New study raises questions about effectiveness of wolf hunting as a tool to help ranchers

When Montana and Idaho held their first regulated wolf hunts in 2009, one of their stated goals was to reduce pressure on ranchers. Rebounding wolf populations were killing livestock. Fewer wolves, the thinking went, should mean fewer killed cows and sheep.

The same logic is being used today in wolf management plans and is now also being discussed in Europe, which recently voted to downgrade the protected status of wolves in the European Union.

A new study though, finds that wolf hunting in the Western U.S. has had little impact on the loss of livestock. Nor has it reduced the number of times federal or state wildlife officials have been called to cull problematic wolves.

"We've often just fallen under this assumption that if wolves are the problem and we kill some of them,