Survey shows Montana’s general population has increasing tolerance of wolves

Montana’s general population and its deer and elk hunters continue to grow more supportive of wolves, but when it comes to Montana’s wolf regulations, and hunting and trapping seasons, those opinions start to vary among the general population, different groups of hunters, and private landowners, according to a new survey released this month.

The University of Montana and Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks last week released the partial results of their 2023 wolf survey, which piggybacks off similar surveys done in 2012 and 2017 to track how Montanans view wolves and wolf management in the state, and how those views are evolving as the state manages the wolf population.

“We know people have complicated views and values on wolves, which is reflected in the results of the survey and the trends we see,” said FWP chief of conservation policy Quentin Kujala. “It’s important for us and our partners at the university to continue research like this because how stakeholders feel about wildlife and its management is a critical awareness for FWP to have.”

The university and FWP sent the survey to 10,000 people in Montana: Five thousand general residents (34% response rate); 2,500 private landowners of at least 160 acres in rural Montana (33% response rate); 1,500 deer or elk license holders (36% response rate); and 1,000 wolf license holders (40% response rate).

It asked the respondents to rate their tolerance on a scale from 1 to 5 (very intolerant to very tolerant) for wolves on the landscape in Montana, the state’s wolf regulations, the wolf hunting and trapping seasons, and their satisfaction with FWP’s management of wolves.

Alex Metcalf, an associate professor at UM’s W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, the co-director of the Human Dimensions Lab, and an author of the study, said the survey showed insight into Montanans’ feelings on wolves and wolf management more than a decade after the state started managing the animals.

“I think these results show that as Montanans have lived with wolves for the past 10 or more years, their attitudes and tolerance toward wolves are increasing, but support for hunting and lethal control also remains high,” Metcalf said.

The 2023 survey showed that wolf tolerance had increased during the past 10 years for the general population, deer/elk license holders, and private landowners, but was lower than in 2012 among people with wolf hunting or trapping licenses.

Among the general population, 74% said they were either very tolerant or tolerant of wolves – up from 50% in the 2017 survey and 41% in the 2012 survey. The group with wolf licenses showed the only decrease in tolerance for wolves from the 2017 survey; about the same number of people with wolf licenses tolerate wolves now as they did in 2012.

Conversely, support for wolf hunting increased among wolf license holders but has remained steady among other hunters (82%) and large private landowners (86%) since 2012, though support among the general population for wolf hunting fell to 58% in the latest survey from 71% in 2012.

Deer and elk hunters (3.4 on the 1-5 scale) and wolf hunters and trappers (3.5) were also more likely to support Montana’s wolf regulations than large landowners (3) and the general population (2.6) according to the survey.

Support for wolf trapping fell slightly from 2017 to 2023 among the general population (2.9 to 2.7 on the 1-5 scale) but remained at 3.9 or higher among the other three groups. Wolf hunting was more popular than trapping among all groups, spanning a 3.5 tolerance score for the general population to a 4.9 score for the wolf license owners in the latest survey.

“Overall, this shows that Montanans are supportive of wolf hunting, but within the general population that support might be waning,” said FWP research administrator Justin Gude.

When it comes to hunting and trapping wolves, the survey shows a clear distinction between the opinions of the general population, which are much less supportive of wolf hunting and trapping, and landowners and other license holders.

While just 13% of the general population thinks the wolf hunting season is too short, that figure jumps to 34% for deer/elk license holders, 43% of large landowners, and 79% of wolf license holders. Those percentages are similar when considering bag limits.

And when it comes to trapping, 12% of the general population thinks the trapping season is too short, compared to 30% of deer/elk hunters, 37% of large landowners and 66% of trappers with wolf licenses. Among the entire survey group, tolerance for wolf trapping has held steady or decreased since 2017, according to the survey.

Less than one-third of those surveyed said they were satisfied with FWP’s wolf management: 33% of general residents; 20.5% of private landowners; 30% of wolf license holders and 31% of deer/elk license holders.

And private landowners (17%) and wolf license holders (18%) were the least confident in FWP’s ability to manage wolves – compared to 44% of general residents and 45% of deer and elk license holders.

“Across each of these questions, we saw a consistent pattern where general residents had the most positive attitudes toward wolves,” the survey report says. “Resident deer/elk license holders also tended to have positive attitudes toward wolves. Resident private landowners’ attitudes varied between the midpoint of the scale and slightly negative for these questions, but resident wolf license holders’ attitudes toward wolves were consistently negative.”

The survey also showed that wolf license holders and private landowners were much more concerned about wolves damaging their property than others, and that private landowners and wolf license holders were much less likely to agree that they enjoy having wolves in Montana. The report says that attitudes among general residents, deer and elk license holders, and private landowners were more positive toward wolves in the most recent survey than in 2017, but were more negative among wolf hunters and trappers.

The report says the results show that wolf management “will continue to be a contentious issue among Montanans” despite the increase in tolerance. That has borne out in heated discussions and a lawsuit over wolf management and the wolf hunting and trapping season this winter.

The Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted new administrative rules for managing wolves last month as the state works on its first update to its wolf management plan in 20 years, with a draft plan that has angered some conservation groups because of what they feel is a low baseline of ensuring there are at least 450 wolves in Montana. There are currently an estimated 1,100 wolves in Montana.

And in November, a federal judge in Missoula limited Montana’s wolf trapping season in Regions 1 through 5 to Jan. 1 through Feb. 15 in part because he said that wolf traps and snares could pose the potential for threatened grizzly bears to be incidentally caught in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

Since the start of the 2023 season, according to the state’s dashboard, there have been 176 wolves harvested in Montana. The state set a quota for this winter of 313 wolves – down from 450, citing a decline in the state’s wolf population.

FWP says the recent wolf survey is intended to inform its policymaking when it comes to upcoming hunting and trapping seasons, and said the 2023 survey shows that there is more tolerance for hunting than for trapping, also noting the lack of confidence among private landowners and wolf hunters and trappers for FWP to manage the animals.

The report says it will be important for FWP and the commission to continue to involve the public in making management decisions and setting seasons. The agency said it intends to do the survey again in the future; the survey has so far been done every six years.

“Clearly, FWP will need to continue balancing the differences in values, attitudes, and opinions about wolves and wolf management among hunters and landowners versus general residents when setting wolf regulations,” the report says. “Just as clearly, FWP and the Fish & Wildlife Commission need to recognize that many of these differences are deep-seated and will remain to one degree or another for a long time, and more than some other topics, consensus may not be likely.”