This weekend, the hunter again becomes the hunted across the state of Montana.

Beginning Sunday, the general big-game season will include a wolf hunt in three management units that divide the state. The season will extend until Nov. 29, except in the Absaroka-Beartooth's hunting district 316, which will remain closed. An additional season in December may be allowed if the quota isn't met. More than 11,000 resident wolf tags have been sold; nonresidents have bought only 55 tags.

An early season beginning Sept. 15 was allowed in two backcountry areas - one hunting district in the Absaroka-Beartooth and three in the Bob Marshall/Scapegoat wilderness areas. But the season in the Absaroka-Beartooth was closed Oct. 9 after nine wolves were shot; the entire quota for the management unit is only 12. Only three wolves were shot in the other three backcountry districts, for a total of 12 killed so far in the state. Montana's quota is 75 wolves for the season.

Although nine wolves were killed in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness during this fall's first Montana wolf season before it was closed early, one outfitter said it's not as easy to kill a wolf as it may seem.

"The people who say we're going to destroy all the wolves, those are the people who don't go into that country," said Cameron Mayo, 27, owner of Absaroka-Beartooth Outfitters.

Backcountry perspective

Mayo has outfitted in the region of upper Hellroaring Creek for the past five years and worked in the wilderness as a hunting and fishing guide for another five years.

Although he guided elk hunters into the area this fall, only one had a wolf tag and the opportunity to shoot, but he wasn't quick enough.

"There are a few dumb wolves that got killed this year by savvy people," Mayo said, but he expects wolves to wise up quickly.

"It's a different kind of experience," said Carolyn Sime, wolf coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "You don't just find a track and follow it."

Two of the successful hunters in the Absaroka-Beartooth said they howled to attract their wolves, Sime said.

"There are a wide variety of experiences out there," Sime said.

She expects the final three wolves to be killed in the southern management unit will be taken soon after the general season opens.

Charles Oberly, 31, who guides for Mayo and has worked in the Absaroka-Beartooth since 1997, said he thinks other wolves will quickly fill in any vacancy.

"They're kind of like mice," Oberly said. "Once you kill them, other ones move back in."

Fewer elk

Oberly and Mayo say wolves and grizzly bears have decimated elk populations in the wilderness north of Yellowstone, despite an abundance of natural forage. Researchers have documented that since wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995, elk have concentrated in low-lying areas along Yellowstone's river valleys, as well as agricultural lands adjoining the park, where they're less likely to be bothered by wolves. But the state of Montana also allowed high hunter harvests of the Northern Yellowstone herd between 1997 and 2004 to reduce elk numbers wintering in the state, contributing to a big drop in the population.

Whatever the cause, Mayo said the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness is fairly empty of elk during the early fall season nowadays. He said he is candid with clients, telling them that he can provide a unique wilderness experience, but he can't guarantee the hunters an elk.

"If you're looking to go kill an elk, this is not the hunt," he said. "You can make a 30-mile circle and not see an elk."

Still, he said, his hunters shot four bulls in the first week of the season through "pretty much dumb luck."

Another outfitter in the same region took four groups of hunters in and no one got an elk, he added.

Mayo said he doesn't think the attraction of bagging a wolf is going to help his business any, especially since nonresident wolf tags cost $350. And the wolves move too fast to spot and stalk like other game, he said.

"It would be practically false advertising to say you could guide somebody to a wolf kill," Mayo said.

With the decline in backcountry elk, Mayo said he has geared his business more to summer fishing trips and is advertising photo safaris for wolves and grizzly bears next summer.

Contact Brett French at french@billingsgazette.com or at 657-1387.