents. The state authorized the sale of 1,160 licenses.

The DNR set the statewide wolf harvest quota at 201 wolves, 85 of which are reserved for members of Ojibwe tribes. Tribal leaders have voiced strong opposition to the state's wolf hunting and trapping season; tribal members aren't expected to kill any wolves.

Wisconsin had a population of 815 to 880 wolves at the end of last winter, according to the DNR. Wolf populations typically double after pups are born each year, then decline to an annual low in late winter due to various sources of mortality.

The wolf was removed from protections of the Endangered Species Act and returned to state management in January.

The 20 wolves killed in the first eight days of the season represent 17% of the harvest quota available to non-tribal hunters and trappers.

Eighteen of the wolves were taken in the first week of the season. If the pace were to continue, the harvest quota would be filled in 6 ½ weeks, about one-third of the time allotted for the season.

The season is the first regulated public wolf harvest in state history. The DNR’s goal is to reduce the wolf population to a “more biologically and socially acceptable level.”

With no prior experience managing the wolf as a game species in Wisconsin, DNR wildlife managers said they didn’t know what success rates hunters and trappers would achieve.

Hunters and trappers are required to report taking a wolf within 24 hours of the kill. Each of the six wolf management zones has a harvest quota and would be closed when the number of registered wolves approaches the quota.

Kurt Thiede, Administrator of the DNR’s Land Division, said the department set the wolf harvest quota at a conservative level in this first year of regulated hunting and trapping.

Here's a link to the DNR's wolf hunting and trapping page.