Wolf hunters on Prince of Wales asked for a foreleg bone, and held to a 15-day clock

Hunters and trappers sealing a wolf in Southeast Alaska this season will be asked to leave more of the animal behind: a strip of hide, a dime-sized piece of muscle, and, if the wolf came from Game Management Unit 2, the entire foreleg bone.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Wildlife Conservation issued the request Thursday from its Ketchikan office. Skin samples (1.5 inches by 0.25 inches, hair attached) and muscle are requested from wolves taken in Units 1-3 and 5; the radius and ulna from Unit 2 only, which covers Prince of Wales Island. Sealers, not the harvester, do the cutting, with sterile blades at sealing.

"The skin and muscle samples can be used for genetic and diet analyses, and the foreleg bones allow ADF&G to determine age class of harvested wolves (pup or adult)," the division said. The department says the samples sharpen its Unit 2 population estimate and map Southeast wolves' genetic structure. The fall 2023 estimate was 238 wolves, against a Board of Game objective of 150 to 200.

A department memo on the fall 2020 count described the same collection, and ADF&G issued a nearly identical request in August 2025.

The samples are voluntary, but the paperwork around them is not. Unit 2 wolves must be sequentially numbered, reported to the Ketchikan office at 907-225-2475 within seven days of take, and sealed within 15 days. Everywhere else a hunter has 30 days from the kill, a trapper 30 days from the season's close. Hunting opens Sept. 1.

Ketchikan area management biologist Evelyn Lichwa is the contact.