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Practice of hunting wolves by humans
hunting of wolves by humans

Wolf hunting is the practice of hunting wolves. Wolves are mainly hunted for sport, for their skins, to protect livestock and, in some rare cases, to protect humans. Wolves have been actively hunted since 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, when they first began to pose a threat to livestock of Neolithic human communities.

In the sixth century BC, the first wolf bounty was reportedly opened when Solon of Athens offered five silver drachmas to any hunter for killing any male wolf, and one for every female. In Ancient Rome, the treatment given to wolves differed from the treatment meted out to other large predators. The Romans generally seem to have refrained from intentionally harming wolves. For instance, they were not hunted for pleasure (but only in order to protect herds that were out at pasture), and not displayed in the venationes, either. The special status of the wolf was not based on national ideology, but rather was connected to the religious importance of the wolf to the Romans.

In England of 950, King Athelstan imposed an annual tribute of 300 wolf skins on Welsh king Hywel Dda, an imposition which was maintained until the Norman conquest of England. At the time, several criminals, rather than being put to death, would be ordered to provide a certain number of wolf tongues annually. The Norman kings (reigning from 1066 to 1154) employed servants as wolf hunters and many held lands granted on condition they fulfilled this duty. William the Conqueror granted the lordship of Riddesdale in Northumberland to Robert de Umfraville on condition that he defend that land from enemies and wolves. King John gave a premium of 10 shillings for the capture of two wolves. Popular folklore on the other hand tells of how an old man named MacQueen of Pall à Chrocain in the Findhorn Valley of Morayshire killed the last wolf in 1743. Ireland throughout most of the first half of the 17th century had a substantial wolf population of not less than 400 and may be as high as 1000 wolves at any one time. Although the Irish hunted wolves, it is evident from documentary data that they did not see the same need as the English to exterminate the wolves. Although wolves were perceived as threats, they were nonetheless seen as natural parts of the Irish landscapes. The level of rewards and bounties established by Oliver Cromwell's regime after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–1653) attracted a few professional wolf hunters to Ireland, mostly from England. Politically, the prospect of numbers of armed Irish roaming around the country hunting wolves was not acceptable, given the ongoing conflict between the Irish and the new English settlers, so it was seen as much safer for the English authorities to encourage men from their own country to deal with the wolf problem. Wolves were exterminated from Ireland in the late 18th century, most likely 1786.

In 9th century France, Charlemagne founded an elite corps of crown funded officials called luparii, whose purpose was to control wolf populations in France during the Middle Ages. Luparii were responsible for the initial reduction of wolf populations in France, which would become decimated in later centuries. The office of luparius is today known as the Wolfcatcher Royal. Wolf bounties were regularly paid in Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries and as recently as the 1950s. 600 wolves are recorded to have been bountied between the 14th and 19th centuries. Presentation of the killed wolf to the authorities was obligatory. The authorities had to give an accurate testimony with a description of the presented animal (gender, weight, measurements, color, estimated age, etc.) and the symptomatic ascertainment of any rabies infection. The wolf's paw was then amputated and/or its ears were sealed in wax in order to avoid the spoils being represented elsewhere. Only one case of fraud occurred, in 1834, which was punished by arrest. Italian wolf hunters lacked the organisation or determination of their French counterparts, having not formed any special hunting teams. Wolves were exterminated from the Alps in the 19th century, though they were never fully exterminated in the peninsula. In 19th century Spain, the Principality of Asturias passed an act between March and December 1816 paying out bounties for the death of 76 adult and 414 young wolves at 160 reales for an adult wolf and 32 for a wolf cub. The hunting of wolves represented a considerable source of wealth for local populations, with the lobero or wolf hunter being a respected county figure. In an 1856 brochure, the Hungarian nationalist exile István Türr noted, among many other grievances against Habsburg rule in his country, that "Since the restriction of the liberty of hunting and the seizure of all arms in Hungary, wild beasts have so multiplied, that, besides an enormous damage done to the crops, the flocks, and the poultry, the wolves venture, not only into villages, but into the very towns, and besides doing fearful depredations, attack even people. The number of italic=no (district huntsmen appointed by the government) is not sufficient to destroy them; arid in consequence of the universal dislike to public functionaries, increased still more by the circumstance that they are not Hungarians, the landed proprietors do not allow them to hunt on their grounds. One of these huntsmen told me that a nobleman, being requested to allow him to kill some wolves which were in his forest, refused by saying, "No, sir! the wolves belong to me, not to the
government." In Croatia, between 1986 and 2004, 115 wolf deaths were recorded, of which 54% were due to shooting. During that period, the number of dead wolves found ranged from 0 to 15 annually. The lowest kill rates occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s, coinciding with the start of the Croatian War of Independence.

