The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks plans to issue only 1,400 permits for next January and February, down from 2,200 last winter and 3,000 the year before.
"It's one of the lowest (permit levels) we've had in a long time," said Kurt Alt, FWP's regional wildlife manager in Bozeman.
The final permit numbers will have to be authorized by the FWP Commission.
The late-season hunt was started in 1976 as a way to reduce the size of the park's elk herd, which at times has reached 20,000. Many of the animals migrate north out of Yellowstone every winter.
FWP biologists counted only 9,215 elk last December, and hunters killed 718 animals last winter, bringing the herd down to an estimated 8,500 animals.
Alt said the goal is to maintain that number after next year's hunt.
The December count probably missed a lot of animals, biologists said at the time, because mild weather meant there was no snow on the ground, and that made the elk hard to see from an aircraft.
The size of the herd has dropped steadily since the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone in 1995 and 1996, though biologists stress that wolves are not the only factor influencing elk numbers. Drought, severe winters, sport hunting and other predators all have an impact, they say.
But sport hunting is one of the few tools wildlife managers can manipulate.
The number of calf elk that survive their first year also has fallen since the return of wolves to the park. This spring, biologists counted only 12 calves per 100 cows, continuing a recent trend. A long-term average level of about 30 calves per 100 cows is considered necessary to sustain a herd.
Cow-calf ratios are down in many areas, including some that don't have wolves. A new study started in Yellowstone this year to determine how many newborn calves are killed by wolves and other predators.
FWP also is reducing the number of antlerless elk permits in the Elkhorn Mountains west of Townsend from 600 to 225 in an effort to increase the size of that herd. Alt said wolves are not a factor there.
Alt said the goal is to have a population of 1,800 elk there, up from the current level of about 1,500.
In several other hunting districts around the state, the number of antlerless permits is rising in response to growing elk numbers.
On the Net:
Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks: http://www.fwp.state.mt.us/
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