Hunters have almost met the 75-wolf season quota, so Montana ended its first big-game hunt for gray wolves on Monday.

As of Sunday night - two weeks before the season's scheduled close - hunters had killed 72 wolves this season statewide. The statewide quota is 75.

State officials expected that a few more wolves would be harvested on Monday before the season officially closed at a half-hour past sunset.

"We decided to close the season in anticipation of reaching that quota," said Ron Aasheim, FWP's chief communications officer.

FWP's Bitterroot-based biologist, Craig Jourdonnais, said the wolves were mostly killed by hunters out looking for elk or deer.

"Most of the harvest has been incidental," Jourdonnais said. "There were a good half-dozen folks who were continually asking us for the most up-to-date information about where people were seeing wolves.

"They were specifically hunting wolves. None of those people actually harvested a wolf."

Hunting will continue in Idaho.

This year's quota in Montana equals about 15 percent of a statewide wolf population estimated at 500.

Even with the success among hunters, the number of wolves in Montana is expected to increase this year by 20 percent or more because they're such prolific breeders.

Whether the hunts will be repeated next year is uncertain: A lawsuit to return the predator to the endangered species list is pending before Judge Donald Molloy in U.S. District Court in Missoula.

Molloy has been sympathetic in past rulings to the objections raised by hunt critics. Nonetheless, he allowed this year's inaugural wolf seasons in Montana and neighboring Idaho to proceed, citing the predator's resiliency.

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Montana wildlife commissioner Bob Ream of Helena, a biologist who spent 20 years studying wolves, said the 2009 season demonstrates the state can manage the animals appropriately.

"For a first try, the state did very well," Ream said Monday. "It happened quicker than a lot of us thought it would."

Because the wolves killed were scattered across the state, Ream said the hunt might begin to put a dent in the number of livestock killed every year by the animals.

That's become an increasing problem in recent years as wolves expanded into areas inhabited by people and livestock. Some ranchers have pushed for a higher wolf quota, arguing that only a reduction in the overall population will prevent livestock attacks.

Reintroduced in the mid-1990s in backcountry areas of Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho, the predators have since spread across the Northern Rockies.

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Wolf hunting in southeastern Montana closed Oct. 26. Hunters filled most of the quota there in an early season hunt concentrated just outside Yellowstone National Park.

Those shootings included four members of the park's Cottonwood Pack, which is famous among wolf watchers. The loss of those "Yellowstone wolves" sparked a backlash among conservationists who said Montana should have foreseen the killings.

State officials pledged to change their regulations next year to prevent a recurrence. Officials also will consider building in some lead time between when a wolf license is issued and when a hunter can take one of the animals.

"I think it went as well as it could have gone," Jourdonnais said. "The harvest was spread out over the landscape."

The hunters who harvested a wolf seemed to appreciate the season and the opportunity of hunting a new game animal.

"Regardless of their attitudes toward the wolf, they all seemed to fairly impressed with the animal," he said. "Generally, they also appreciated the opportunity to treat the wolf as we do all other game animals."