The Swedish kings Magnus Eriksson and Christopher of Bavaria decreed wolf hunting a civic duty, with only priests, parish clerks and landless women exempted. Sweden's first wolf bounty was opened in 1647. The bounties remained in force in the new laws of the Kingdom of Sweden from 1734. Hundreds of Sami killed wolves in order to protect their reindeer herds. In the 1960s, wolf numbers rapidly declined with the onset of snow mobiles used for hunting. Sweden's last wolf was killed in 1966, after which, the species was declared legally protected and eventually recolonized the area. In Communist Romania, up to 2,800 wolves were killed between 1955 and 1965. In Czarist Russia, before the emancipation reform of 1861, wolf hunting was done solely by authorized firearm holders, usually police, soldiers, rich landowners or nobles. Upon learning of the frequency of attacks on livestock and humans, the Ministry of the Interior sent agents to Western Europe in order to learn how the people there dealt with wolf problems. Upon returning, the Ministry of the Interior developed a plan in 1846 to deal with wolves involving the opening of wolf bounties and appointment of government hunters. Each hunter was given jurisdiction to hunt in one district, with more than one for large areas. Hunters were given 3 rubles for each male wolf killed and 1.5 for each cub, with a tail presented as proof. Each hunter would receive an annual salary of 60 rubles a year, provided he killed 15 adults and 30 cubs a year. Peasant hunters, however, were rarely rewarded, because of corrupt bureaucrats stealing the money. In 1858, after paying the equivalent of $1,250,000 for over a million wolves in Central Russia, officials became suspicious, and discovered that some hunters bought wolf pelts for low prices, cut them up and handed them to magistrates as wolf tails. In the later years of the 19th century, Russian hunting societies began an energetic campaign against wolves. In 1897, members of the Moscow Hunting Society killed their first 1000 wolves, though the number of professional wolf hunters at the time was rather low. Former serfs began hunting wolves after their emancipation in 1861, though rarely with success, as civilian firearms were highly expensive, and the cheaper ones were usually primitive and unable to bear the heavy ammunition necessary to kill wolves. During World War II, wolf populations increased, though after Nazi Germany's defeat, wolf hunts resumed. With the end of the war and the onset of aerial hunting, the USSR destroyed 42,300 wolves in 1945, 62,700 wolves in 1946, 58,700 wolves in 1947, 57,600 in 1948, and 55,300 in 1949. From 1950 to 1954, an average of 50,000 wolves were killed annually. In 1966, wolves had been successfully exterminated in 30 oblasts of the RSFSR. During this time, wolf predation on humans and livestock had dropped by a factor of ten. However, with the publishing of a Russian translation of Farley Mowatt's book Never Cry Wolf, wolf hunts decreased in popularity. Amid public outcry, Czarist and Soviet records of wolf attacks on both livestock and people were ignored and wolf hunts decreased in number, allowing wolves to multiply. 15,900 wolves were reportedly culled from the RSFSR in 1978, compared to 7,900 two years prior. With an increase in population, twice as many wolves were culled in the 1980s than in the prior decade. In 1984, the RSFSR had over 2,000 wolf hunting brigades consisting of 15,000 hunters who killed 16,400 wolves.

