GWA's Position on the Hunting of Predators: (Brand New)

Gallatin Wildlife Position Paper on Predator Hunting – January 2026

The Gallatin Wildlife Association (GWA) established itself in 1976 as a wildlife conservation organization with the mission to protect wildlife and wildlife habitat. Founded as a hunting-conservation organization, it was principally based upon the conservation acumens of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation (NAM). The organization still is, but perhaps we do so only in the strictest of terms in comparison with similar organizations. Today, we view many state and federal agencies along with NGOs falling away from those moral standards and principles.

GWA finds fault with NAM in that the application of their principles has been corrupted over time; corrupted by many who try to use the Model’s moral standards to justify their unlawful or immoral practices in wildlife management. Unfortunately, this is a symptom of what our overall society has experienced, and we urge fellow organizations and agencies to take a stronger stand against predator hunting.

We want to be clear that our organization is not an anti-hunting organization, but as the demographics of our Nation has changed in the last 50 years, so has the demographics of our membership. In 2024, we proclaimed that our organization was an anti-trapping organization, rationalizing that it is hard to be a voice for wildlife, if we were in favor of allowing practices that inflict pain and suffering on that same wildlife.

Hence toward the end of this year 2025, GWA wants to address and proclaim as policy, our opposition of predator hunting. As you will read below, our position is based upon science and respect for our natural world, realizing that hunting of apex predators is not in line with the NAM nor good science. We want to thank Noreen Breeding for the writing and compilation of material for this position paper and many thanks as well to all those on GWA’s Science Advisory Board who helped contribute to this process.

Clinton Nagel, President

Gallatin Wildlife Association

GWA’s POSITION PAPER ON PREDATOR HUNTING                                           12/8/2025

Gallatin Wildlife Association opposes the hunting of predators, particularly the slaughter of wolves promoted and legislated by the states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, since 2021. There are many ecological, economic, and ethical justifications for this position. Basically, it is inhumane and immoral. Wildlife management based on fear, lies, myths, and misconceptions is certainly not scientific. It degrades the state’s wildlife, lands, and streams; harms hunters as well as livestock producers and discriminates against the wishes of wildlife supporters.

Predators; whether mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles or insects; are vital to healthy natural systems. They regulate prey populations by limiting over abundance, altering behavior, and preventing overgrazing of plants. In doing so, predators shape the structure and functions of ecosystems, maintaining biodiversity. In comparison to the abundance of their prey, the number of predators is relatively small despite their huge impact; another reason to restrict hunting.

Where they live in North America, wolves are the apex predators. Healthy populations of apex predators keep ecosystems balanced, stable, and healthy by:

·        Keeping the number of elk, deer, and coyotes at levels low enough to prevent intolerable damage to livestock and crops or to prevent them from starving due to overpopulation.

·        Culling the weak and diseased from ungulate herds and thereby limiting the spread of lethal diseases, such as chronic wasting disease.

·        Restoring vegetation by preventing overgrazing

Put simply, apex predators are predatory organisms at the top of the food chain, organisms that have no natural predators of their own. This means that, while they eat other animals, no other animals eat them.

Balanced ecosystems provide incalculable benefits to humans who rely on the productivity of healthy biological communities that also support birds and insect pollinators.

The economic benefits of wolves far outweigh the costs. Wolf watchers in the Greater Yellowstone Area spend more than 80 million dollars annually, greatly surpassing the wolf license revenue in Montana. Livestock losses from wolves average less than 1%, which is far lower than losses from domestic dogs, diseases, weather, and poor animal husbandry practices.

Killing wolves is ineffective in the long term. When individual pack members are killed, pack social structures are altered resulting in more breeding and more inexperienced predators that have not learned skills and survival tips from now dead elders. So, instead of reducing livestock depredation and conflicts with humans, heavy killing often increases these problems.

Moreover, predator killing is unnecessary because non-lethal solutions have proven highly successful and highly cost-effective. In addition, the benefits of naturally formed packs are realized.

There is no justification for predator hunting. It is unethical because effective non-lethal solutions to human problems requiring predator “management” exist. On the other hand, there is clear justification for restoring and maintaining healthy wolf populations.

