Montana won't revisit its wolf hunting quota distribution this year, and will lift the suspension of the hunting in the southern management unit on big game opening day, where nine wolves were harvested in the past three weeks.

However, no wolves can be taken from hunting district 316, which is adjacent to Yellowstone National Park.

"This isn't a change to the season. It's just a slight adjustment in our management and is, more than anything else, a recognition that we want to be on top of the management of this animal," Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission Chairman Shane Colton said during a conference call Tuesday.

State wildlife officials had voiced concerns at their meeting last Thursday after learning that nine wolves, out of a quota of 12 for most of Montana south of Highway 200 and east of Dillon, already had been shot as part of the backcountry hunting season instead of during the general big game rifle season, which starts Oct. 25. The problem with that is hunters were taking wolves out of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, along the northern border of Yellowstone National Park, instead of on private property where they've been known to prey on livestock.

State and federal officials say they want to use hunting to lessen livestock depredation, and were hoping hunters would take wolves off of ranches instead of going after those that are "behaving" themselves in the backcountry.

Hunting also is being used to keep the wolf population in check, and of the estimated 1,300 wolves in Idaho and Montana, at least 57 have been killed by hunters since Sept. 1.

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