In India, Hindus traditionally considered the hunting of wolves, even dangerous ones, as taboo, for fear of causing a bad harvest. The Santals, however, considered them fair game, as with every other forest dwelling animal. In 1876, in the North West Provinces and Bihar State of British India, 2,825 wolves were killed in response to 721 fatal attacks on humans. Two years later, 2,600 wolves were killed in response to attacks leaving 624 humans dead. Wolf exterminations remained a priority in the NWP and Awadh through to the 1920s, because wolves were reportedly killing more people than any other predator in the region. Female cubs were bountied for 12 Indian annas, while males for 8. Higher rewards of 5 rupees for each adult and one for each cub were favored in Jaunpur. In Gorakhpur, where human fatalities were highest in summer, the reward for an adult wolf was 4 rupees, with 3 for a cub. Acts of fraud were quite common, with some bounty hunters presenting golden jackals or simply exhuming the bodies of bountied wolves and presenting them to unsuspecting magistrates for rewards. Overall, it is thought that up to 100,000 wolves were killed in British India between 1871 and 1916. Wolves in Japan became extinct during the Meiji restoration period, an extermination known as ōkami no kujo. The wolf was deemed a threat to ranching which the Meiji government promoted at the time, and targeted via a bounty system and a direct chemical extermination campaign inspired by the similar contemporary American campaign. Starting August 1875, the Iwate Prefecture government offered bounties (shōreikin) of 7¥ for male wolves and 8 for females. In 1878 in Sapporo, it was decided to set higher bounties for wolves than bears in order to further motivate the ethnic Ainu people into killing wolves, which were once considered sacred to them. The last Japanese wolf was a male killed on 23 January 1905 near Washikaguchi (now called Higashi Yoshiro). The carcass was bought by a man working for the Duke of Bedford, and was subsequently put on display in the British Museum of Natural History. 4,000–4,500 wolves were killed annually in Mongolia in 1976.

In the majority of Native American hunter gatherer societies, wolves were usually killed for body parts used in rituals, or to stop them raiding food caches, When the Kwakiutl killed a wolf, the animal would be laid out on a blanket and have portions of its flesh eaten by the perpetrators, who would express regret at the act before burying it. The Ahtna would take the dead wolf to a hut, where it would be propped in a sitting position with a banquet made by a shaman set before it. When men from certain Inuit tribes killed a wolf, they would walk around their houses four times, expressing regret and abstaining from sexual relations with their wives for four days. Although some of the first European colonists traveling to North America would report back that wolves were more populous in the New World than in Europe,

