Wolf Predation on the Rise Wolf management, one of the hottest topics among Western hunters and ranchers, promises to get even hotter following a report showing the number of wolf-killed cattle and sheep more than doubled in 2004. The report comes from Defenders of Wildlife, the pro-wolf group that pays ranchers for confirmed livestock losses to wolves. The 2004 predation rate was triple what was predicted 10 years ago by the federal government. Wolf numbers are also a lot higher than predicted when the carnivores were first released in Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in 1995. Growing populations have spread from core wilderness areas. However, Defenders of Wildlife claims that while wolf kills get most of the attention, they amount to a fraction of all livestock kills. In Montana, for instance, coyotes killed many times more sheep and lambs in 2003, according to state statistics. Read more in Bozeman Montana's Daily Chronicle.