Reports of wolves that kill the cattle in Minnesota reach a record high

Wolf attacks on the cattle rose to a new high in Minnesota when the cattle breeders had lost more calves, cows and other animals against the predators in 2024 than any other year since the beginning of the records in the 1980s.

Last year, the cattle breeders made 252 claims that wolves killed cattle last year, compared to the 10-year average of 174 claims per year, according to the data from the US Department (USDA). As always, the losses were mainly young calves.

Wisconsin also saw a large number of symptoms.

The Minnesota wolf population, which was estimated at 2,900, remained relatively unchanged last year. The wolf numbers here have been between 3,200 and 2,200 since the end of the nineties.

The extremely warm winter in early 2024 probably increased the pressure on cattle from wolves, said Dakota Bird, district manager and biologist for the wild animal services of the USDA.

“Snow really slows down the deer and makes it much easier for the wolves to catch them,” he said. “So if you have an early spring and do not have much snow all winter, deer are not so easily accessible and the wolves will sometimes occur a little earlier than normal on cattle.”

Wolves usually cause the cattle at the end of April when calves are born and the most vulnerable and in August, when Wolfs puppies are old enough to leave their caves to hunt.

Last year, a outlier was in this high number of wolf conflicts that also took place in January and February when wolves usually catch a lot of deer, said Bird.