After the European colonization of the Americas, the first American wolf bounty was passed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony on November 9, 1630. Further wolf bounties opened in Jamestown, Virginia on September 4, 1632, and in other colonies. Payments to white settlers included cash, tobacco, wine and corn, while Native Americans were given blankets and trinkets. A New Jersey law started in 1697 stated that any white Christian who brought a wolf carcass to a magistrate would have been paid 20 shillings, while a Native American or Black person would have been paid half that much. It later became customary for Native Americans to provide two wolf pelts a year without payment. In 1688, a Virginia law abolished the requirement of tribute in wolves to be paid in accordance to the number of hunters in each tribe, demanding 725 hunters to kill 145 wolves a year. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, wolf hunting could become a cultural event as large numbers of people advanced through wolf territory in hopes of flushing any animals from hiding. In these types of hunts, firearms and dogs were forbidden, and the wolves were killed with clubs or otherwise by hand. Between 1916 and 1926 the National Park Service predator control program resulted in the extermination of sustainable packs of wolves in Yellowstone National Park by 1926. American wolf hunts peaked in the 1920s 1930s, when up to 21,000 were killed annually. In response to recovery progress of wolf populations under the act, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed in 2013 to delist gray wolves from ESA, though the proposal failed as it was not supported by adequate science. In instances of delisting, federal protection is removed and states are left to manage their own wolf populations. Some states with residing wolf populations have notably few regulations on wolf hunting, as in Idaho where there is no bag limit for gray wolves, and hunting is allowed throughout the year. In ranges of the United States where there are concentrated populations of wolves, the Fish and Wildlife service can divide wolves into Distinct Population Segments (DPSs) which allow protections to vary depending on the recovery status of each wolf population. The only remaining DPS is the Northern Rocky Mountain DPS, which includes a range shared between 6 states. The wolf population within this range is not listed as endangered and is not protected from hunting. The first Canadian wolf bounty was offered in 1793 in Ontario and Quebec. Wolves became rare in Eastern Canada by the 1870s, becoming extinct in New Brunswick by 1880, in Nova Scotia by 1900 and had disappeared from Newfoundland by 1913. Full scale eradication programs did not peak in western and northern Canada until the 1950s, when resource development brought more people into originally sparsely populated wilderness. A government backed wolf extermination program was initiated in 1948 after serious declines in caribou herds in the Northern Territories and a rabies concern due to wolves migrating south near populated areas. 39,960 cyanide guns, 106,100 cyanide cartridges and 628,000 strychnine pellets were distributed. Up to 17,500 wolves were poisoned in Canada between 1955 and 1961. In the mid 1950s, wolf bounties were dropped in the western provinces in favor of hiring provincial hunters. Quebec's wolf bounties ended in 1971 and Ontario in 1972. Overall, 20,000 wolves were bountied between 1935 and 1955 in British Columbia, 12,000 between 1942 and 1955 in Alberta and 33,000 between 1947 and 1971 in Ontario. Unlike European wolf hunts which were usually reserved for the nobility, North American wolf hunts were partaken by ordinary citizens, nearly all of them possessing firearms, thus the extermination of wolves in the lower 48 states was carried out in far less time than in Europe. By the 1960s the population of wolves decreased dramatically because people in North America have hunted wolves for a variety of purposes. For example, wolf hunting allowed people to acquire fur, which was further used in a variety of practical ways. It also allowed people to gain control over the spread of diseases transmitted by the animals and enabled people to better protect their livestock. The circumstances finally started to change in the 1960s, as people finally start to realise that the wolf population had reached a crucially low point and had to be saved and put under the legal protection of the government. Environmental movement was transforming the public views on the issue and that was the starting point of the wolf population recovery. United States federal government took the issue under its control and enacted the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to help protect and restore the wolf population. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 restricted the killing of wolves and labeled them as endangered animals in 48 contiguous states. Since the wolf recovery journey began, under the protection of the law, wolf population numbers went up throughout the northern United States. However, sheep farmers generally welcome wolf hunting, as the wolves are a great threat to sheep and dogs. In 2005, the Norwegian government proposed another cull, with the intent of exterminating 25% of Norway's wolf population. As of 2015, there were an estimated 460 wolves in the Scandinavian population, with the large majority located in Sweden. Wolf hunting is controversial in Sweden, where decisions by public authorities to authorize hunting seasons each year since 2010 have resulted in legal challenges by the European Commission and by NGOs. In Spain, wolves were hunted north of the Duero river under strict conditions to control damage over livestock, but strictly protected at the South margin. The recent Wolf expansion even to the mountains of Madrid, has generated a great controversy in Autonomous Community of Castile León over whether to allow hunting also south of the Duero river. As of 2021 the wolf hunt has been banned in all of Spain. The European Union has exceptionally permitted Estonia, which has the highest wolf density in the EU, to continue wolf hunting as long as the overall numbers remain stable. In 2010, 173 wolves were permitted to be culled, but only 130 were actually caught. In 2011, 149 wolves were culled of the permitted 150. Under the Berne Convention wolves in France are listed as an endangered species, and killing them is illegal, though official culls are permitted to protect farm animals as long as there is no threat to the species in its entirety. Though wolf populations have increased in Ukraine, wolves remain unprotected there and can be hunted year round by permit holders. With the exception of specimens in nature reserves, wolves in Belarus are largely unprotected. They are designated a game species, and bounties ranging between 60 and 70 Euros are paid to hunters for each wolf killed. This is a considerable sum in a country where the average monthly wage is 230 Euros. In Russia, government backed wolf exterminations have been largely discontinued since the fall of the Soviet Union. As a result, their numbers have stabilized and are increasing, though they are still hunted legally.

