Wolf Report: Two Wolves Killed

Friday, April 13, turned out to be a bad day for a pair of wolves that apparently had killed a cow and three calves in Blaine County. Earlier in the week, on April 9, agents of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services confirmed that wolves had killed three calves on a private ranch north of Carey. They confirmed on April 13 that wolves had killed a yearling cow on the same property. Shortly after the cow was found, a Wildlife Services fixed-winged aircraft crew spotted a pair of wolves just behind the carcass and shot them. Both wolves were adult males; one was collared. In mid-March, the rancher in the same area had shot a gray female, 80- to 90-pound wolf as it harassed livestock on private land near Picabo. Officials with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S.D.A. Wildlife Services determined the shooting was within the legal provisions of the federal regulations governing reintroduced wolves in Idaho. Two other wolves were still in the area, and the rancher continued nonlethal efforts to scare them away. Federal officials launched lethal efforts on March 27 when they confirmed that wolves had killed a calf on the same private land near Picabo. In a separate incident, federal agents confirmed April 15 that wolves had killed a ewe and two lambs and injured another ewe on private land in Partridge Creek south of Riggins. Control efforts began April 16. Biologists estimate that by the end of 2006, at least 673 wolves lived in Idaho, and they documented 72 packs. Those packs included 53 packs known to have produced about 185 pups this year. But only 41 packs qualified as breeding pairs. Wolf control actions, authorized by Fish and Game and carried out by the federal Wildlife Services as part of the wolf reintroduction program, do not jeopardize wolf recovery in Idaho. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers the wolf recovered in the northern Rocky Mountains and has started the process to remove the wolf from the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's weekly wolf reports as well as annual reports, can be viewed at http://westerngraywolf.fws.gov/.