Robert Millage of Kamiah shot a wolf shortly after dawn Tuesday in the Lochsa area and may have been the first to claim success in the state's wolf hunt. Millage, a real estate agent, said he was surrounded by a pack of wolves before dawn and waited until light to call them with a hand call that sounded like a wounded coyote. The wolf came fast to him 25 yards before Millage shot him with his .243 rifle.

"The whole area is lousy with them," Millage said. "But I guess it was the luck of the draw."

Millage said he had not seen many hunters.

"I figured I had complained so much in the last few years we didn't have a season I thought I'd better go," he said. Millage was on his way to Lewiston to show the animal to Fish and Game and to take it to a taxidermist.

Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials reported few hunters and no action early Tuesday in the Idaho City and Lowman areas. Other observers said there were few hunters in the Sawtooth Valley participating in a hunt that remains under a cloud of uncertainty as a federal judge in Montana decides whether to close it.

"We thought we'd cruise around and (see) if we could see any wolves," said Boise hunter John Huddleston. "We really weren't expecting to see anything." Huddleston, his son and another hunter drove to the Thorn Creek Butte Summit above the Middle Fork of the Boise River near Idaho City looking for wolves. Warden Matt O'Connell, who checked their tags, found fresh wolf tracks and scat on roads in the area. "You guys are in the right ballpark," O'Connell told them.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy took under advisement a request by 13 environmental groups to stop the hunt while their lawsuit seeking to return wolves to the federal endangered species list is considered. Molloy said he would decide quickly.

Nearly 10,000 wolf tags were sold in Idaho so far. But hunting only began Tuesday in the Sawtooth Zone and from Boise up to the Sawtooth Valley and in the Lolo Zone in northcentral Idaho.

Idaho will allow 220 wolves out of a population of an estimated 1,000 wolves to be killed this year. Montana also has a wolf season with a 75-wolf limit.