In Alaska, it is illegal to shoot a wolf with a rimfire rifle because wolves are classified as big game. The state predator control program includes aerial shooting. In 2007 state biologists' goal was to have volunteer hunters kill 407 to 680 wolves by the time the predator control season ended April 30, but high fuel prices and poor flying conditions kept hunters from meeting that goal. A subsidy of $150 per wolf offered by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game was overturned by a judge on the grounds that only the Board of Game had the power to offer bounties. Despite relatively heavy hunting and trapping over the last century in Alaska, wolves occur on nearly all of their traditional habitat throughout mainland Alaska. Alaska currently has five wolf control programs that comprise about 9.4% of the state's land area. A closely controlled permit system is used in allowing aerial or airborne methods to remove wolves in designated areas. Wolf numbers are temporarily reduced in these areas, but are not permanently eliminated from any area. Wolf populations in North America commonly sustain annual harvests or natural mortality rates of 20–40% without experiencing a year to year decline in numbers. Many scientists believe that this artificial inflation of game populations is actually detrimental to both caribou and moose populations as well as the ecosystem as a whole; artificially boosted populations "could result in habitat destruction by moose and caribou, and ultimately, a crash in these populations". This is why large numbers of people support the Protect America's Wildlife (PAW) Act which was proposed to Congress by George Miller, the state representative of California in July 2009. This legislation has already received official support from nine former members of the Alaska Board of Game and Wildlife and conservation groups, including Defenders of Wildlife. According to Miller, "The state of Alaska has been operating an airborne hunting program that has blatantly ignored federal law, ignored Alaskans' opposition, ignored the science, and ignored even their own wildlife experts. It's time to ground this air assault on wolves. The PAW Act is urgently needed to close the loophole in federal law and protect our nation's wildlife from the unethical and unsportsmanlike practice of airborne hunting." The PAW Act has been created to close the loophole in the existing Airborne Hunting Act that has allowed Alaska legislators and officials to continue to aerial hunt. The bill would clarify under which conditions it is acceptable to use aircraft to aid in the management of wildlife. It would bar states from using aerial hunting to artificially boost game species when they are not at risk and to clarify the prohibition of harassing animals from planes which is part of the "land and shoot" hunting that is being utilized in Alaska. The PAW Act acknowledges the right of states to manage wildlife by clearly stating that wildlife agencies may use planes to respond to legitimate biological emergencies in wildlife populations. It also states that aircraft may be used for animal control where land, livestock, water, pets, crops, or human health are at risk. After the gray wolf was removed from the endangered species list for the western great lakes region in January 2012, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources instituted a hunting season to manage the population. This new season ran from November 3, 2012, through the 18th, 2012 in some regions and continued November 24, 2012 and ran through January 31, 2013 or until the tag limit was reached. That limit was set at a target of 400 wolves across the state. The total number of wolves killed in this inaugural season was 412 wolves. Twelve more wolves were killed past the target number. On December 19, 2014, a US Federal Court ordered a stop to the hunting of wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and in Michigan. In the United States hunting wolves became legal again once Trump's administration issued the policy which took away Endangered Species Act protections for endangered gray wolves. States then resumed the fight against gray wolves as the federal government was no longer protecting wolves. Making the hunting of wolves legal destroyed packs of wolves, and niches. Hunting wolves can have destructive impacts on their population as it can break up packs. Smaller packs of wolves have a harder time finding food to survive as they cannot carry bigger prey. One pack member hunted has a tremendous impact on the pact. A research paper published in the Journal of Animal Ecology in 2014, confirmed the impact of the loss of one wolf. Findings included that where a pack broke apart, dissolution followed by a loss of an alpha. The grey wolf pack and population is highly susceptive to the fate of breeders. The current situation in the western United States allows for the hunting and trapping of wolves during designated seasons. As of 2022 in Montana, hunters can hunt up to 10 wolves and trap up to 10 wolves for a combined total of up to 20 wolves. The majority of wolves hunted in Montana were originally re introduced in the protected Yellowstone National Park but are not safe from hunting once the wolves exit the park's land. It has been reported that some wolves have been hunted merely 10 miles from the park's border with one in 2020 wearing a scientific radio collar. As of January 9, 2022 more Yellowstone wolves which have wandered outside of the Park have been hunted and killed than any season since their species reintroduction in 1995. A federal judge later restored protections for gray wolves in much of the United States. This action essentially reversed Trump's Policy where he eliminated all protections for endangered gray wolves. With protection, gray wolves are better off than they were previously. However, this restoration did not restore protections for wolves in the northern Rockies. The gray wolves were able to protected again Senior District Judge Jeffrey S. White, of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California declared removing protection did not consider threats outside of the Great Lakes and Northern Rocky Mountains. With regards to Wolf hunting in other Western States, the laws vary drastically. In Oregon although the gray wolf, Canis lupus, was controversially removed from the state's endangered species list, the killing of wolves remains strictly illegal. This includes a ban on all trapping and hunting of the species in any part of the state for any reason. Contrary to Oregon's strict laws, the state's neighbor to the east, Idaho, has very different laws. In Idaho, the trapping of wolves on private property is legal year round. In addition to trapping, there is no limit to the number of tags wolf hunters can possess, therefore making the hunting of wolves legal year round in the state of Idaho. As a result of the change in legislation, the killing of wolves is incredibly similar to that of coyotes and foxes in the state currently.

