A Helena man was sentenced to five years with four suspended for felony strangulation on Thursday in District Court Judge Christopher Abbott s courtroom.
At last count, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks estimated the state’s wolf population at 1,087 animals in 181 packs in the western third of the state.
A Montana judge has temporarily restricted wolf hunting and trapping near Yellowstone and Glacier national parks and imposed tighter statewide limits on killing the predators, over concerns that looser hunting rules adopted last year in the Republican-controlled state could harm their population.