In addition to being an apex predator, the gray wolf is also a keystone species. Its removal severely disrupted the biodiversity and stability of our ecosystem. A major study has shown that protection and restoration of the populations of gray wolves and 8 other keystone species around the world “could collectively facilitate the capture of more than 95% of the amount needed every year to meet the global target of removing 500 GtCO₂ from the atmosphere by 2100.” (Source: https://rewilding.org/bringing-the-elephant-into-the-room-at-cop28/)

A keystone species is any species, not necessarily a predator, whose removal has a disproportionately large effect on its ecosystem structure and function. An apex predator can also be a keystone species, but not all keystone species are apex predators (e.g. beavers or sea stars). (https://study.sustainability-directory.com/learn/what-is-the-difference-between-a-keystone-species-and-an-apex-predator/)

Current wolf management practices in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming violate five of the seven tenets of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation (NAM) that purportedly guides the policies of state wildlife management agencies. These violations include trade in hides and horns and offering bounties; hunters have more influence than citizens; killing of wildlife for frivolous purposes; not using good science; and violating the public trust by focusing on “game” species rather than all wildlife.

NAM itself is flawed as a wildlife management guide. It should be called, “North American Model of Hunting Management”. State wildlife agencies were formed out of necessity to protect wildlife from unregulated hunting plus the loss of habitat due to spreading human populations. It does so by regulating hunters and other consumers of wildlife. NAM emphasizes hunting and hunted species, ignoring non-hunting recreational pursuits and non-hunted species.

Not all wildlife species are managed or need to be managed. Wildlife populations have managed themselves successfully for thousands of years without human interference. The so-called “management” of predators in Montana is based on fear, lies, myths and misconceptions rather than science. Hunting does not equal conservation.

True wildlife management is too complex to be defined by a short and sparse list of principles.

To justify the use of NAM, hunters claim that they fund most wildlife conservation. It is not true. While a large part of the funding of state wildlife agencies is derived from hunting license sales and excise taxes on hunting and fishing equipment, all American taxpayers fund federal agencies that manage our federal public lands where wildlife live. When counted against funding by taxpayers and environmental groups that pay for projects such as barbed wire fence removal and non-lethal predator deterrence and rancher compensation payments, the total contribution by hunters comes to about six percent. Nevertheless, hunters have almost full control over the state wildlife agencies. Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks need to pay attention to all wildlife and listen to all Montana citizens, not just hunters.

All predators provide the same ecosystem services that wolves do. Without foxes, weasels, otters, and coyotes, as well as bears and mountain lions, the land would be overrun with rodents and carcasses of dead animals.

For these reasons and more, GWA states this position on predator hunting.

Noreen Breeding, Board Member

Gallatin Wildlife Association

REFERENCES

Crabtree, Robert. Inclineconservation.org

Gale, Jen. What is the role of predators in the ecosystem?, November 30, 2025 https://iere.org/what-is-the-role-of-predators-in-the-ecosystem/

Gale, Jen. What makes a keystone species?, November 21, 2025 (https://iere.org/what-makes-a-keystone-species)

Heister, A. (2022). The Existing Critique of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. In: Beyond the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14149-2_4

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-14149-2_4

Peterson, M. Nils and Michael Paul Nelson. Why the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation is Problematic for Modern Wildlife Management, September 201 6Human Dimensions of Wildlife 22(1):1-12

DOI:10.1080/10871209.2016.1234009. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10871209.2016.1234009

Robinson, Kirk. By rewilding ecosystems, we can not only stem the tide of extinction but also help stabilize the climate. https://rewilding.org/the-ethics-of-wildlife-conservation/

Stalling, Dave. A Critical Look at Hunting by a Hunter — Part One: How a University Wildlife Program Has Been Hijacked by Hunting Interests. From the Wild Side, Nov 20, 2025

Stalling, David. Stop The Slaughter of Predators: Reform Wildlife Management. From the Wild Side, Nov 18, 2025. https://thoughtsfromthewildside.blogspot.com/2022/03/stop-slaughter-of-native-predators.html