Robert Millage of Kamiah said he was surrounded by a pack of wolves before dawn and waited until light to call them with a hand call that sounded like a wounded coyote. The 80-pound female wolf came fast to him 25 yards before Millage shot her with his .243 rifle in the Lolo Zone.

"The whole area is lousy with them," Millage said. "But I guess it was the luck of the draw."

Meanwhile, shortly after sunrise archery hunter Jay Mize of Emmett walked out of his tent to see a wolf harassing his horse at Bull Trout Lake near Stanley. He walked back into his tent, put his rifle together and shot the wolf, said Jon Rachael, Idaho Department of Fish and Game wolf manager.

"He said he had bought a wolf tag but never planned to use it," Rachael said. "He was going to have it framed."

A pending court decision by a federal judge in Montana still looms over the season. Thirteen environmental groups have requested that the season be shutdown and U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy is considering whether to stop the hunt while the groups' lawsuit to return wolves to the federal endangered species list is considered.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009 3:48:10 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [4]