Idaho’s new method for counting wolf populations uses a key to genetic info: teeth

Just a few years after the Idaho Department of Fish and Game implemented a controversial trail-camera-based method for counting the number of wolves in the state, the agency announced it would switch to a new method.

Fish and Game officials now plan to use genetic information taken from teeth to estimate population size, a process officials believe will provide more accurate estimates for smaller wolf populations, Shane Roberts, Fish and Game’s wildlife bureau chief, told the Idaho Statesman in an interview. Roberts said modeling showed that the trail-camera-based method will become less accurate as wolf counts decline. 

Fish and Game plans to whittle the number of wolves down to around 500 animals under a management plan approved last year. The agency said the new genetic method, which produced similar results as the camera method, put last summer’s wolf population at around 1,150 animals — down about 200 from the previous year. 

Officials were already taking teeth from trapped or hunted wolves to determine their age. “We’ve always collected teeth, but now we’ve got a new use for those teeth,” Roberts told the Statesman. 

Fish and Game began tracking wolf populations using radio collars after wolves were reintroduced to Idaho in 1995. It switched to a trail camera-based model in 2019. That method, also called a space-to-event model, used a network of remote trail cameras that took photos every 10 minutes or when they detect motion.

Fish and Game analyzed the thousands of photographs from the camera network using artificial intelligence to identify wolves, calculate the amount of space between them, and estimate their population. But the technique drew vocal critics, including those from the scientific community, who were skeptical of its accuracy. 

An incorrect population estimate could eventually drop wolf populations and put them back on the Endangered Species Act list.