The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has announced it will end the wolf hunting season early in an area covering most of the northeastern corner of the state.
Zones two and four will close to hunters and trappers at 8 p.m. on Friday. The impacted area stretches from the Michigan border to the southern edges of Lincoln, Langlade, and Oconto counties.
The DNR says those zones are still one or two wolves below their set quotas for the season. However, agency officials say they don’t want to run the risk of exceeding harvest limits during the opening of the nine-day deer hunting season this weekend.
The wolf hunt does continue in the other four zones, although hunters are less than 40 wolves away from hitting the 116 animal limit set for the state’s first season.