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Wisconsin’s wolf harvest season begins

I don't think it's quite that simple.
Maybe not simple but not hard to believe theres more than 1200. Doing quick search, multiple wolf research sites say females avg 4-6 pups per litter.
So if in 2015, a quarter of 866 was adult females, say 200 for easy numbers. 4x200= 800 pups per yr. Now 800x5yrs= 4000 pups. That doesn’t take into account any of the year old pups that reach breeding age. So even if mortality rate is 50%, that’s still around 2000 wolves unaccounted for. Where the majority of northern Wisconsin habitat is thick forest, it’s pretty tough to get an accurate number. Same goes with the deer/bear numbers. Hunters aren’t seeing same numbers of what dnr publishes.
 
Those are published WI DNR numbers
Thanks Horse ! I think we all would like to believe population figures are accurate, but sources of those can be distorted if pressure is but on by outside entities. Often non-hunting groups or advocates of certain programs enter biased information which pretty much defeats that of game management people in court hearings on control management issues.
 
Maybe not simple but not hard to believe theres more than 1200. Doing quick search, multiple wolf research sites say females avg 4-6 pups per litter.
So if in 2015, a quarter of 866 was adult females, say 200 for easy numbers. 4x200= 800 pups per yr. Now 800x5yrs= 4000 pups. That doesn’t take into account any of the year old pups that reach breeding age. So even if mortality rate is 50%, that’s still around 2000 wolves unaccounted for. Where the majority of northern Wisconsin habitat is thick forest, it’s pretty tough to get an accurate number. Same goes with the deer/bear numbers. Hunters aren’t seeing same numbers of what dnr publishes.
I don't disagree that there's likely more than 1200 wolves in WI. But I still don't think the math is that simple.
 
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