State Game, Fish & Parks officials said Monday that they have no intention of protecting wolves found in the state - if the animals are removed from federal protections.

The gray wolf is listed as an endangered species in South Dakota. Wolves occasionally wander into the state, but federal officials have determined that South Dakota has no habitat that could support a wolf population.

Wolves found in South Dakota are protected under an agreement between the state and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. If a wolf is discovered, officials try to capture it alive and remove it.

Those who know that an animal is a wolf and intentionally kill it can be prosecuted for violating federal law.

A western South Dakota landowner and trapper, Joe Logue of Oelrichs, told a legislative panel Monday that state officials should not protect wolves in South Dakota if the federal government gives up its authority over them.

"It should be treated exactly the same as a coyote," Logue said.

Coyotes may be hunted year-round in South Dakota. There is no limit on the number of coyotes that may be killed, but people who shoot them must have hunting licenses or predator licenses.

George Vandel, GF&P assistant wildlife director, said the department has been pushing federal officials to change the endangered species listing for wolves in western South Dakota.

"They have no intentions, the Fish and Wildlife Service, to ever manage for wolves in western South Dakota or eastern South Dakota," he said. "It's not part of any recovery effort, and frankly we totally agree with that philosophy."

Removal of wolves from the federal list of endangered species would allow people to shoot them without federal sanctions. States, however, could enact protective measures.

Aware that many landowners view wolves as threats to livestock, GF&P Secretary Jeff Vonk and Vandel said the state has no interest in managing wolves.

"We certainly don't have any desire to have a wild population of free-roaming timber wolves in western South Dakota," Vandel said.

"I don't think we as a department have any desire to manage another large predator in western South Dakota, be it wolves or be it black bears. We've kind of got our hands full with mountain lions now," he said.

Vandel said wolves occasionally show up in South Dakota. They have roamed from packs in Yellowstone National Park or from northern Minnesota, he said.

A wolf was recently killed by a vehicle near Sturgis, he said.

"We've had instance where our own (animal damage control) people have killed a wolf, and so we know that there are transient wolves," Vandel said.

"To our knowledge, there are no viable populations of wolves in South Dakota, and frankly we've never made any efforts to introduce wolves, nor do we want to be part of that."

Wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone and central Idaho in 1995 and 1996. The population grew faster than expected and now exceeds 1,500.

The FWS removed the western Great Lakes population of gray wolves last year from the federal list of threatened and endangered species, sending protection and management of the carnivores to state and tribal governments. Eastern South Dakota is in the Great Lakes de-listing area.

Federal protection of wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming was lifted in March, but a judge issued a temporary order last month to restore the endangered listing. The injunction came in response to a lawsuit that asserted hunting would be perilous for wolf populations.

Vandel said the western half of South Dakota is not in the western region that was de-listed, and GF&P is pressing the FWS to include it.

The South Dakota Legislature passed a nonbinding resolution this year that urges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to include the West River area of South Dakota in either the Rocky Mountain or Great Lakes wolf de-listing area.