Reports of wolves killing livestock in Minnesota reach a record high

Wolf attacks on livestock have climbed to a new high in Minnesota as ranchers reported losing more calves, cows and other animals to the predators in 2024 than any year since records began in the 1980s.

Ranchers made 252 claims of wolves killing livestock last year, compared with the 10-year average of 174 claims a year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The losses, as usual, were primarily young calves.

Wisconsin also saw high numbers of complaints.

Minnesota’s wolf population, estimated at 2,900, remained relatively unchanged last year. Wolf numbers here have hovered between 3,200 and 2,200 since the late 1990s.

The extremely warm winter in early 2024 likely increased the pressure on cattle from wolves, said Dakota Bird, a district manager and biologist for the USDA’s Wildlife Services.

“Snow really slows deer down and makes it much easier for wolves to catch them,” he said. “So when you have an early spring and not much snow all winter, deer are not as easily accessible and wolves will sometimes key in on cattle a little sooner than normal.”

Wolves typically do the most damage to livestock in late April, when calves are born and at their most vulnerable, and in August, when wolf pups are old enough to leave their dens to hunt.

Last year was an outlier in that high numbers of wolf conflicts also happened in January and February, when wolves are typically catching plenty of deer, Bird said.

Another factor is simply outreach, he said. Wildlife Services has been helping more Minnesota ranchers install fences, compost piles, lights and other non-lethal equipment that can deter wolves from livestock.

As a result, more people know whom to call when a wolf gets on their ranch and causes problems, Bird said.

Wolves cause very little damage overall to Minnesota’s livestock operations, killing domesticated animals on less than 1% of ranches in the state. But they can become real and persistent problems to individual farmers when they home in on certain locations year after year.

Stressed cattle can lose weight, and sometimes they get injured or break their legs in a panic when wolves are around, ranchers have said.

Wolves are federally protected in Minnesota and listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Lawmakers and presidential administrations from both parties have tried to de-list wolves in Minnesota for more than two decades but have been blocked by judges.

Minnesota has the highest wolf population in the Lower 48, and is the only state other than Alaska that didn’t kill them all off by the early 1900s. While wolves never had to be reintroduced here, their population had been limited to the dense woods of the North Shore by the 1940s and 1950s. They had been trapped, shot and poisoned out of the rest of Minnesota. Conservation efforts began in earnest in the 1960s. Their range spread to roughly half of Minnesota by the early 2000s, where it has remained.

Taxpayers pay ranchers market value for any verified losses to wolves. Then, Wildlife Services calls in trappers to bait, shoot and kill nearby wolves.

Of the 252 complaints, the USDA confirmed 136 losses in 2024. Wolves killed 108 calves, up from a 10-year average of 69 a year, as well as six dogs, one horse, 13 cows and a handful of sheep.

Taxpayers compensated ranchers a total of $188,000 for the losses.

Federal trappers killed 238 wolves, up from a 10-year average of 191 wolves a year.

In a promising sign, there have only been a few complaints so far in 2025, Bird said.

The agency also worked with researchers at the Voyageurs Wolf Project and several nonprofit groups to finish a 7.5-mile fence around Wes Johnson’s ranch in Orr, the largest cattle ranch in Minnesota’s wolf territory. Last year marked the first time in two decades that no calves or animals on the ranch were lost to wolves.

The USDA and the University of Minnesota also finished building smaller enclosures for composting sites at four ranches in a pilot project. Starting this spring, ranchers at those sites will be able to put the carcasses of any livestock or animals that die throughout the year inside those enclosures to keep wolves and other scavengers from feeding on them. The hope is that without the easy meal of a cow carcass attracting wolves, fewer will learn to scout near livestock for food.