A recent Associated Press news story recently included misleading information about the effects of wolf predation on elk numbers in Idaho.

Elk are managed in 29 zones. In most of those zones, elk numbers are within management objectives. In a few, the numbers are above objectives, and in three zones, numbers are below the objectives.

The numbers in the AP story should have referred only to elk in one zone, the Lolo zone in the upper Clearwater drainage. Here elk survival rates have declined, and herd numbers are going down about 13 percent per year.

See Fish and Game's Web site for detailed information on elk numbers: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/wildlife/manage_issues/ung/.

This story first was released by Idaho Fish & Game on February 10, 2009
http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/apps/releases/view.cfm?NewsID=4775