Apply for a Minnesota wolf hunting or trapping license?

You can find out online now whether you've been one of the 6,000 winners in a Department of Natural Resources lottery.

Results are online at www.mndnr.gov/hunting/wolf

More than 23,000 applications for licenses were received by the DNR.

Winners also will receive notification and wolf hunting regulations by snail mail. Those selected can also purchase wolf hunting or trapping licenses from a DNR license agent, online at www.mndnr.gov/buyalicense or by telephone at 888-665-4236.

Announcing that winners had been selected, the DNR said in a news release:

Participants in the early season hunt, which coincides with firearms deer season, must purchase their wolf licenses by Oct. 24. Participants in the late hunting and trapping season, which runs from Saturday, Nov. 24, to Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, must buy their licenses by Thursday, Nov. 15.

Any licenses not sold by those dates will be available on a first-come, first-served basis to unsuccessful lottery applicants beginning at noon on Monday, Oct. 29, for the early season and at noon on Monday, Nov. 19, for the late hunting and trapping season.

Any remaining licenses not purchased by unsuccessful applicants will be available for purchase by any eligible hunter beginning at noon on Thursday, Nov. 1, for the early season and noon on Wednesday, Nov. 21, for the late hunting and trapping season.

Minnesota assumed state management of the gray wolf after the species was removed Jan. 27 from federal protection in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Minnesota's wolf population is estimated to be about 3,000 wolves. The target harvest of 400 wolves for this inaugural wolf season is a conservative approach that does not pose a threat to the conservation of the population.