Ecological Role

As apex predators, wolves directly influence the abundance, distribution, and behavior of ungulates such as deer and elk. Predator and prey populations are expected to fluctuate and change through time due to a variety of compounding factors.

Montana wolves routinely encounter livestock on both private land and public grazing allotments. To address wolf-livestock conflicts, FWP uses an integrated conflict program that comprises non-lethal and lethal management tools and actively partners to implement non-lethal proactive conflict mitigation projects across the state.

The desired outcome of this program is to:

• Mitigate producer–predator conflicts.
• Reduce livestock losses.
• Reduce wolf mortalities associated with conflict.
• Find livestock carcasses and remove them.
• Document the presence of predators.
• Alert producers of predator activity.