By MATTHEW BROWN

Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Hunters have almost met the state’s 75-animal season quota, so Montana on Monday ended its first public hunt for gray wolves since their removal from the endangered species list.

The action came two weeks before the season’s scheduled close. Hunting will continue in Idaho.

This year’s quota in Montana equals about 15 percent of a statewide wolf population estimated at 500. Even with the success among hunters, the number of wolves in Montana is expected to increase this year by 20 percent or more because they’re such prolific breeders.

Whether the hunts will be repeated next year is uncertain: A lawsuit to return the predator to the endangered list is pending before Judge Donald Molloy in U.S. District Court in Missoula.

Molloy has been sympathetic in past rulings to the objections raised by hunt critics. Nonetheless, he allowed this year’s inaugural wolf seasons in Montana and neighboring Idaho to proceed, citing the predator’s resiliency.

Montana wildlife commissioner Bob Ream of Helena, a former researcher who spent 20 years studying wolves, said the 2009 season demonstrates the state can manage the animals appropriately.

“For a first try, the state did very well,” Ream said Monday. “It happened quicker than a lot of us thought it would.”

Because the wolves killed were scattered across the state, Ream said the hunt might begin to put a dent in the number of livestock killed every year by the animals.

That’s become an increasing problem in recent years as wolves expanded into areas inhabited by people and livestock. Some ranchers have pushed for a higher wolf quota, arguing that only a reduction in the overall population will prevent livestock attacks.

The first glimpse into whether hunting can reduce those attacks will come next spring when cattle and sheep have their young and wolf attacks typically begin, said Carolyn Sime, lead gray wolf biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

First introduced in the mid-1990s in backcountry areas of Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho, the predators have since spread across the Northern Rockies.

The order to halt Montana’s hunt came with 72 wolves taken through Sunday. State officials said the remaining wolves could be taken in the northern and southeastern portions of the state before the closure went into effect Monday evening.

Wolf hunting in southeastern Montana closed Oct. 26. Hunters filled most of the quota there in an early season hunt concentrated just outside Yellowstone National Park.

Those shootings included four members of the park’s Cottonwood Pack, which is famous among wolf watchers. The loss of those “Yellowstone wolves” sparked a backlash among conservationists who said Montana should have foreseen the killings.

State officials pledged to change their regulations next year to prevent a recurrence. Officials also will consider building in some lead time between when a wolf license is issued and when a hunter can take one of the animals.

Ream said at least two hunters bought licenses this year just hours before reporting they had shot one of the animals. That suggests the licenses could have been bought after-the-fact, although no citations were issued.

In Idaho, 104 wolves have been taken out of a quota of 220.

The Idaho season is scheduled to end Dec. 31, but state officials said they were considering an extension of the hunt in some areas.

“We have real low harvest in a few units. A couple of them are ones we would like to have more harvest in,” Idaho Fish and Game Deputy Director Jim Unsworth told the Lewiston Tribune.

Wolf hunting success has varied in Idaho. In the Lolo Zone, where the commission set a harvest limit of 27 wolves, just six have been taken. Hunters have killed 25 wolves in the Sawtooth Zone, which has a limit of 55. Just four wolves have been killed in the Selway Zone, which has a limit of 17, and only three have been killed in the Salmon Zone, where the limit is 16.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.