By the mid-twentieth century, wolves were nearly extinct in the lower 48 states, with a small number surviving in Northern Minnesota. After wolves were placed on the endangered species list, the Northern Minnesota wolf population increased and stabilized by the early 2000s. A wolf trophy hunt was introduced in 2012-2014 and halted by a court order in December 2014. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources collected wolf radiotelemetry data for the years 2004-2019. Our statistical analysis

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... howed that wolf mortality was close to constant from 2004 until the initiation of the hunt, and mortality doubled with the initiation of the first hunting and trapping season in 2012 and remained at an almost constantly elevated level through 2019. Notably, the average annual wolf mortality increased from 21.7% before wolf hunt seasons (10.0% by human causes and 11.7% naturally) to 43.4% (35.8% by human causes and 7.6% naturally). The fine-grained statistical trend implies that human-caused mortality increased sharply during hunting seasons, while naturally attributable mortality initially dropped. The human-caused mortality, while gradually diminishing after the hunt discontinuation, remained high, perhaps indicating a lasting shift in human attitudes and a post-hunt change in wolf pack composition and size as well as wolf behavior.