The grey wolf (Canis lupus) is the largest member of the Canidae. Though once abundant over much of North America and Eurasia, the grey wolf inhabits a very small portion of its former range because of widespread destruction of its habitat; in some regions it is endangered or threatened. Considered as a whole, however, the grey wolf is regarded as of least concern for extinction according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Wolf weight and size can vary greatly worldwide, tending to increase proportionally with latitude as predicted by Bergmann's Rule. Wolves are usually hunted in heavy brush and are considered especially challenging to hunt, because of their elusive nature and sharp senses. Grey wolves are notoriously shy and difficult to kill, having been stated to be almost as hard to stalk as cougars, and being far more problematic to dispatch with poison, traps or hounds. However, wolves generally do not defend themselves as effectively as cougars or bears. Some wolves will evade capture for very long periods of time and display great cunning. One specimen nicknamed "Three Toes of Harding County" in South Dakota eluded his pursuers for 13 years before finally being caught. Another wolf nicknamed "Rags the digger" near Meeker, Colorado would deliberately ruin trap lines by digging up traps without tripping them. In sport hunting, wolves are usually taken in late autumn and early winter, when their pelts are of the highest quality and because the heavy snow makes it easier for the wolves to be tracked.

Wolves are commonly hunted for their fur. The color of a wolf's fur can vary, from the pure white of the largest, Alaskan wolves, through the range of reddish brown. Even the so called "grey wolves" can include pure black pups in a litter, although grey is the most common color. Wolves have two kinds of hairs; an outer coat of long, stiff hairs called "guard hairs" and an "undercoat" of soft fur which grows thick in the winter and helps to insulate their bodies from the cold; this fur has the advantage of not freezing. The long guard hairs which are shed in spring and summer are waterproof, keeping the wolf's underfur dry and warm. The fur of the undercoat may be nearly two and a half inches thick and help keep a wolf warm even in temperatures reaching 40 degrees below zero. Wolves in warm climates have shorter guard hairs and less dense underfur. In some areas of medieval Europe, pelts were the only considered practicality of wolves. Pelts were usually made into cloaks or mittens, though not without hesitation, because of the wolf's strong odor. In the former Soviet Union, between 1976 and 1988, 30,000 wolf pelts were produced annually. Recent statistics from CITES indicate that 6,000 7,000 wolf skins are internationally traded each year, with Canada, the former Soviet Union, Mongolia and China being the largest exporters, and the United States and Great Britain being the largest importers. and is primarily used for scarfs and the trimmings of women's garments, though it is occasionally used for jackets, short capes, coats, In Medieval Europe, pelts were considered the only practical aspect of wolves, though they were seldom used, because of the skin's foul odour. In Scandinavian folklore, wolf skin girdles assisted in transforming the wearers into werewolves, while several Native American tribes used wolf pelts for medicinal purposes. The Pawnee wore wolf skins as capes when exploring enemy territories. The United States Army used wolf skin for parkas during the later stages of World War II and the Korean War to protect the faces of soldiers from frostbite. Wolf trapping for fur remains a lucrative source of income for many Native Americans. In the cultures of certain Native American tribes, wolf body parts were considered important additions to certain rituals. Pawnee warriors, known as Wolf People, dressed in wolf skin cloaks when scouting or hunting. Nez Perce warriors wore wolf teeth pushed through the septums of their noses. Cheyenne medicine men wrapped wolf fur on sacred arrows used to motion prey into traps. Arikara men wove wolf fur with bison fur in order to make small sacred blankets. Nuxálk mothers painted wolf gall bladders on their young male children's backs, so they could grow up to perform religious ceremonies without making mistakes as hunters. Hidatsan women experiencing difficult births would call upon the familial power of wolves by rubbing wolf skin caps on their bellies. There are not many traditional uses for Ethiopian wolves, though their livers may be used for medicinal reasons in northern Ethiopia.

