Are deer hunters in Minnesota poaching wolves on the side?

Are deer hunters in Minnesota poaching wolves on the side?

Pete Thomas, For The Win

Sat, December 6, 2025 at 4:21 PM UTC

1 min read

Very few Minnesota deer hunters are wolf poachers. But a significant number of wolves are illegally killed during the deer-hunting season.

The University of Minnesota’s Voyageurs Wolf Project on Friday shared a graphic image showing a dead wolf on the snow with a bullet hole in its side.

The social-media post emphasized that “it is not fair or accurate to characterize all hunters as poachers.”

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However, the project stated that the illegal killing of federally protected wolves spikes during deer-hunting season in Minnesota and other Great Lakes states.

It was no different during the recent rifle deer-hunting season, according to the project, which shared its findings and those of other studies:

–“During our study, 44% of all illegally killed wolves were illegally killed between November 7 to 16 — a 10-day window when deer hunting is in full swing.”

–“Our findings are strikingly similar to a study in Wisconsin where they examined patterns of mortality from 501 wolves during 1979-2013, and found that 43% of all illegally killed wolves were killed in November during deer-hunting season.”

Wolves are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act. In Minnesota and Wisconsin, killing them can result in fines and jail time.

The Voyageurs Wolf Project added: “Our findings are similar to a study of wolves in and around Voyageurs National Park in 1987-1991 when 50% of all illegally killed wolves were killed in November.”

The project also cited other studies and promised to post more about this issue – and the impact poaching has on wolf populations – in the near future.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Are deer hunters in Minnesota illegally killing wolves?

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