2 Montana men cited over helicopter poaching of wolves

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Two Montana men have been cited over illegally poaching two wolves from a helicopter in the Big Hole Valley.

The Billings Gazette reports that 30-year-old Dalton Thomas Tamcke and 22-year-old Justin Samuel Peterson told wildlife authorities they were hunting coyotes for predatory control action on March 3 and mistakenly took the wolves for coyotes.

The men later recovered the carcasses by snowmobile.

Wolf hunting from helicopters is illegal.

Montana’s Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, and the GOP-controlled Legislature have moved to increase the legal taking of wolves, which were removed from the U.S. Endangered Species list in Montana in 2011.