It is rare for wolves to be hunted for food, though historically, people have resorted to consuming wolf flesh in times of scarcity, or for medicinal reasons. Most Native American tribes, especially the Naskapis, viewed wolf flesh as edible but inadequate nutrition, as it was not a herbivore and thus did not possess the same healing qualities thought to be distinct in plant eaters. During the European colonization of Western America, wolf meat was considered "not usually eatable", though fair game for a hungry man. However, Martin Schmitt argued that references to the consumption of wolf meat at the time may have actually been on coyotes. During Vilhjalmur Stefansson's Arctic expedition in 1913, George H. Wilkins sampled cooked wolf meat and commented that it was "fine eating" and noted a resemblance to chicken. There have been reports of parasites in the meat. Wolf meat is considered haram under Islamic dietary laws (Sahih Muslim, no: 1934)

In an 1868 issue of The Sant Paul's Magazine, Anthony Trollope gave an account on the palatability of wolf flesh, and how it was sometimes used as the subject of practical jokes among French hunters. Wolf meat was eaten several times during Vilhjalmur Stefansson's 1913 Arctic expedition, particularly during the summer, when wolves were fat. Natives in Transbaikalia reportedly ate wolf meat even when other food was plentiful. The consumption of wolf flesh and organs plays an important role in Asian folk medicine: in Mongolia, eating the meat and lungs of a wolf is said to alleviate colds, and sprinkling food with powdered wolf rectum is said to cure haemorroids. Accounts on how wolf meat tastes vary greatly, with descriptions ranging from "tough", "gristly", "distasteful" and "smelly", and "very superior to lean venison".

The use of heated box blinds is a popular method of wolf hunting in modern Alberta. Bait stations are set in advance of the hunt, with blinds being erected in the more frequented spots. The method was developed as a response to the fact that finding wolves on foot was almost always a pure luck scenario, because of the wolf's elusiveness. Shots are usually fired when the wolf is from the blind.

Calling is a traditional wolf hunting method of Mongolia. The hunters go to the place where the pack is located early in the morning and will imitate a wolf's howl. The hunters howl in unison with the wolves and wait for the animals to come to them. Mongolian wolf hunting is usually done with the assistance of local herders.

In modern European Russia, a traditional wolf hunting method involves encircling the located wolf pack with a fladry, a long rope with small swatches of fabric stitched to it every few feet. The fabric is usually red in order to be easier spotted over the background of snow by the guides. Since it retains a human scent for several days, wolves tend to stay within the encircled area. When the hunters arrive, the pack of wolves is already "flagged".

Several dog breeds known as wolfhounds have been bred for the purpose of hunting wolves, though conventional hunting breeds have also been used.

The use of raptors in the hunting of wolves is primarily practised in Central Asia. The Kyrgyz people have traditionally used golden eagles, known as berkut, to hunt wolves. In the past, wolf pelts provided material for clothes crucial for the survival of the nomadic people in the severe colds. The eagles are used to immobilize the wolves by placing one foot at the back of the neck and another at the flank closer to the heart and lungs. Hunters usually only use eagles against pups, as an adult wolf can cripple in combat even a highly experienced eagle. Losing even one toe or talon will significantly lower the eagle's ability to tackle prey. Only a minor injury to the sinew of a foot may leave the eagle incapable of further hunting. As a wolf is capable of resisting even the best trained bird, the falconer always keeps near, ready at the first opportunity to help the eagle. This is done carefully, as the wolf, sensing human presence, fights desperately to tear loose from the bird's talons, and the eagle can be severely injured. Because of the violent nature of their work, eagles trained to hunt wolves have shorter life spans.

In 19th century Russia and Scandinavia, pigs were used as decoys and were transported in strong canvas sacks on horse drawn sleighs. The pigs, kept in the canvas bags, were made to squeal in order to attract the wolves. Hunters would wait at a distance to shoot the wolves when they came out after the pig. Once the wolves arrived, the hunters would either shoot them or retrieve the pig and canvas bag. In the latter case, they took off down the road, luring the wolves behind. The wolves would be led to a palisade, where they would be trapped and shot.

Historically, poisoning was very successful in reducing wolf populations, particularly in the American West and Imperial Japan. Strychnine was the most frequently used compound. The poison would be typically mixed in lard or tallow, and spread on bits of meat, or placed within incisions on the bait. Though effective, the method had the disadvantage of greatly loosening the fur of the dead wolf, causing it to shed easily. Wolves killed by strychnine were typically skinned immediately after death, in order to avoid the fur absorbing too much of the poison. Pesticides containing strychnine are lethal to everything that consumes them. But since this sort of poison caused pain and brutal death for the animals who swallowed it strychnine baits, capable of killing wolves, were banned in 1972 by the US government and in 2006 by the European Union.

Across the top of the trapping pit was a thick stick or pole, and on this was fastened a plank, which covered the top of the trap. On one end of this plank was a piece of venison, and on the other a stone. The way the trap was meant to work was this: The wolf would come to the venison, and just as it got on the plank to eat it, the plank would turn, causing the wolf to fall into the pit. The weight of the stone at the other end would bring the plank up again, ready baited for another wolf.

Steel wolf traps, used frequently in the American west, were made from heavy steel, were six and a half inches wide, and had two springs, each with 100 lbs of power. Steel wolf traps were usually the same models used in the capture of beavers, lynx and wolverine. In order to hide the human scent, trappers would handle their equipment with gloves, and cover the traps in beeswax or blood. As the wolf's power of scent is so great, a mere touch of human skin on the trap will result in the wolf vacating the area. Wolves may also dig up or spring the traps. The traps would typically be set in fours around a bait and strongly fastened to concealed logs, and covered in moss, chaff, cotton or sand for camouflage. Sometimes, the trap and the bait would be placed in a pool of water, thus leaving no other point of access for the wolf to take.

Opponents have argued that at least in North America, wolves contribute little to overall livestock losses. In 2005 0.11% of all cattle losses were due to wolves. In states with wolf populations, they were responsible for an average of 2.5% of predation on sheep. Jim Dutcher, a filmmaker who raised a captive wolf pack, observed that the wolves were very reluctant to try meat that they had not previously eaten or seen another wolf eat before, possibly explaining why livestock depredation is unlikely except in cases of desperation. In Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, wolf predation accounts for 1% of total sheep deaths. Wolf hunting proponents have drawn attention to the fact that wolves will on occasion commit acts of surplus killing when within the confines of human made livestock shelters. Rare incidents of surplus killing by wolves in Minnesota are reported to leave up to 35 sheep killed and injured in flocks and losses of 50 to 200 birds in turkey flocks. In spite of the low percentage of attacks on livestock in Minnesota, farms in wolf territories and environments may become more susceptible to depredation under certain conditions. These conditions include larger farm size, increased numbers of cattle, an increased distance from human management, and improper disposal of livestock carcasses. While loss of livestock by wolves makes up only a small percentage of total losses in North America, surveys in Eurasia show some instances where wolf predation was frequent. In some areas of the former Soviet Union, wolves cause serious damage to watermelon plantations. Wolves will usually only take ripe melons after giving test bites, which can render even unripe fruits worthless for future consumption. Sometimes, up to 20% of the total watermelon crop can be destroyed on one raid. In the Iberian Peninsula for example, conservationists consider wolves to be beneficial because they keep wild boar populations stable, thus allowing some respite to the endangered capercaillie populations which suffer greatly from boars eating the eggs and nestlings. In Yellowstone National Park, wolves were shown to have a hugely positive effect on general ecological health, and by extension, that of game herds. Game animals in Yellowstone killed off all young, reachable tree saplings, destroying beaver, songbird, insect, fish and amphibian populations, and threatening to starve themselves via overexploitation. Wolves reduced game animal numbers and forced them to be more mobile, allowing more saplings to grow and allowing the populations of aforementioned animals to increase. Proponents for wolf hunting often point out the apparently adverse effects large wolf populations have on game herds. An example occurred in 2008, in which the Alaska Board of Game approved plans calling for department staff to shoot wolves from helicopters on the southern Alaska Peninsula in order to assist the survival of the Southern Alaska Peninsula Caribou Herd. Wolves were believed to be responsible for a dramatic drop in the Southern Alaska Caribou Herd's population, which once numbered up to 10,000 in 1983, only to drop to a population of 600 animals in 2008. Wolf predation was also believed to be responsible for virtually no calves surviving for the two years prior the culling plans, despite a 70% pregnancy rate.

The absence of a global review, and the language barrier having partially hindered the flow of international information has led some international groups to level criticism at some wolf advocates, claiming that they have extrapolated America's general lack of negative experiences with wolves to the rest of the world, whilst ignoring the differing histories and cultures which lead to diverse interactions with the animals. Hunting proponents argue that wolves with no negative experiences of humans are more likely to encroach upon human settlements and attack people, citing for example the differences in attitudes toward the public distribution of firearms in America and Eurasia as examples as to why nations on both continents have differing accounts of wolf aggression.